The winners for one of our favorite architectural competitions were just announced and we couldn’t be more pleased with the results as many of the skyscrapers incorporated awesome sustainable design with out of this world concepts. First place for this year’s eVolo Skyscraper competition was LO2P: Delhi Recycling Center designed by Atelier CMJN led by Julien Combes, Gaël Brulé of France, and it couldn’t be more fantastic. Conceived as a giant greenhouse constructed out of parts of recycled cars, the ferris wheel-like building with wind turbine inside serves as a set of super bio-lungs for polluted New Delhi.LO2P is one part recycling center, one part power plant and one part air filter – waste goes in and clean energy, air and food come out. The recycling loop serves as the structure for a large wind turbine as well as photovoltaic panels on the exterior that generate clean energy. The recycling center at the base of the tower produces waste heat and carbon dioxide, which are in turn used by the greenhouse to produce food and bio-fuel. And a set of rotating filters capture the suspended particles in the air, pumping fresh air into the city.
The recycling loop is an ingenious concept relying solely on wastes for its input stream to produce valuable materials and cleaner air. Like a vertical garden, the LO2P is an eco factory and is easily conceived in other locations around the world. We can’t wait to see this eco skyscraper in action one day.
