NEW YORK, NY | 2022 | LANDSCAPE
A rooftop pavilion in Manhattan which looks to cloud watching as a strategy for both privacy and openness, through choreographed gradients of light, shadow, views, and translucency. Surrounded by skyscrapers, the translucent roof both shields and intensifies a skyward orientation by treating the roof as a cloud-like volume which produces plays of light and transparency while producing privacy from surrounding taller neighbors.
The cloud roof belies an intensive series of tectonic, material, and volumetric constraints. The entire assembly, being located within a protected district, must be completely invisible from the street, a requirement satisfired through computational modeling of all potential vantage point interactions.
Perimeter plantings provide a sense of both enclosure and connection to the exterior; thin louvers wrapping a glass envelope produce privacy from oblique neighbors but an open view which follows the interior occupant as they move within, extending the analogical cloud to the elevation. A steel mesh stair, taking inspiration from the artist Do Ho Suh, continues the architectural translation of natural lighting effects to bring dappled light into the living spaces below.
Team: David White, Bohseung Kong, J. Roc Jih (Design Architect), Moore Engineering (Structural Engineering, Permit Expediting), Zack Adelmen (Architect of Record)