Delegates of the 193 UN Member States gather at the UN Headquarters in New York for conferences each year, generating exchanges and cooperation. Our proposal is a new hotel at the UNHQ, primarily for UN delegates. Instead of recreating the original abandoned idea of a hotel in scheme no. 23B, the proposal rethinks the hotel program, considering contemporary challenges while designing a gradient of living to accommodate various cultures. —Our design aims to subvert some of the modernist principles in the site while maintaining certain parallels to the current UN program, structural parameters, and form.
We usually consider “governance” and “temporary stay” as two separate programmatic uses. But in our project, we are trying to explore the relationship, boundaries, and exchanges between these two. The building complex is separated into two towers but connected at particular moments. The South Tower provides various types of hotel rooms for delegates to stay in during sessions; the North Tower provides office spaces for general operations. Hotel rooms are designed for different security levels and configurations, providing various opportunities for domestic life, and accounting for various forms of living, family structures, and different cooking modes, sleeping, and reaction. Formal and informal spaces exist between the two towers offering various opportunities for cultural exchanges.
