-By Gillian Wong

eVolvo revealed earlier this week the winners of its 2010 Skyscraper Competition. Out of 430 entries from 42 countries, only 3 winners and 27 special mentions were selected.

Malaysian-based architects Chow Khoon Toong, Ong Tien Yee, Beh Ssi Cze claimed top honors for their Vertical Prison design (pictured left). The concept explores the potential of a prison-city in the sky. Inmates would exercise their productivity by working in factories and agricultural fields that would benefit the city below.

In second place was the “Ciliwung Recovery Program,” deign by Indonesian-based Rezza Rahdian, Erwin Setiawan, Ayu Diah Shanti, and Leonardus Chrisnantyo. The design focuses on the recovery of the Ciliwung River habitat under which a skyscraper would serve as a means of collecting garbage and purifying water, all while providing a home to the people that currently live in the slums beside the river. (For more info and images on this design, read “ Skyscrapers Double as Giant Brita Filters.”)

Meanwhile, U.S.-based Ryohei Koike and Jarod Poenisch took the bronze for the Nested Skyscraper (pictured right). The project examines the use of robotic construction techniques to create a building made of carbon sleeves and fiber-laced concrete.

Members of the jury included Mario Cipresso, Kyu Ho Chun, Kenta Fukunishi, Elie Gamburg, Mitchell Joachin, JaeYoung Lee, Adelaide Marchi, Nicola Marchi and Eric Vergne.

Cipresso says it was “the more comprehensive, inventive and truly forward-looking projects that in the end earned my highest marks…these same projects often questioned absolute verticality in favor of stronger connections to the ground plane and their particular context, which was often overlooked yet so critical to the assimilation of the structure.” He also notes that although many entries addressed environmental responsibility, he was “surprised at the number of projects that almost completely ignored our current reality.”