Honorable Mention
2019 Skyscraper Competition
Piotr Yurchanka, Alexey Kunko, Vladislav Sidorenko, Dmitry Tkachuk
Belarus
In a pursuit of technological progress which allegedly improves our life we forget to pay due attention on what has supported our comfortable existence on this small planet for thousands of years.
Problem
Swamps are the”lungs of the planet”. The benefits they provide are comparable to the benefits of forests. Every swamp is an amazing organism. Like all life on Earth, it breathes, but how?
Swamps absorb carbon dioxide and constantly emit oxygen. Tons of pure oxygen.
The swamps are home to hundreds of different types of animals and plants. This is an unknown world, with its own laws and rules.
In the middle of the last century, the total area of swamps in Belarus was 2,940 thousand hectares (14.2% of the entire territory of the country). After 60 years, the area of swamps on the territory of Belarus has decreased by 3.5 times. Currently it is only 860 thousand hectares.
Unfortunately, mass swamp reclamation (drainage), which began in the middle of the last century, led to irreversible consequences, such as fires, drought, soil degradation and the complete destruction of certain types of animals and plants not only in Belarus, but also in all Eastern Europe.
Why is this happening?
It is simple – minerals. The swamps are drained because of the extraction of fossil fuels – peat, which is used in the energy industry.
Humanity will continue to drain the swamp, which will lead to irreparable damage of the nature.This will continue until alternative sources of energy are invented.
Humanity dreams to visit Mars. What for? Pretty soon we will make the desert “Mars” on our planet with our own hands…
Architecture of the future – as a solution
The development of the technologies of the future has contributed to the complete merging of mechanisms and architecture. Modern architecture is no longer something stony, stationary and immovable. It is a living organism that can develop and form depending on the specific task.
The goal of the TheFloating Tower is to restore drained swamps by abundant irrigation of these lands.
The construction consists of two spheres united by a system of cables.
The upper sphere, which is responsible for the movement (flight) of the whole structure, is a high-tech balloon, covered with membrane fabric outside, which accumulates condensate. The surface area of the sphere, which is covered with such a cloth, is more than 7000m2. That allows us to collect thousands of liters of water per day.
The lower sphere is a reservoir for the accumulation of this water and irrigation of future swamps.
The accumulated water from the upper sphere moves to the lower one by means of a special system of pumps and cables.
Moreover, there are research centers, classrooms and facilities for short-term stay of people insideThe Floating Tower in the upper and lower parts of the sphere.
Conclusion
Creative ideas of young architects and technologies of the future will help to change this world for the better.We will be able to restore thousands of hectares of soil, we will be able to extinguish the most large-scale forest fires, fight droughts and floods all over the planet!
And this concept, like many other concepts presented at this competition, will set the correct vector of development, both for architecture and for all of humanity.
In conclusion of our modest presentation, I would like to quote the Little Prince:
“It is a question of discipline, when you’ve finished your own toilet in the morning, then it is time to attend to the toilet of your planet, just so, with the greatest care.”
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
