For 10 years, the architecture publication eVolo Magazine has held an annual skyscraper competition, soliciting visionary designs that "challenge the way we understand vertical architecture."
This year's winners created plans that are nothing short of wild. From a drone "hive" to a man-made desert oasis, the buildings look like something out of a science fiction movie.
Many are designed with social and environmental uses in mind: there are data storage centers, pollution-mitigation facilities, and living spaces meant to alleviate the challenges of urban life.
Take a look at the eye-catching skyscrapers of the future, below — including the year's three big winners and a selection of the honorable mentions.
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The first-place winner, "New York Horizon", completely reimagines iconic Central Park. The plan proposes to dig down and reveal the bedrock below Central Park, sinking the space and wrapping the park in a 1,000-foot-tall, thin "mega structure", a building that takes up a minimal footprint but provides maximum living space.
In second place, this drone "Hive" envisions a future where a proliferation of unmanned aerial vehicles need their own version of a parking lot. Different types of docks cater to a variety of drone styles.
Here's a "green" data storage center. Today's data centers consume vast amounts of energy and require constant cooling. One alternative: locate the storage center somewhere cold but convenient, like Iceland. The design is meant to emulate a motherboard, and is similarly adaptable.
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