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New York
What skyscrapers were to New York City in the twentieth century, vanes are in the twenty-second. Through the use of this new type of mixed-use
building, the city has begun its recovery from flooding caused by the loss of the Earth's polar ice caps. When sea levels climbed, millions of
gallons of water poured into Manhattan's low-lying neighborhoods. With the city starved for square-footage, architects built directly upon the
flooded public streets. Vanes feather upwards and outwards through the Inundation Zones, creating homes, offices and shopping arcades but also
parks and gardens. Their thinness promotes daylight and affords natural ventilation. Pier-like in form, vanes grant the city a dynamic
relationship both with the riverfront and the luminous evaporation towers nearby. From airships overhead, vanes look as if New York's grid
of streets has taken on a life of its own, making the city, in 2106, more like itself than ever before.
Expert's Corner
Commentary from Daniel Libeskind
New York City
"The City of the Future by the Architecture Research Office is a bold, provocative and even apocalyptic proposal. The shock value of a catastrophe and the positive lesson for New York which might be derived, is almost revelatory. Using the context of vanes, the project magnifies New York City and allows one to ask the mental question about life, and its environmental setting. By weaving an intelligent, if not somewhat sentimental view of the grid, the authors of this scheme traverse from Confucianism to ancient Greece and Rome and onto 22 century New York. The gauntlet has been thrown, History can be recreated in imaginative ways. Manhattan can reconnect unexpectedly with its waters. Life can flourish from adverse conditions. Only the audience can judge whether such boldness is an answer for the future."
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