Skylines of the future revealed: The incredible structures dreamed up for a skyscraper design competition (including one that 3D prints its own apartments)

The High Density Urban Order skyscraper complex was designed by Lisa Albaugh, Ben Bourgoin, Jamie Edindjiklian, Roberto Jenkins and Justin Oh from the U.S. It features a 'field of pencil towers that blend seamlessly between one another'

If you think the skyscrapers of today are impressive, then look at these gravity-defying designs of the future.

For eVolo Magazine's 2017 Skyscraper competition, architects have re-imagined skylines all over the world from London to Antarctica.

One group of designers from Spain even created a living space for Mars, which has a malleable frame that can 'grow larger as the population increases'.

Haseef Rafiei from the UK came up with a vending machine skyscraper, capable of automatically 'printing' apartments and dropping them into place according to demand.

However, the overall winners were Pawel Lipiński and Mateusz Frankowski from Poland for their project Mashambas Skyscraper, which is a movable structure that can act as an educational centre and marketplace for new agricultural communities in sub-Saharan Africa.

In total, Evolo Magazine received 444 submissions, with the jury announcing three winners and 22 honourable mentions. The publication's awards were established in 2006 to recognise 'outstanding ideas for vertical living'.

The Flexible Materials Skyscraper designed by Fu Hao, Zhang Yunlong and Yang Ge from the U.S. features a malleable exterior that can be 'arbitrarily folded, cut, enclosed, sewed and turned over'

Tianshu Liu and Linshen Xie from the U.S. said of their design 'this is the vision we have for the cities of tomorrow - factories will be dissolved into small pieces and then be stacked together into high-rise vertical factories'

 

The Genesis Mars skyscraper, proposed by Arturo Emilio Garrido Ontiveros, Andrés Pastrana Bonillo and Judit Pinach from Spain, is a tent designed to 'grow larger as the population increases'

The Mashambas Skyscraper designed by Pawel Lipiński and Mateusz Frankowski from Poland won first place in the competition

The architects behind Mashambas wanted to build a movable educational centre that could be toured around Africa, to provide training on agricultural techniques, cheap fertilizers, and modern tools. It also creates a local trading area

The Pod Vending Machine Skyscraper was designed by Haseef Rafiei from the UK. It is designed to automatically 'print' pod-like houses according to demand in the city

Adaptive Capacity - A Socio-ecological Vertical Community in Tanzania was dreamed up by Adriann Jeevananthan from the UK. The colourful tower aims to provide a 'higher quality of life' to the inhabitants by 'eliminating unsanitary conditions'