While some cities continue to resist high-rise innovations such as mass timber and modular off-site construction, progress in skyscraper sustainability is on the rise. Growing in acceptance are smart building systems, energy-efficient façades that reduce heat transfer while maximizing interior daylighting, as well as integrated solar panels and wind turbines on tower shafts and rooftops.

It’s that third category that attracted the architect and structures designer Charles F. Bloszies FAIA, who has been exploring the idea for years in his practice, writings, teachings, and talks. Leading to new and sometimes unexpected high-rise forms, Bloszies’s goal is nothing less than answering the loftiest question of all: Is it possible to build a truly sustainable skyscraper?

A published author, Bloszies writes about this search in essays pondering what aesthetic breakthroughs might emerge from the formal expression of sustainable design principles.

Asking, “Where is sustainability’s flying buttress?” — an allusion to the exterior supports on masonry cathedrals allowing their massive interior arches and volumes — he has examined “how energy-producing technologies could yield forms as functionally elegant as the flying buttress.” This design partí was also his charge to students in a graduate advanced studio at California College of the Arts, or CCA, as early as 2008.

An Ultra Novel Form
One of Bloszies’s own solutions is his UltraSustainable Tower project created in four variations yielding distinct exterior expressions: single-helix, dual-helix, half-helix, and straight variations. (Images at https://we.tl/t-gEvPbF7grv.)

The self-powered skyscraper prototype integrates photovoltaics and wind turbines from the outset, yielding a sustainable aesthetic that is both productive and beautiful. “It could be located anywhere on the planet with enough indigenous fuel in the form of wind and sunshine to meet the energy demands of the building,” Bloszies explains. “The twisting form allows the floors containing the wind turbines to be oriented differently from its footprint so that the building can capture prevailing winds and yet fit into the street grid.”

The benefits of these radical design concepts are the energy generated to power a typical urban building is lost during transmission from the power plant,” says Bloszies, who presented a talk called “The Sustainable Building, Artistically Considered” at the American Institute of Architects (AIA) national conference.

“What if buildings generated their own power on-site, or better yet, more than they needed themselves and became auxiliary power plants for others?” Bloszies asks. “We’ve been exploring this question.”

Imagery illustrating the UltraSustainable Skyscraper are available for download here: https://we.tl/t-gEvPbF7grv