A young Polish architecture firm, mode:lina, has designed a sexy and futuristic concept for a skyscraper integrated with wind turbines. The design is titled “GESTERBINE” and was mode:lina’s submission to the eVolo Skyscraper Competition.

While the images shared here are more ‘renderiffic’ than plausible, the overall conceptual design is an excellent example of a forward reaching design engaging with ideas necessary to net-zero design, and doing so with a 21st century aesthetic. As the ‘gesterbine’ turbines show, integrating renewable energy production into a building form can be about more than slapping solar panels on a roof; it can be a celebratory and intrinsic part of the building!

The intention of GESTERBINE, as its name suggests, is to combine gesture, water, and turbines into a final building design. The building’s form was guided by the desire to pump water from an adjacent river in order to support small retention ponds, and to harvest wind energy from up high (see the diagram above). The form was further developed by studying human gestures and transposing them into vectors; resulting in a tall structure with outreaching tendrils (which rather coincidentally resemble tree roots - nature’s own net-zero skyscraper!).

To view more images of this project see the architect’s website and design boom.

To view the winning and other entries to the eVolo Skyscraper Competition click here. The eVolo design competition seeks ideas that change the way architecture and its relationship with the natural and built environments are understood. There are many fascinating projects to browse.