I have a special place in my heart for cities and skyscrapers. Here are a few links to skyscraper-related articles from the past few weeks from Inhabitat.

First, the Austrian firm Coop Himmelb(l)au won the bid for the new China Insurance Group tower in Shenzhen. Because this is Inhabitat the focus is on energy efficiency, but the flowing lines of the planned building’s facade are a nice departure from the norm.

In one of the weirder building proposals I’ve seen, biomorphic skyscrapers are meant to provide downtown New Yorkers and other city-dwellers with their first locally grown food in centuries.

My personal favorite of the recent designs Inhabitat has covered is the Perkins Eastman submission for a mixed-use skyscraper in Kohinoor CTL’s skyscraper competition in Mumbai. The building’s geometry is fantastic, and the structure would recycle rainwater and provide some of its own power among other “green” innovations.

Finally, in Japan, the Mode-Gakuen Spiral Towers, an actual, existing structure for a change, “sets the standard for educational architecture” and looks good doing it.