Bee Breeders, the leading architecture competition organiser, has announced winners of the SKYHIVE Skyscraper Challenge competition, which tackled the concept of the 21st-century skyscrapers, based on a redefinition of the brief for skyscraper design with new technologies, materials, programs, forms, facade solutions and other tools.

"The purpose of the SKYHIVE Skyscraper Challenge was to generate design ideas for iconic high rise buildings in cities around the globe," said the competition. The jury evaluated the submissions based on their sensitivity to the environment, potential to serves as a landmark, analysis of form, and creativity.

The winning project was submitted by Suraksha Acharya from India. The "Aero Hive" project reduced the monumentality of the high-rise by dividing the volume into two towers and featuring a porous and organic form.

Second and third place winners were "Fallout" by Alex Sullivan-Brown and Sindre Johnsen of New Zealand, and "Chicago Pillar" by Jon Carag from the USA. While the former looked to a post-apocalyptic world to explore vertical living, the latter created an almost entirely universal design, attractive in its simplicity.

Other winners include Elizabeth Compeán Michel, Gabriel Alejandro Madrigal Betancourt, Juan Jesús García Castro, and Rodrigo Zertuche Rodríguez from Mexico University, who received the BB Student award for their project, "The Wall". 

And Alessandro Buffi and Gian Maria Angelini from Italy received the BB Green Award for their project "Evoluzione", whose timber frame molded to take advantage of sunlight and views.

1st prize winner: Aero Hive by Suraksha Acharya, India

The competition is organised in collaboration with Manipal Executive Education (MEE), a leading provider of corporate and executive education solutions in the Middle East and Africa. 

The winning entries will be showcased at the Manipal University Dubai School of Design & Architecture campus during its annual Global Tall Building Studio, a five-day workshop where architecture students and industry experts discuss and develop new concepts for the future of high-rise structures.

The SKYHIVE was an open architecture ideas competition, with few design restrictions: participants are free to interpret the brief as they choose. Proposals were not constrained by site, program or height. To place emphasis on the need for towers to recognize issues of density, the submitted design was requested to be limited to a site of 130x80m.

Submitted projects touched on issues of globalisation, sustainability, design adaptability, digital trends, and developing concepts in engineering. Each of the winning projects shows an ambition to rewrite the definition of the 21st-century skyscraper. 

The jury found that entries proposed a wide variety of structural themes, materials, and facade and typical floor plate design. Bee Breeders would like to thank each entrant and team for for their participation.

See the full winning projects with jury comments below:

1st prize winner: Aero Hive by Suraksha Acharya, India

Jury comments:

"The design resolves a large site by dividing the volume into two towers, reducing the monumentality of the high-rise with a porous and organic form. Each tower is further fragmented into three semi-opaque vertical elements connected by spaces in transparent glass which allow daylight to reach the core, and permit outward views surrounding the proposed Hong Kong site." 

"The towers are connected at mid-height by a sky-bridge and each features a dense rooftop garden open to the sky. The method of how the proposed design meets the ground plane is unclear, but given the facade porosity it seems feasible for the building to have positive interaction at the street level. The entry shows great potential for becoming a beacon of sustainable design."

Read interview with the 1st prize winner

Office plan

Ancillary plan

Food court

Layering of masterplan

Environmental analysis

2nd prize: Chicago Pillar by Jon Carag, United States

Jury comments:

"There has been much demand for proposals considering the famous 'Chicago Spire' site which awaits development in that city's downtown. Though the submission focuses on this particular site, the design has the potential to be used anywhere. A simple cylindrical tower is wrapped in a ribbon of perimeter green spaces that transform the typical office, and which are well-designed with details showing deep planters permitting the growth of trees and appropriate drainage." 

"The resulting form is attractive and unique, related directly to its program. The jury would encourage the designer to further express the 'green' nature of the design in the exterior rendering and sections."

Read interview with the 2nd prize winner

3rd prize winner and BB Student Award winners: The Wall by Elizabeth Compeán Michel, Gabriel Alejandro Madrigal Betancourt, Juan Jesús García Castro, Rodrigo Zertuche Rodríguez, Universidad Autonoma de San Luis Potosi, Mexico

Read interview with the 3rd prize and BB Student Award winners

BB Green Award winners: Evoluzione by Alessandro Buffi, Gian Maria Angelini, Italy

Read interview with the BB Green Award winners

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All images courtesy of Bee Breeders Architecture Competitions

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