programmatic shifts

how should skyscrapers be programmatically configured? new ideas are coming up and put into discussion the standard office-home-commerce program of current skyscrapers.

projects of urban farming try to deal with the problem of lack of usable land for crops in the world, as well as with the increasing number of people living in cities, which is estimated to 80% of the earth's population by 2050.

this is an interesting idea because it not only tackles the issue of sustainability, with the building generating all it needs to operate, but also because it can produce for the city: food, of course, but also drinkable water and energy.

their cost, though, have been delaying its adoption by investors, once the preoccupation with environmental issues in countries such as dubai, where most of today's tallest buildings are being raised, is close to zero.


the project above, by daekwon park, entry to the annual evolo skyscraper competition, tries a different approach: it deals with the lack of green and public spaces in the existent cities, populated by skyscrapers, not by developing new buildings, but by creating symbiotic structures among them. its modular approach permits an ever changeable configuration and adaptation of spaces as needed.

its strength is in recognizing the existing urban tissue and trying to work with it, not replicate it.


mdrdv's pig city, although more an attack to our current consumption habits than a feasible architectural idea, adds another view to urban farming. projecting the meat production and consumption a few years ahead, their studies have shown that the best way to pig meat production keep up with the numbers is to concentrate it in high-rise pig farms.

biologists, specialists in bioethics, organic farming, politics, and scientists criticized the project specially for its idea of centralisation. architects, on the other hand, called it an "utopia without ideals".

what it adds to the discussion of skyscrapers could be how new uses can radically change the way we perceive tall buildings.

Other than vertical farming, ideas for new programs for skyscrapers are yet to be seen. what could we think of? sky-parks? sky-disneylands? sky-aeroports? sky-hospitals? sky-olympics?