20 W 9th St, NEW YORK

Born as a competition like project, the 20 W was about understanding the complexity of living in the Big Apple, while testing the limits of design.

The given plot was not an easy one, a long stretch of 24 meters with only 8 of façade, surrounded by 5 stories high buildings. It was clear then, that the work should be able to introuce the biggest amount of light and also meet the needs of such a hectic and intense society as New York.

Based on a steel structural skin, the building bends itself leaving an open-air ramp at the core and the apparments at the front and back, so each of them has the most views as possible. The use of Cellular Glass as insulation enables the walls to be as thick as 10 cm, what combined with the fuzziness of the initial idea, give the inhabitants the real feeling of living inside an origami.