Plenty has been revealed about the first New York project from rapidly rising Danish architect Bjarke Ingels. An early concept of the massive apartment building on West 57th Street between Eleventh and Twelfth Avenues made it into a comic book about Ingels's work, and the young hipstertect himself showed a rendering of the sloping tower (with terrace cut-outs and an interior courtyard) while presenting at Harvard. But in an interview with the Times, Ingels declined to divulge specifics because an announcement from the Durst Organization, the developer, is coming soon. Still, he spouted some interesting archibabble about the building's philosophy. Y'all ready for this?
Here's the part of the Q&A where he gets into the NYC building a bit:
So these buildings just happen to look like mountains. They’re buildings that look different because they perform differently. They harvest resources — daylight, views — in different ways. What we try to do is maximize possibilities. Before, you could choose a life in the city, and that would give you certain advantages, but it would be at the expense of parks and green spaces, fresh air and bicycle rides, or a private garden. And I think now in New York, and with projects like the Mountain and 8 House we did in Copenhagen, we’re trying to offer some of the suburban advantages, like a house with a garden where your kids can go outside and hang around, and combine that with the services of a dense urban space.
Does New York need a mountain?
I can vaguely say that what we’re trying to do in New York is to follow up the general trajectory the city has taken, integrating parks and recreation spaces, rejuvenating the waterfront, planting trees and creating bicycle paths. We’re trying to see if you can create a hybrid typology. What happens if you crossbreed the Copenhagen courtyard with the New York high-rise?
So the building's going to be the mountain of Hell's Kitchen, mixed with a shot of suburbia? This thing is going to be the most interesting Dane since Grendel!
· A Danish Architect Brings His Mountain-Making Ideas to New York [NYT]
· BIG's 57th Street Tower Revealed at Harvard With Jay-Z Soundtrack! [Curbed]
· Developer Has Big Plans For 57th Street, But Are They BIG? [Curbed]
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