eVolo Magazine has revealed the 2022 winners of their annual Skyscraper Competition. Chosen from a pool of 427 projects, the three winners and twenty honorable mentions offer visionary ideas for the future of vertical architecture, shaped by novel approaches to technology, materials, function, and aesthetics.  

The top three projects were created by designers from South Korea, China, Austria, and Poland, with topics including the modification of weather conditions, the prevention of tsunamis in the Pacific, and the promotion of flora and microorganisms.

Below, we take a closer look at the three winning entries, while the twenty honorable mentions have been republished in our image gallery at the end of the article. You can compare the 2022 projects with past winners by exploring our previous coverage of the competition here.

First Place: Climate Control Skyscraper

Design Team: Kim Gyeong Jeung, Min Yeong Gi, Yu Sang Gu (South Korea)

Project excerpt: "Environmental disasters and desertification around the world are still rising exponentially, and some experts say that environmental problems have already progressed a lot. In other words, awareness and policy on environmental issues are important nationally, but a movement to solve environmental problems through a groundbreaking technological and architectural approach is needed and should be applied worldwide. Then, how can we architecturally prevent desertification as well as persistent natural disasters?"

"The answer lies in the ‘Climate Control Tower’. CCT is designed to cope with climate change and overcome the current climate crisis the world is facing. Through clouds generated by absorbing seawater, the climate crisis regulates the weather by raining where there is a drought, absorbing clouds where heavy rainfalls, or reflecting solar radiation."

Read more about the project here.

Second Place: Tsunami Park Skyscraper

Design Team: Wang Jue, Zhang Qian, Zhang Changsheng, Li Muchun, Xu Jing (China)

Project excerpt: "People are often afraid of tsunamis. Technological advances have not led to sufficient measures to withstand tsunamis. When a tsunami strikes, people are still helpless. The Pacific Rim, which is linked to all four major tectonic plates, has the highest tsunami rate in the world, with more frequent undersea fluctuations. For example, the volcanic eruption in Tonga on 14 January 2022 resulted in a tsunami threat to the entire Pacific Rim region."

"It is therefore envisaged that a skyscraper will be built in front of Tonga’s long and narrow coastline. The aim was to reduce the biological and ecological damage caused by the tsunami. We use the edge wave effect of tsunamis to advance the tsunami wave so that the building is in the sea to dissipate it when it has not yet inundated the city."

Read more about the project here.

Third Place: New Spring: Agro-ecological Skyscraper

Design Team: Michał Spólnik (Austria) and Marcin Kitala (Poland)

Project excerpt: "We live in a paradox – nowadays more food is produced than needed but the expansion of hunger is increasing. How is this possible? Global food production relies greatly on an extremely small number of crop and livestock species. Grains are married to particular chemicals, becoming vulnerable to environmental changes, and lack immunity. Together with changes in how land and water resources are used, population growth, urbanization, and shifting food culture, this lack of crop diversity poses a threat to global food and nutrition security. For the sake of our society – and for the ones to come – we might like to rethink the ways we treat our land."

"The proposed skyscraper is a large-scale device that connects nature, science, and social fields. It is an aggregation of garden modules – each belonging to a particular biome, containing distinct flora, soil, microorganisms, small animals, and microclimate. Following the principles of agroecology, each proto-garden is experimental from the start, often bringing together plants that do not come together in the natural environment. It is particularly important when fighting climate change, where some damages cannot be reversed and a new solution and adaptation are needed."

Read more about the project here.

The 2022 Skyscraper Competition jury was formed by Volkan Alkanoglu (VA | DESIGN), Gianni Botsford (Gianni Botsford Architects), Steven Chilton (SCA | Steven Chilton Architects), Tsvetelina Georgieva (DesignMorphine), Nuru Karim (Nudes), Arthur Mamou-Mani (Mamou-Mani Architects), and Moon Hoon (Moon Hoon Architects).

You can also find the twenty Honorable Mentions in the image gallery below.

Got any instant favorites? Let us know in the comment section below.