> As a way to get around the imposed embargo, mining would have to be done secretly and undercover. Hence, a hybrid type is proposed, a mining farm that is juxtaposed by a vertical water theme park. The water infrastructure hides the hi-tech facility [...]

And that's on a public website. No way they're being serious. I think it's pretty funny;)

I find it funny and endearing- its absurdity seems to be part of the message.

> As an entry to the 2019 Evolo Skyscraper Competition, JCPOA Tower was designed to combine cryptocurrency mining with a water park

So it’s a design competition. It would be similar to you asking why teams build autonomous vehicles for the DARPA grand challenges.

I don't find them any more vexing than anything else that also exists purely in the realm of 3D rendering and visualization software. Do people also find vexing (haha, video game in-joke) the design of the Pyramidion in Destiny 2, or the giant world eating octopus/robot production annihilation machines frozen in place in Horizon Zero Dawn?

It's purely nothing more than a creative opportunity for people to do something cool and fun with 3D CAD software. And perhaps for the Iranians who designed it, to get their personal names ranked higher in google searches and gain some very small degree of recognition in the architectural community.

Competition's problem statement is at https://www.e-architect.co.uk/competitions/evolo-2020-skyscr... ... remember architects are not engineers. It's much easier to break than to build. What would you have proposed?

I mostly design plastic enclosures, and assemblies for electronic products, and have to keep manufacturability top-of-mind.