Crazy Concept Drawings From My Architecture Thesis Project
My Architecture Thesis Project
I studied architecture in college and loved it. For my thesis project I decided to redesign one of the skyscrapers in the new Hudson Yards development in New York City. My main goal for the design was to find a way to seamlessly combine two typologies of the city; the skyscraper and the urban park. Both are necessary and both are results of incredible density. When lots of people need to live and work in a smaller land area these two things are a result. Sometimes the ratio of open space/park space to population density is far too low as is the case in NYC.
PlaNYC 2030 and Hudson Yards
Mayor Bloomberg created an initiative called PlaNYC 2030 in which they stated a few major goals for the future of the city. One of these was improving the public space and the ratio of available park and public space to population density. The new Hudson Yards project was to be an example of a large scale building project that would accomplish many if not all of the goals set forth in the initiative. The Hudson Yards development drastically diminishes the ratio of open space to population density by overbuilding for the private and under providing for the public. My thesis attempted to redesign one of the buildings to address this particular issue by merging the skyscraper and the urban park.
And now.. some crazy sketches!
The Brainstorming Sketches
What you see in this post are the initial sketches and brainstorm session that I had to explore different ideas about how the skyscraper and urban park could merge as one. These are opposites by nature, one solid and one void. They both accommodate the needs a large population and have developed over time into great examples of design and space. However, they have remained separate. I would hope that in the future we would be able to combine these to create new types of spaces, some in the sky, that will offer the public better places to relax, to exercise, to enjoy time outside and to breath fresh air. I'll post more about the actual skyscraper/park that I ended up designing for the final project, but I thought you might enjoy some of these crazy drawings!
Ciao for now, Steemians.
- Weston (aka @design-guy)
Nice architectural sketches. Green cities must be the future but how integrated "nature" in city to make it more livable and sustainable ?
Thanks. Yes, I think they need to be integrated in a way that creates value to the cities and real estate developers and people. If it becomes a standard then cities will adapt the building code to benefit developers who choose to offer more public space. There needs to be some kind of reward for doing so. It has happened in smaller instances in the past.
Nice👍Good post 👍 followed and upvote you hope you will do same for me 😊 best luck
Great to see more original content in the #architecture tag! Upvoted and followed!
I also agree that for us to achieve sustainable development goals, we will probably need dense urban grid. I made a post about it - suggesting that maybe wooden skyscrapers are the way to go.
I wonder how would you solve the technical aspect of greenery - it weights a lot, it requires a lot of maintenance. That is why we decided to use potted plants - which are not so big.
Thanks! Appreciate that. A lot of the public areas that were designed were not only for park space, but also for basketball courts, movie screening areas, public seating and dining areas, etc. But that is a good point.
Nice sketches and concept. Will be looking foratd for more of your ideas as a fellow designer.