This project opens up the ground-floor commercial space of a building in downtown New York and converts it into an open air market for pop-up stores and co-working space for the entrepreneurs and makers, who have been facing much pressure from the pandemic. Many small businesses have been forced to to shut down across the city including the NoHo district, leading to vacancies in ground-floor commercial spaces. Rugged City aims to change the existing long term leasing model for retail space, creating agile and flexible alternatives through a system that can be operated by users according their spatial needs. By removing the walls and exposing the interiors, the ground-floor pop-up market becomes open to the public. Additionally, by selectively removing certain barriers, the street is connected to the void inside the block typical in New York’s urban fabric, defying the restrictions imposed on pedestrians by New York’s grid system.
