STREET IN TOWER BUILDING – Parsons the New School for Design, 1st year MArch 2009

Studio 2

Mixed-used Building in Seward Park area, New York

The project was to design an environmentally and financially sustainable model for a housing project for New York area.  The critics found the project inovative from the sustainability point.

Project Statement – Low-income housing is unsustainable

Low-income housing projects bring together a homogenous group of people both from a financial and social perspective. This collusion increases rather than decreases crime and irresponsible social behavior. To prevent the inevitable self-implosion of such communities, cities incur unplanned and on-going clean-up costs, comparable to the initial investment.

Project Goal – Multigeneration housing for a sustainable living

Accommodate the diversity of families characteristic to the Lower East Side. Provide a healthy living environment that decreases crime through a heterogeneous self-regulated community. Create an energy efficient building responsive to the environmental and site conditions. Preserve the openness experience of the intersection and offer privacy and views to Manhattan’s skyline and Hudson River.

Project Strategy – Planed income and flexible floor plans

Provide a perpetuity-like source of income to cover clean-up costs and a flexible floor plan design to accommodate multigeneration and modern families.Maximize livable area and minimize impact at the ground level with an inverted design. Foster public activities at the ground level with a park that continues with a wrapped-around path leading to storefronts.

Light Study – The gradient of the facade pattern allows less light  to penetrate into the building at the upper levels as oppose to abundancy of light at the lower levels of the building.

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