eVolo’s Skyscraper Competition, organized yearly by eVolo Magazine, seeks for new ideas to redefine skyscraper design “through the use of new technologies, materials, programs, aesthetics, and spatial organizations, along with studies on globalization, flexibility, adaptability, and the digital revolution”. Highly conceptual proposals investigate how this building typology can gain a renewed positive relation with both human society and natural environment. List of winning entries here.

OUR ENTRY: FOLDSC(R)APE
GOMMAdesign’s conceptual skyscraper for eVolo 2011 competition explores the geometrical results of applying the “Oblique Function” to the verticalization of the city. The most important challenge of the project was to avoid losing, during this process, the most peculiar aspect of Rome’s urban life system: the vivid community life and the town-like neighborhoods.

SETTING THE RULES: GENOME

To design a skyscraper for such a peculiar city like Rome is a very challenging and fascinating task, as it gives the chance to investigate the most innovative and unconventional possibilities for this kind of building. Rome, because of its huge historical heritage, never really considered a vertical development. On one hand, in new neighborhoods, speculative urbanization led to the
million cubic meters of low quality buildings without an efficient planning of services and public spaces. On the other hand, in historical and central neighborhoods, the quality of life is instead very high and animated by a vivid social community. By examining some example of urban fabrics in Rome, we derived the main parameters which led our design strategy and influenced the morphology of our system.
The project is located on a disused lot in the former Fair Area. Our proposal aims to provide an exaggerated amount of available square meters, while ideally preserving at the same time the neighbourhood-lifestyle basic features: the solution of this contrast was our conceptual challenge.

Starting from Claude Parent and Paul Virilio’s speeches, we propose a territorial formation based on the “Oblique Function”. The variation of horizontality of the ground plane facilitates less regular movements of the users and multiplies the opportunities for meeting and socialization. The practical strategy we identified and applied consists in making a two-dimensional surface threedimensional, in order to achieve continuous interconnections between different levels, and to turn the flat functional mix (distributed on the original surface) into a three-dimensional complex space, where functions may re-colonize the most suitable areas with a certain degree of adaptability of spaces and routes.

MORPHOGENETICAL PROCESS

The morphogenetical process which generates the building is recursive. The geometrical operations defined in the system are applied iteratively, first to the whole building, then to each single strip that constitutes the structural and morphological fabric of the tower. Indeed, the tower has the same morphology and the same geometry of its base components. The whole building and the single folded plate act and look the same, they are self-similar, as they share the same five operations defined to generate the morphology of the system.

Theoretically this iterative process could also be extended to higher dimensions (buildings’ aggregations) or to lower ones (architectural components, such as brise soleil or structural elements).

GENOMIC SEQUENCE

Five topological operation (defined in the “genome” of the architectural organism) are applied to the system. They occur in different combinations and with different intensities, generating a series of phenotypes influenced by the different conditions which the system adapts to.

GENE A – Folding
Flat surfaces are tessellated and subdivided into strips. Then strips are folded. From a flat landscape to a diagonal one. More complexity, more opportunities.

GENE B – De-phasing
Profile curves are de-phased. We go from slopes to a double-curved landscape. More complexity, more connections, more fun.

GENE C – Smoothing
The curve degree switches from 1 to 3. Even more continuity between all the surfaces involved. Everything is curved. 1-2-3 times, and counting.

GENE D – Warping
Folded strips are deformed, their profile curves change their wavelenght. Somewhere they fold one more time, somewhere else they unfold. Holes in the fabric open up: squares, programs, voids, public spaces.

GENE E – Pulling
Vertexes are locally pulled out. New surfaces are created, more areas for additional programs. And connections between the folds are achieved.

MORPHOLOGICAL STRATEGIES

These topological and geometrical strategies are used in order to address specific functional needs:

SLOPE
The base surface is first divided into smaller platforms, then folded to achieve inclination. We obtain a diagonal continuous space. This tilting (25°) also allows a 10% increment of the available area, while keeping the same footprint.

RESIDENTIAL UNITS
Through a process of folding, the surface becomes a threedimensional fabric. The basic units that constitute this honeycomb structure are the residential units, regularly distributed on the base surface.

GREEN + PUBLIC AREAS
By adding topic distortions to the regular fabric, we differentiate it and we open up larger spaces: Public Spaces and Green Areas.

CONTINUOUS ACCESSIBILITY
Leaning terraces and diagonal paths, which run on our threedimensionally folded structure, allow a continuous accessibility all over the building. All the cells are interconnected and all the spaces are fully accessible and interrelated with each other.

STRUCTURAL SCHEMES

 

PROJECT INFO
TITLE: Foldsc(r)ape
TYPE: skyscraper
LOCATION: former Fair Area – Rome, Italy
YEAR: 2011
STATUS: competition entry

CREDITS
GOMMAdesign
DESIGN TEAM: Francesco Bagni, Vittorio Menna, Gabriele Settimelli