Pilingscraper in New York City by Andrea Vattovani Architecture

Article source: Andrea Vattovani Architecture 

Through this competition we start to relate us for the very first time with a really high building trying also to understand what we think was right in the last 150 years of skyscrapers history.

The first stage of our process was to find a spot for our concept since Delirious New York was clear that the Skyscraper city is New York so the first decision was taken. After that obviously we needed a ground and we found one next to the United Nation Headquarters who seemed to us perfect close to the river.

Image Courtesy © Andrea Vattovani Architecture

• Architects: Andrea Vattovani Architecture
• Project: Pilingscraper
• Location: New York City, U.S.A
• Size: 490.300,00 m2
• Project description: Mixed use
• Status of project: Design proposal

Image Courtesy © Andrea Vattovani Architecture

We look around and analyze the surroundings building we tried to copy the building of the next ground to our and from that developed our functions. We decided to pool together the buildings around in a compact big pile a tower. So we achieved a free ground cause we wanted a park we wanted quality for our building but also to improve the surrounding. We have enough experience with construction developers to know that the first thing an architect should never forget is to improve the city and the surrounding of the building trough the design of a project.

Image Courtesy © Andrea Vattovani Architecture

We noticed a spot next to our field that was full of cars so we understand that in order to preserve the park we had to do something. We lifted up a corner of the park like it would be a carpet. With this simple gesture we created like that the main access for the cars and give and urban feeling on the street side and we created a landscape on the upper level so not to have a plane park. Underneath the cars hided from the park itself.

Image Courtesy © Andrea Vattovani Architecture

We came also to the conclusion that in order to make our skyscraper more interesting we had to bring it closer to the city. Since we wanted anyway to design a skyscraper and a skyscraper means per definition per se a tall continuously building of many stores we thought the right thing to do was to keep it high. But we obviously still wanted to bring it closer to the city. We decided that the only way was to try the opposite to bring the city closer to our building.

We started to analyze smaller cities were the density didn’t develop so extreme as in a bigger city like New York where mostly is where you see this tall buildings. We saw by driving around that what was the biggest difference was that by moving horizontally you have non-stop different functions and density buy developing the city vertically you still have it only by moving horizontally.

Image Courtesy © Andrea Vattovani Architecture

We decided to extend the city with his diversity and functions in the skyscraper itself so we selected many functions that we though are important to have close to your home or office and that also contributes to make our concept works. We pile all the functions in a inner tower giving them also a different density depending on the place needed in every different level.

We developed also two main zones one private and public. On the inside our space where everybody can move extending the city on a new level in a new direction the vertical one. The core of the building becomes a building inside a building offering many attractions from coffee shops to parks to skater places to pharmacies food stores and many others. You can decide to take a walk inside and go till the 50th floor or to stop in the area you like the most.

Image Courtesy © Andrea Vattovani Architecture

On four main public levels you can find places where you can access a beautiful view and parks that we made also to bring light inside and allow the connect to the outside from different high. The last ten floor of the building are only for residential use and they are constructed around a courtyard with a park. We wanted to achieve for the penthouses a dichotomy on the inside this feeling that you are in a small residential housing with a park where you can let the kids play safe and away from cars and noise of the city and on the outside the reign over the roofs of New York. So basically to have this complete opposite feelings from the same apartment.

Image Courtesy © Andrea Vattovani Architecture

Around the core we have the private zone with offices and flats depending on the part of the building and the sun illumination. Between the private and the public we created a buffer zone that is used as acoustic isolation and also cause is the structural core of all building. The building is situated on the corner to respect the UN building and also to let the park as free as possible. The form in the lower part of the building its developed from the orthogonal schema of New York town plan.

Image Courtesy © Andrea Vattovani Architecture

In the lowest part we respect the system and define the street trough his adaptation to the perpendicularity but as the building becomes higher like it would explode it show its own character and it changes it turns and want to tell trough its torsion of 180° that inside happens something something special tha you should be able to understand from far away. On the last part of the building a further 90° revolution wants to be in the best possible position to illuminate the apartments on the last floors

Image Courtesy © Andrea Vattovani Architecture

Image Courtesy © Andrea Vattovani Architecture

Tags: New York City, U.S.A.

Category: Skyscrapers

This entry was posted on Friday, November 22nd, 2013 at 5:49 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.