Design for 'rice terrace' skyscraper on shortlist for architecture festival

Could giant rice terraces soon be seen on the Hong Kong skyline? Shortlisted for next year's World Architecture Festival, the Hong Kong Arcology Skyscraper seeks an answer one question: must all skyscrapers be clad in glass?

By hosting terraced paddy fields on its roof, the prototype building answers that question in the negative. Are we in for a future of urban agricultural spaces and city forests? Probably not, but even a slight move away from glass in a city the size of Hong Kong would have massive aesthetic consequences. There are about 18,000 high-rise buildings in the city, although there are various trends in architecture that seem set to change not only the way high-rise buildings look, but how they're used and even their cultural meaning.

The Hong Kong Arcology Skyscraper is an attempt to build something that's inspired by the region's history. The two towers, although vastly different in design, represent the influence of China and Britain on Hong Kong's history, with a valley-like space in between the two.

"It is a representation of the historical and cultural pride of a city that has passed through time and many architectural languages not necessarily belonging to their culture or arising of concepts rooted in the city," say the architects, Mexico-based Studio Cachoua Torres Camilletti (CTC).

But the agricultural space on the roof is Chinese-influenced. "Rice terraces have an important semiotic and symbolic significance in a culture such as China," say the the firm. The design's focus is on the need to sow seed vertically - just like a skyscraper.

"The formal beauty of these terraces is in itself a source of inspiration and a living example of the respectful change of nature by the human which poses no environmental aggression."