Showing posts with label hybrid. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hybrid. Show all posts
Lafayette Tower, NYC
87 lafayette street,
city realty posting engine 31 firehouse,
hybrid,
lafayette tower,
lot ek,
New York City,
young woo and associates
Lafayette Tower A Beautiful Building You May Never See
Those of you who salivate at LOT-EK’s amazing shipping container structures may be wondering whatever happened to the proposed Lafayette Street Tower near New York City’s Chinatown. The building, which received much press last year, was commissioned by Mr. Woo of Young Woo & Associates, who (like me) was intrigued by the design firm’s use of recycled containers in both residential and commercial buildings.
Partially inspired by the industrial feel of the neighborhood, the 19-story tower was slated to be erected at 87 Lafayette Street, adjacent to the city’s former Engine 31 firehouse. The innovative shape was to slant to the north as it grew upward and would utilize shipping containers that protruded from the front in varying degrees. A City Realty posting last year said the base of the building was to be “clad in gunmetal glazed terracotta while the setback tower” was to employ brush stainless steel that would showcase “organic curves while reflecting the area’s industrial past.”
According to LOT-EK, the tower was “a hybrid construction combining a simple concrete slab construction clad in glazing” and “a second skin constructed from a metal mesh” that would provide privacy from the outside while filtering the sun’s rays. “The interstitial spaces between the mesh and glazing, created by a scaffolding-like steel skeleton,” were to “function as semi-private balconies” – which, from the looks of them, would have provided incredible visual access to the bustling city below.
A 3-D effect would be added by the shipping containers, which would feature bathrooms, kitchens and leisure spaces, while an array of solar panels would line the building’s roof.
So, what happened to this amazing structure? A representative from LOT-EK (pronounced “low-tech”), who was kind enough to respond to my query, said it “has been stuck in the city’s building approval process” and at this time is not scheduled to move forward – a regrettably backwards ending to a forward thinking design that could have created new architectural ground and provided a stand-out aesthetic to a visually diverse historic neighborhood.
Here’s to hoping things change for the Lafayette Tower. Just not the design…
Cargotecture
ammenities,
artist studio,
byproduct,
cargotecture,
facility,
hybrid,
hybrid seattle,
insulation,
metal box
Cargotecture - A World of Possiblity in a Metal Box
Our country imports more than it exports. One byproduct of this recent development is the metal mountains of empty shipping containers piling up at our shipping ports and transport centers. What to do with them all?
Groups of innovative architects have an answer.
How about a house? An artist studio? A weekend get away spot? A clinic in a remote area? Relief housing after a natural disaster? HyBrid Architecture of Seattle and other companies like them around the world are experimenting with building prefab, ecologically intelligent structures from empty cargo containers.
A 40 foot container costs from $500 to $2000 plus a shipping fee to your building sight. That's kind of amusing...a shipping fee for your shipping container, but anyway. A company like HyBrid will outfit the container with window, insulation, and all the desired ammenities from upscale to utilitarian.
The containers as housing are interesting eye candy to some and hideous eye sores to others but our concept of the world is changing. It's time to utilize the junk we've created and reconfigure the way we think about our right to a disposable lifestyle. If not for a house, the containers make perfect low cost structures for clinics in remote or impoverished areas. A building such as this might mean the difference in a non-profit having the money to start medical services or not. Facility expenses can be a huge burden when calculating the money needed to get a project off the ground.
