Concept Model
Concept Diagram
Fourth story plan
Cross section
Custom block
Walls comprised of custom masonry units
This building was designed for the National Concrete Masonry Association Competition. We were asked to showcase the possibilities of concrete masonry, and design custom blocks for our project. The program was a small live/work facility for students of The New School in New York City. Sandwiched between Frank Gehry's IAC building and the High Line, our site demanded an unique approach to space. When I started thinking about this design, I wanted to play a sort of visual trick on the building user. My goal was to create the illusion of rooms within this space - without physically enclosing them with walls. The idea was to use repeating, thin masonry walls and punch spaces out of them, creating an implied rooms within the "pages" of the building.
The walls would be supported by steel columns, which would be clad in panels of custom masonry bricks. Doing this would allow the walls to be much thinner than would be possible if all of the walls were shear walls. The rooms within would be supported by beams embedded in the walls. Since each wall is only a few feet away from the next, it would enable the joists to span between the walls easily.
This project was highly theoretical - an exploration of how space is perceived, not a reflection of economic realities.
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