Through model making and quantitative analysis in excel, this project explores the relationship between fragmented users and uses in creating immersive spaces informed and supported by financial decisions. In doing so, the project interrogates the traditional development structures and existing spatial qualities of PS 64 and the East Village. The project first makes explicit the inversion of social and financial value and how they are represented in the built environment. Socially valuable spaces do not generate enough income to justify their construction without being accompanied by spaces that generate more financial value, such as market-rate housing and condominiums. However, the project would not gain necessary public support unless it includes socially but not financially valuable spaces, such as affordable housing and community programming. Ultimately these fragmented uses and user groups all integrate into the community by calling the building their home.
In the physical model, spaces with high community use and social value expand to represent the intersection of user groups and the interaction of the building and its neighborhood. In contrast, the residential floors are pressed together. Despite the model’s conceptual form, the project is fully rooted in financial metrics and is fully feasible.