Recognizing the unique conditions of social and physical barriers and encroachments around our proposed site in West Harlem, our housing project uses these moments as a provocation to explore a blurring of boundaries within an apartment building. Through the blurring of boundaries between party walls and circulatory space, harsh boundaries are perforated and thickened to become places of interaction and sharing. Residents are able to delineate a gradient of privacy built around their living habits in a variety of unit sizes. You can imagine a book collector curating reading material every week and displaying them conspicuously such that neighbors may choose to borrow and read a book on their way through the building. Youth living in the building roam freely under the watchful eyes of other residents. Here they can be exposed to hobbies, stories, or even the elderly wisdom of an aging neighbor. Likewise, this aging neighbor can feel confident in having a support network of familiar neighbors. At its heart our project is driven by the idea of challenging the ideal nuclear family, subverting typical modes of isolated living experienced by many in New York City.
