A Building That Breathes
Madrid and Paris-based design studio Independent Architectural Diplomacy (IAD) has shared its recent entry to the conceptual Hotel and Sky Garden competition which received a special mention. The design is for a soaring 468m tower on the Upper West Side in New York with a variety of open-air spaces. Situated on a high-profile site with Hudson River to the West, Central Park to the East, Midtown to the South and Harlem to the North, IAD has taken inspiration from the well-known landmarks in the local vicinity with a design that draws on elements of Central Park to create a series of vertical parks for the building’s residents. The skyscraper encompasses residential and hotel units, a conference centre, urban mall and a plethora of vertical gardens.
A description from the firm details: “The primary initiative proposed by this seemingly out of scale project is the creation of a relationship that goes beyond the site’s limits: it postulates itself as the articulation of nearby referential and green spaces within Manhattan’s city grid. The initial program alluded to a sky garden, but as [we] wanted to create a shared space, a sensitive urban ecosystem that promotes activity, interchange and flow, [we] settled on the creation of a vertical garden at city level, a true orthogonal projection of Central Park.
“The poetical eco-tech identity of the building revisits the aesthetics of New York’s early 20th century structures as a way to house this futuristic lung in constant interaction with the building’s program. By its own typology, the tower allows for the entry of and natural light and ventilation, the protection against meteorological conditions, all while taking advantage of them when they are favorable, making it a captor of sustainable energy.”
IAD