surface/space was a research studio under marlon blackwell and julie snow about the inhabitation of the skin of the building and using it as a mediator between the inside and the outside. we were asked to make an in depth study of the materials and geometries that affect the inhabitation of the building skin.

the program for the given building was artist housing project in soho, new york. upon site visit, i was greatly impressed by the high levels of unintentional visual fragmentation on the streets - signs, billboards, pavement patterns, and other attention-getter and decorative clutter. searching for a way to integrate meaningful fragmentation into the newly designed facade, i decided to let the fragmentation of the facade permeate through the whole building and govern the form of the building as well as the interior layout of the space.

in the search for a fragmentation pattern i came across some pentagonal tilings. after about 2 weeks of scrutiny (fig. 3), i finally decided on one of the patterns that made at least some sense for a building to be based off of (tiling #8). while arbitrary tiling (or other geometrical patterns just for the sake of the pattern) in plan is not generally a good idea and normally tilings are used for facade treatment (Federation Square, Spiral: let it be said that i generally do not look at precedents and i am just using these references to illustrate a point), i think that there should always be an underlying idea throughout the whole building, and if fragmentation it is to be, then fragmentation it shall be.

quick overview of the building : the form of the building became an extrusion of the plan, rendering a continuous but fragmented facade. the tiling is rotated and cropped on the site so that not many instances of repetition occur in the outline.the structure of the building is poured in place folded concrete walls, floor slabs hung between them.the ground floor is a commercial rental space with a cafe art gallery that spills into the courtyard. follow five floors of apartments with large community space and communal balcony overlooking the courtyard. rooftop garden crowns it all.

the ultimate perceptual fragmentation device is the video billboard. ever-changing images, viewable day and night, and if skinned across a building with geometrically fragmented facade become the apotheoses of visual clutter and experiential confusion. not only the images are changing, but dependent on the viewer's position in relationship to the building one can observe different number of planes (fig 2.)

problematic issue with plastering video screen on the facade of building is very well illustrated by the Time Square. for office buildings with deep floors that need to be artificially illuminated anyway the fact that the building is clad in a light impermeable material is not a problem, but when in the residential realm, especially artist studios, where light is ever so more important (although 'artist' is a collective word not restricted to the visual arts), the issue of delivering ventilation and illumination is crucial.

with all that, i also wanted to make a building that questioned what is residential and how 'my home is my castle' fitted with the artistic need for exposure. thus the initial idea was to clad the building with glass and allow for gazes in, leaving it up to the individual tenant to provide as much or as little privacy for themselves by exhibiting works in the windows. thus reach privacy by exposure. due to the internal geometry, all apartments were formatted as an open plan with a manufactured nexus that conglomerated all operations of the apartment - shower, kitchen, bed, storage, bathroom; thus leaving the perimeter free. another issue to be integrated was the contemplative quality of watching the working city (fig 6)

to recap: design issues for the skin

video screen(led)
privacy(or lack thereof)
lighting
human occupancy
fragmentation

the final resolution presented itself as a layered facade, using the edited placement of video screen as an architectural screen to ensure certain levels of privacy. the video screens are mechanically fragmented on a grid, while preserving the image continuity over the whole plane. the fragmentation lines are left void, thus reversing the solid-void relationship between glass pane and mullion. the glass weather barrier slips to the edge of the floor slab and back, forming pockets of outdoor space that is sometimes screened, sometimes open.thus on average every apartment has a semi-screened balcony, a glass wall and a screened glass wall. the handrail on the balcony transforms into a vertical decorative element that on the inside morphs to a horizontal picture rail.

to be finished

1. site interpretation

2. site plan
note proximity to the holland tunnel