Editors’ Choice

2020 Skyscraper Competition
Lukas Kaufmann

Germany

Payam was the only person I?ve met who witnessed a time before the great war, before ? peace.
I had seen him often, sitting in the sky bar and glancing over Berlin. One day, he was asked to hold a lecture at one of the auditoriums here. Of course, I was curious about what he would have to say, after living and working in an Omnicontinental Treehouse for such a long time. Since I just had been drafted and moved to Berlin from Barcelona, I didn?t know a lot of people in the building yet, so I eagerly joined the class. The room was filled with people from all over the world, while he silently stood there in front of us, slightly leaning on his cane. He was born 2013 in Beirut, studied architecture and biochemistry in Teheran and Nairobi.
After the Third World War (2028-2030) mankind finally got to its senses and started working together as a unit. All the money that has been spent on military and other unnecessary, unsustainable things was slowly being invested in the global unification and collaboration towards a common goal. Solving a shared problem, that has long become more than just an imminent thread, has helped to produce more and more open-minded, well educated human beings – generation for generation.
Mr. Zaarhoon told us that he had not been drafted – like me or most of the other persons in the room. He applied for the position. Within the first couple of years after completion, e...