The Slab:

A Vertical Collage of New York Housing Typologies

Housing Studio - GSAPP Core III Fall 2019
Critic: Adam Frampton, Only-If Architecture

Collaboration with: Maru Perez, Alina Abouelenin

Too often age and socio-economic demographics are separated because their needs are never simultaneously met within a single building. This housing project is conceived as a vertical collage of New York City housing typologies in a single slab building to allow for a community of eclectic group of individuals to co-live. Like housing projects have taken on in the past, the project revisits the concept of the tower in the park. By focusing on hosting all typologies in a single building, the project takes to task a way of bringing a collection of demographics (ranging in age, interest and income) together. This allows the coexistence of vastly unique 300 housing units within a 70’ by 270’, 12-story building with ample amount of open greenery in the center of the site. Existing typologies include townhouses, micro-units, dorms, hotel rooms, a penthouse, courtyard building units and single and double loaded corridor-defined units ranging from studios to multi-bedroom apartments. Learning from Kazuyo Sejima in Gifu, Japan, the concept of ‘co-living’ is reinvented through ‘The Slab’.

With a site coverage of 35%, ample amount of open space is left for the enjoyment of the residents and the public. The forms that appear as voids in the Slab are transformed into solids on the site as recreational and community facilities.