the concourse

An affordable housing project aims to address issues of poor accessibility by introducing a handicap accessible elevated walkway. The walkway serves as the re-introduced link between the site and the Williamsburg bridge.

Strategies of encouraging community cooperation were introduced via a large interior courtyard filled with a vertical garden along with each apartment having its own "stoop" to create interior street-life for the inhabitants.

Partner: Phang Lim
Fall, 2018

This housing project is taking a critical look at the site, which locates in Williamsburg, NYC, next to the once Domino Sugar Factory that converted into a public city playground. According to the current proposal by SHoP architects, the scale of the buildings is massive and the scale is a lot larger than its context. They were able to achieve such great height was because they punched holes through the building, allow it to go high with the same amount of square footage that still could fit in the FAR restrictions.

The goal of the design is to create a master plan where people are able to use the open space between buildings for any sort of outdoor activity while solving the problem of lack of accessibility.

the current proposal by SHoP architects

Preserve the historic Domino Sugar factory while stretches the FAR of the surrounding slots to the maximum.

Transfer the FAR of the slots closer to the factory to create taller buildings as well as more open space

In order to solve the problem of accessibility, the path connects the buildings around the site as well as the Williamsburg bridge.

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strategy diagram

While taking the disconnect communities in apartment buildings into consideration, the projects aimed to not only reconnect the city fabric but also to build up further connections inside the housing project.

A vertical communal garden is introduced as one of the key elements that bond the building. In the atrium, the residents can plant any vegetables they want through the hydroponic system. In addition, every unit has its own stoop to encourage them to step out of their house. With the stoop, residents can have plants outside.