Cow Towers
Competition Entry
(Page under Construction)
Synopsis
Cow Towers is a revolutionary dairy farming facility that also incorporates sustainability and technology to harvest waste products from cows as well as the primary product of milk. Along with fulfilling future demand for milk in an ever growing world population, the facility will also fulfil the demand for renewable energy that would come from the recycling of dung and methane that cows create as a by product.
In addition to the production itself, Cow Towers also offers a guaranteed super efficient production of milk by comprehending the incentive to take care of cows in a proper manner. This is completed whilst still allowing the animals a proper and full quality of life, which studies and investigations from PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) have indicated that presently is not necessarily the case.
PETA's findings of the current milking industry at least in the US on many farms, that cows are not treated as equals, and are instead exploited by humans. Animals are denied the basic of needs; space to graze, a nutritious diet, comfortable living conditions and most of all, a quality of life. Whilst humans deem themselves superior to cows, cows emotionally are no different from us. Cows feel attachment to family, they have deep thoughts, they have desire to play games, they
feel pain, feel fear and cry. Like us, they too have a sixth sense. Therefore, in order for cows to be as productive as their boss desires, just like humans at work, their morale should be kept as elevated as possible to guarantee a high milk yield. However, PETA revealed a dark truth in the milk industry in which humans relentlessly exchange cows' livelihood in favour of short cuts to higher production in the form of genetic manipulation, unnatural high protein diets. Consequently, farmers become indolent and hasty regarding the welfare of their animals. Whilst profit has indeed risen, the hidden prices paid for the short cut include cows suffering from disease, lameness, reproductive problems, emotional trauma and most importantly, an udder infection known as mastitus, which can infect the milk that humans drink. This presence has evoked scepticism on the true health implication of drinking cow's milk.
And if that wasn't bad enough, the environmental effects of many farms are also notorious due to the careless and relentless disposal of waste products, dung and methane gas that have led to water and air pollution.
Thus, with the climb in population on the rise and along with it the need for high quality of milk, it is now more imperative than ever to
ensure that dairy farming in the future is fulfilled properly to ensure happy therefore productive cows yield milk that is infection free. The human input required is to provide these animals with their needs they have been denied in the name of egocentric profit.
A niche in the farming industry paves the way for an innovative architectural solution that can offer a guaranteed safe and happy environment for cows to have better qualities of life, free from pain and anguish. Cow Towers can also ensure an end for the need for insincere alternate routes to high production and profit by introducing innovative technology whilst also referring to the ways of archetypal old fashioned farming. This in turn will reassure the public that milk can be once again consumed without scepticism and knowing the milk was acquired with humanitarian practice. This man made skyscraper can also be emblematic of humans finally giving back to cows, beings that have been deemed a symbol of strength, abundance and most importantly, selfless giving.
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eVolo Competition Brief
eVolo Magazine invites architects, students, engineers, designers, and artists from around the globe to take part in the eVolo Skyscraper Competition. Established in 2006, the annual Skyscraper Competition is one of the world's most prestigious awards for high-rise architecture. It recognizes outstanding ideas that redefine skyscraper design through the implementation of novel technologies, materials, programs, aesthetics, and spatial organizations along with studies on globalization, flexibility, adaptability, and the digital revolution. It is a forum that examines the relationship between the skyscraper and the natural world, the skyscraper and the community, and the skyscraper and the city.
The participants should take into consideration the advances in technology, the exploration of sustainable systems, and the establishment of new urban and architectural methods to solve economic, social, and cultural problems of the contemporary city including the scarcity of natural resources and infrastructure and the exponential increase of inhabitants, pollution, economic division, and unplanned urban sprawl.
The competition is an investigation on the public and private space and the role of the individual and the collective in the creation of a dynamic and adaptive vertical community. It is also a response to the exploration and adaptation of new habitats and territories based on a dynamic equilibrium between man and nature. A new kind of responsive and adaptive design capable of intelligent growth through the self-regulation of its own systems.
There are no restrictions in regards to site, program or size. The objective is to provide maximum freedom to the participants to engage the project without constraints in the most creative way. What is a skyscraper in the 21st century? What are the historical, contextual, social, urban, and environmental responsibilities of these mega-structures?
eVolo Magazine is committed to continue stimulating the imagination of designers around the world: thinkers that initiate a new architectural discourse of economic, environmental, intellectual, and perceptual responsibility that could ultimately modify what we understand as a contemporary skyscraper, its impact on urban planning and on the improvement of our way of life.
from the album
"Anthem"