Image by Zhi Zheng, Hongchuan Zhao and Dongbai Song.

This theoretical skyscraper, the winner of eVolo’s annual skyscraper design competition, would collect, purify, and store water in the Himalayas, helping to conserve and regulate it. It looks like a half pack of cigarettes in fancy holders, but it’s not even the weirdest-looking skyscraper, not by a long shot. Below are some of the strange shapes that might crop up in the skyline of our more sustainable future.

Image by Yiting Shen, Nanjue Wang, Ji Xia, and Zihan Wang.

Reader support helps sustain our work. Donate today to keep our climate news free. All donations DOUBLED!

Runner-up “Mountain Band-Aid” could save over-mined mountains and displaced peoples simultaneously, by relocating China’s Hmong into a restored mountainside.

Grist thanks its sponsors. Become one.

Image by Kim Hongseop, Cho Hyunbeom, Yoon Sunhee, and Yoon Hyungsoo.

The “Plastic Fish Tower” would collect and recycle plastic from the Pacific Garbage Patch.

Image by Chipara Radu Bogdan.

Bulbous “Coal Power Plant Mutation” would sit over a coal-fired power plant, collecting and filtering the exhaust before it has a chance to reach the atmosphere.

Grist thanks its sponsors. Become one.