of brownstones and boba
affordable housing proposal for Citigroup and NYRA’s open call with Daniela Abella Guerra
Taking cues from the iconoclastic New York brownstone and the glass facades of FiDi, ‘Of Brownstones and Boba’ is an affordable housing proposal for the 5WTC site. With repetitive modules laid out on a rectangular grid—assuring adaptability and dynamism—the project aims for low construction costs and high unit density. The burnished steel and glass surface is intersected by brick and stone volumes articulating community gardens and shared spaces.
The facade articulations were developed as an abstraction of the New York low rise street experience—brownstone stoops, arched openings and stylistic multiplicity. This experience was translated to a vertical housing project that aims to promote communication and a sense of neighborhood.
The project explores the dichotomy between planarity and inconsistency, and transparency and opacity by juxtaposing brick and glass. Built on the idea of contrasting the heavily glazed high rises of Downtown Manhattan, the form is generated by bleeding in the brownstone to the glass, much like boba in tea.
