EcoSky eVolo 2010

The skyscraper is a modern response to certain conditions produced in the 20th century by economy, technology, and necessity. Our project looks to the future, trying to understand what could be some of the most important problems that need to be solved due to the increasing growth of the human population, the loss of fertile land from its expansion, the impact nature has on the way we live and our impact on the natural world.

Chile is one of the fastest growing countries in South America, but its technology in high rise buildings has not been able to produce a skyscaper. Living atop the creases between tectonic plates requires a certain lifestyle. Geography not only shapes lifestyles but also the way one must build. Constructions in Chile require tremendous amounts of energy put into foundations and seismic structural solutions to create buildings more than a few stories tall, limiting urban solutions for highly populated cities. Residents of these places have to live with the terror that at any moment the earth could tremble and destroy everything they know. This is one of the main reasons why the cities are beginning to spread over the land, destroying agriculturally rich areas and creating even more urban socioeconomic problems. Yet it is one of the most productive agricultural areas in the world, with a perfect balance of soil quality, abundant water and precise climate for crop production. This rare combination could become a globally important characteristic with the current exponential growth in the world population and food shortages due to the over-use of land and climate change.

New problems for the human race calls for new architecture, new technology and new ways of living that meet even greater challenges than before. Our project takes a normal skyscraper and separates it from the ground, freeing the earth of destructive human activity and leaving its fertile characteristics to be used accordingly. The skyscraper then rotates on its side since it has no ground space limitation and opens up the ground level to be re-thought and re-used. Superconductors attached to its structure repel against the earth’s magnetic field, maintaining it stable above the ground. Superconductors are powerful magnets that do not have a negative or positive field, creating the Meissner effect by stably repelling another magnetic field like that of the earth without rotating or moving. This levitation permanently protects against the devastating effects of earthquakes, where lives have to be rebuild. Along with this new technology is the introduction of an old concept put to new uses. Pneumatic tubes using pressurized air serve as a type of lift that allows a flexible connection between building and ground levels.

These new ”skyscrapers” can be a first step to recuperating land that is in disuse, saving land from being destroyed by housing expansion, securing habitable places susceptible to flooding from raising ocean levels and ensuring safety to those who live with high magnitude earthquakes, especially in places like Chile, where the land is essential but vertical growth is underdeveloped.

This concept of living in the sky can change the way we treat the natural world, opening new possibilities of living in harmony with the only home that we all have in common.