3XHYNY_Common Hybrid Hub

Project idea

The mobility in New York will increase in the next years due to modern mobility concept, thereby new building land is available to the city. The Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan is one of these projects which will be adapted to the new mobility concepts in the coming years. After a competition it seems that the structural reduction of infrastructure elements will generate new plots of land. Plots of land that do not exist to date, or have been built on or substructured. The Common Hybrid Hub Studio is dedicated to this situation and analyses new land configurations around the existing Port Authority Bus Terminal and presents new public uses in the form of structural hybrid highlights for debate. The property is located between the W 40 St. U. W 41 St. and between 9th Ave and 10th Ave. The task is to deal with a new block or high-rise development. The new development should represent the maximum utilization. Building rights have to be included. The relocation of the existing Port Authority bus terminal into the underground, together with the contribution of Hudson Terminal Center Collaborative from 2016, should also be seen as given. The space programme will include general public facilities and hostels. In order to ensure economic viability, each social, communal or cultural unit or floor area must be given a sensible use in terms of real estate. The relationship between public and private use must be divided equally. A concise ensemble of buildings with a hybrid usage structure is to be created as an iconographic statement for a free and livable Manhattan.

Project description

According to calculations, the analysis of the legal framework (Zoning Law) has resulted in the maximum buildable volume of 210,000.00 m². According to the rules of Zoning Law, this building volume was divided into three towers and divided into percentage shares for different uses. Due to the requirement of a distribution of 50% in social facilities (here Green Living, social housing, multi-generation house, development centre for the homeless, families, learning spaces and recycling workshops) and 50% free market economy (here hotel, condominiums, office, retail trade and catering), different rooms with different floor heights result which have to be connected with each other. The spiral was used here as a medium for networking, so that all rooms can be reached on foot. Due to this development, the rooms have to be stacked and follow the shape of the spiral. This results in a staircase structure, which is also visible on the façade. Due to the two different storey heights, problems arise with stacking, which were solved by introducing green floors. These green floors are placed in such a way that they create a link between the social facilities and the facilities of the free market economy. Thus there are different possibilities for the interaction of different social strata. In order to strengthen the theme of connection, the three towers were connected to each other by ramps, which are connected to the green floors and can be seen as an extension of these. This creates a movement loop with areas of recreation between the three towers. Through these connections and the mixing of the uses, the tasks of a hybrid building are fulfilled and the goal of creating unexpected situations is successfully achieved.

Technical information

The task was to create posters that would best represent the project. Pictograms, floor plans, sections, views and visualizations as well as a built model were used as the medium for the explanation. In order to document our process during the semester, a small booklet should also be created.