Picture: "Sand Babel", solar-
powered 3D printed towers, for
use as science labs and tourist
hotels. Honorable mention,
2014, by Chinese designers Qiu
Song, Kang Pengfei, Bai Ying,
Ren Nuoya, Guo Shen.
Sand is a perfect and abundant
building material. In deserts,
the sun also provides abundant
energy. Bring these two things
together and it will be easy to
fuse the giant perforated slabs
and struts needed for these
large well-ventilated towers.
The grouped towers also have
an underground structure
similar to tree roots, which
draw out deep moisture. In
time, the ‘root roads’ in the
dune area around the towers
will start to become naturally
green, and this will aided by
the natural re-greening of the
whole earth due to the ongoing
carbon fertilization effect.