+ Framlab. Awarded Honorable Mention in ReThinking Homeless Shelter 2015
As the world is undergoing the largest wave of urban growth in history, cities are densifying at a tremendous rate. In metropolises like New York City, the land is scarce and the rents are at a record high. Continue reading Framlab
David G Nix . Andreas Tjeldflaat
Even in a city as dense and resourceful as New York, where every square inch of tenable space has seemingly been identified, claimed and occupied, there still manages to exist an abundant amount of underutilized, unconsumed extant space.
While typically the epicenter of urban blight, the alley offers an extraordinary opportunity to integrate into the surrounding community by tightly interweaving into the nooks and crannies of the city fabric. By doing so, the alley becomes no longer a vacuous urban residue, but instead an activated realm of social and communal usefulness and interest, a sustainable refuge for impromptu community activity and culture.
The Alleyway School constitutes a proposal for an extramural school between 6th and 7th Street in New York’s Lower East Side, one which transforms this unused space into a dynamic place for extracurricular physical and mental stimulation and celebrates the uniqueness of this lost interstice by injecting into it a sense of childish levity through continuous serpentine meanders of interwoven program and circulation.
The school’s program itself is a response to the need of its local community, offering children access to education and facilities surrounding issues of physical and psychological health. With activities ranging from basketball and dance to martial arts to cooking, the Alleyway School offers a hygienic environment to pursue productive extracurricular activities that engage both body and mind. Continue reading Nix . Tjeldflaat
