Urban encrustations

[Image: Para-city by Somnath Ray].

Less of a new building type than a kind of architectural fungus spreading across the roofs and walls of the city, Somnath Ray's design for a "skyscraper of the future" won First Prize this year at eVolo Architecture's annual design competition.
Called Para-city, Ray's project is meant to take advantage of the unused yet usable space found throughout the city: the massive corridors of air between the other buildings.

[Image: Para-city by Somnath Ray].

"With ever-increasing densities and changing programs," he writes, "Para-city grows in the entire three-dimensional space of its host: the existing skyscrapers of the present urban landscape."

[Image: Somnath Ray].

For other entries and many more images, be sure to stop by the eVolo Architecture competition site – but beware that it appears to have been designed for the purpose of navigational frustration. Never hit the "back" button.
If I was Supreme Ruler of the Universe, I would instantly illegalize the use of Flash.
Thankfully, a book featuring all the designs should be out by May 2007.

(From last year's competition: Skyscraper Futures: Infected Design).