Polish architects Marcin Kitala and Michal Spólnik came up with an unusual solution in response to the SKYHIVE 2021 Skyscraper Challenge . Instead of building a new skyscraper, they proposed retrofitting the Sterick Building located in Memphis, creating a skyscraper with fragmented ownership. Their Future's Prologue was shortlisted for the project.
TheSKYHIVE 2021 Skyscraper Challenge was the fourth annual architectural competition organized by the Bee Breeders platform, seeking innovative skyscraper concepts. The guidelines encouraged designs that propose unique structural systems, ideas related to sustainability, new façade typologies, building forms and functions. Participants were free to choose any hypothetical building site measuring 130 by 80 meters, with access from two sides. The project could be located in any city, anywhere in the world.
Polish architects proposed to intervene and transform an existing building into a skyscraper with fragmented ownership
© Marcin Kitala, Michal Spólnik
The full international jury included: Jim Bissell (Oscar-nominated set designer), Thomas Corbasson (architect from Paris-based agency Chartier+Corbasson Architectes), Anastasia Elrouss (founder of ANA-Anastasia Elrouss Architects), Kourosh Salehi (LWK + PARTNERS), Mark Foster Gage (architect, writer and associate professor at Yale School of Architecture), Amin Taha (chairman of GROUPWORK).
Given the increasingly urgent need to slow climate change, this year's projects placed special emphasis on green building techniques and the use of materials that contribute to lower carbon emissions. The jury decided to include the project by Polish architects Marcin Kitala and Michal Spólnik in the list of shortlisted projects.
forgotten buildings
The needs of cities are in constant flux due to uninterrupted progress. And like all progress, urban development also has its victims, in the form of demolished buildings. They are often considered unsuitable for adaptation for new functions. Their act of demolition is preceded by long-term disregard leading to various erosions. Can we do something about it? - the authors wonder.
Buildings can be closed and abandoned for a variety of reasons. Market changes, natural disasters, low-quality materials used in construction, outdated spatial layouts, failure to meet modern standards or simply unsightliness. After years of neglect, they are dismantled to make room for new developments. This has a huge impact on the environment, but is often more cost-effective for investors than modernization and renovation.
Future's Prologue is a project to modernize Sterick Building
© Marcin Kitala, Michal Spólnik
element of the city?
Today, a typical high-rise building has one owner and multiple tenants. Usually only the first floor is open to the public and often only as stores or restaurants. This creates a disparity, as tall buildings define the city's skyline, and only a handful of people can go higher than level 0. Skyscrapers, which are the largest elements of the city, only serve the city indirectly. Shouldn't this be organized differently in a modern city? Can we turn a private, almost mono-functional building into a multifunctional one, managed by the city itself, in which everyone can be an owner? - the architects ask.
Modernization for the smart city
We are currently seeing the rise of a creative social class that is driving economic progress in post-industrial countries. Thanks to ubiquitous connectivity, everyone can be both producer and consumer. Widely available knowledge and content distribution tools make it possible to become an entrepreneur in a completely different field than one is educated in. The cities of the future will be created by just such people, individually or in groups. How can the city as an environment foster their efforts? Can a building become a platform for information exchange and cooperation?
Polish architects, in response to these questions, have proposed an intervention that goes beyond standard measures - a skyscraper with fragmented ownership, in which any person or company can become a shareholder. Such a strategy can be applied anywhere in the world, and they presented the Sterick Building in downtown Memphis as an example of a building. Designed by Wyatt C. Hedrick & Co. was completed in 1930, was abandoned in the 1980s and has remained vacant ever since, despite many plans.
New building functions foster smart city development
© Marcin Kitala, Michal Spólnik
According to the authors' assumption, after the modernization, the various functions of the skyscraper will be distributed organically in a vertical direction. Softer functions, where the flow of people is important, such as, for example, a streetcar stop, individual apartments or co-living and niche stores, will occupy the lower floors, forming a new type of city quarter with the first floors of neighboring buildings. The higher the floors, the more the entire city's functions are influenced and their reach is greater. The architects proposed a car cinema, a dance rehearsal hall, a cryptocurrency bank, and a city server. All of this is topped by a viewing platform from which one can follow a baseball game at a nearby stadium. The second proposal for the skyscraper's roof is a drone-operated delivery warehouse.
The new Sterick Building will become a symbol of the neighborhood and the entire city of Memphis. Its new "function giving function" will strengthen the city and give it a positive impetus to move into the information maturity of a smart city. It will become a platform for residents to unleash their creativity," Marcin Kitala and Michal Spólnik conclude.
