NYC Sky Condo

NYC Sky Condo competition

HONORABLE MENTION: 

Gaetano Carambia

Francesca Turrini

rban agriculture is an ancient practice that promotes sustainable food production, close to the sale area. The aims are to deliver fresh and healthy food, respect the seasonality of the harvest and redevelop areas of the city. In this way, it’s easy to involve citizens in intelligent uses of time and create social interaction.Greengenerator stands for a new way of thinking about urban gardening. Instead of distributing food, it will be possible to deliver plants in order to obtain the desired products, which will not merely grow in our urban garden.  We plan a system of large vertical viveros where seed-lings grow before being distributed across the city. This process makes possible to satisfy and expand the  network of urban gardens.Citizen participation will be essential in order to grow and develop the complete program of urban agriculture. The connection to the Highline and the large covered square below will encourage the regeneration of the area. Our aim is to obtain a place where is always possible to meet each others, exchange knowledge and entertainment.

The traditional techniques learned inside the large garden terrace, will be shared all over the city. In this way the project won’t be isolated, on the contrary it will be the engine to increase the network of urban vegetables gardens.Next to this program of urban gardening, we project different activities that stand side by side to the green production. The slender tower beside the green terrace includes activities such as a restaurant/ pub, a warehouse useful to the gardening, a market in which they sell products and a school where is possible to share the know how about the farming. Moreover, we project an office place and above this some apartments. Each apartment occupies two floors. The living area has the garden while the sleeping area is lofted. Behind the green terrace a large covered square takes place; this will be a meeting point during all day. Functional mixité will ensure vitality and flourishing of the center, that will be a support for urban gardens all over the city.

THE GREEN TERRACE

The Green Terrace is where knowledge and its application take place. Here they grow fruits and vegetables in accordance with the seasonality of each product. The farming yield is useful for the food need of the tower and for the bar-restaurant on the ground floor. The mere production is not the most important purpose of the green terrace. Operators are involved in teaching to the New Yorkers how to build a vegetable garden in the city and how to take care of it. The terrace itself is composed by several layers. Above the horizontal structural element there is the ground stratification: from the top the layers are humus, compost, filter membrane and drainage. Under the drainage layer there is a system of ducts that collect rainwater employed in the irrigation. The cultivable area is 560 sqm divided into 14 sectors of 40 sqm. The fields contain different plants whose rotation depends on the season.

A small bridge provides the access from the highline and wood-paved paths allow the movement of people and products. In order to manage the whole organization, the warehouse for products and tools, the management office and areas for teaching take place inside the tower. 

THE VIVERO TOWERS

The specific feature of the project are the Vivero Towers that stand out from 30 to 48 meters of height. They have three important functions: they support the green terrace, contain viveros and produce clean energy. They consist of a cylindrical structural core made of steel tubulars. At the ground floor they become urban design elements with sittings and light points. Over the plate we have vivaros . They consist of overlapping pots made of prefabricated concrete that contain the loam and water drainage. The use of this material allows to increase the thermal inertia of the ground and helps the growth process. Each vegetable-pot contains 3 sqm of planted ground so the entire structure has more than 600 sqm of vertical viveros. These are reachable by the operators using an elevator inside the cage structure; this one allows the maintenance of the structure too. On the top there are the Vertical Axis Wind Turbines that produce electricity for the building, in addiction to give energy to the water tanks pump. There are also two towers that have different functions: vertical distribution and irrigation. Both contain the same tanks for rainwater collecting. Besides, one of them contains the public elevator that connects the ground floor to the terrace and to the highline while the other one contains the private flat elevator.

STEEL, CONCRETE AND NATURE

Our project aim is the integration with the context. Therefore, we must consider the highline as the most important element we face. Its strength is the simplicity of the composition of two elements: park and infrastructure.

So we chose two main materials: bright prefabricated concrete and black steel. Both materials have structural and perceptual function. Black steel gives vertical tension to the project.

The elevation structure of all components of the project (the viveros core and the building's pillar) are made of steel. The tower skin is black too, because it's the main vertical element.