1K TOWER
Location: N/A
Type: Conceptual Tower
Team: Marcos Escamilla-Guerrero
for Francisco Gonzalez Pulido
Status: Idea/Exhibited
Year: 2021
The tower as typology has been evolving since it was conceived, always striking for height and dramatic shapes. Currently humans are trying to reach a milestone, the 1,000 meters barrier. This project questions the real need of creating this type of building, which requires an extremely high number of resources. The super tall skyscraper nowadays seems to be an excess in the context of the current global agenda. This project opens the conversation again regarding the true limit of a tower. Is it a technical limit? Is it a budget limit? Is it an environmental limit?
This tower contemplates 1,000 meters in total and an approximate of 900,000 sqm. The tower plan typology changes every 200 meters, reducing its built area to become thinner as it gains height. As shown, the tower has a central core and four equal “wings” at each side of it. One by one they get deleted, resulting into a rational object, contained by a skin. The skin is composed of several facets that resulted from a low-poly mesh. The skin pretends to generate a controlled environment to the inside, isolating the tower from the exterior conditions.
"Questioning the rational height limits of a tower."
(1km tall conceptual tower)
Plans from 0.00m to +1,000.00m
Animated Isometric
Techtonics & Belonging
Overall Form Finding
Operational Logic for Interior Massing
"The tower aquiring techtonics in a specific context"
The base form is a rectangular prism, which is subdivided into a grid of 30m by 30m. Each resulting quadrant is then pushed down by a multiple of 200m. Control polylines for the exterior skin are settled, their vertices get connected. At first two operations were implemented in order to generate shapes and find forms from simple cubes.
The interior massing is the result of transforming a basic shape (cube), by either slicing, pixelating or subtracting, 144 combinations are achieved after combining them. The different volumes are assigned to different programs depending on their morphological qualities . The void space between the mass and the skin is assigned to terraces and balconies.
Diagramatic Isometrics
Physical model of the tower being exhibited. Photo taken by Paco Alvarez
The project was displayed in Monterrey, Mexico in an exhibition that celebrated Francisco Gonzalez-Pulido’s career. The model was built in a 1:500 scale. The tower achieved its purpose, arising attention and questions towards its design process and conception. The model was built out of acrylic pieces and 3-D printed PLA pieces.
Section
Rendering in Beijing