Starting from the New York’s goal to reach 300,000 affordable units by 2026, this thesis aims to investigate the process that makes the city un-affordable, through a design experience based on a multi-layered reading of the urban and social fabric of the city. Tales, Multimensionality and Affordability are the three guiding concepts of this work.

The narrative of the city through popular culture has been the tool used to recognize two extremes of New York: ‘Capital City’ and ‘Segregation City’, along with their corresponding architectural translations. It is thus possible to identify a city caught between the two extremes and investigate how they are affecting the daily lives of its residents. A critical reading of current urban policies highlights how these strategies, aimed at increasing the number of affordable housing units, in some cases incentivize and instrumentalize the phenomenon of gentrification, and in most cases are not enough to solve the city’s housing crisis. Therefore, a strategy of micro-densification is proposed, supported by a possible new urban policy, which aims to reverse the lack of space within the city through a new buildable layer.

Via different degree mappings, both physical and demographic, the project seeks a possible area to implement a pilot intervention, demonstrative of a new way to build and inhabit the metropolis. The classification of the urban morphologies of the chosen area leads to a scientific reading of its basic urban blocks, the Brownstones.

The designed units offer flexible domestic spaces, creating a new urban landscape integrated with the context. Structured as elements that allow to create new points of contact between communities, their thresholds provide a smooth transition between public and domestic space. Everything works synchronously to create a new shared and inclusive habitat, while maintaining the principles of affordability and sustainability, both social and environmental.
The project is thus used as a tool for critical reading, to address central issues of today’s metropolis. It proposes a prototype, as a result of a transcalar, social and architectural research of the city. Given the new urban policy, the project could be hosted, with different morphological characters, in multiple areas of New York. Could then, the radically expanded micro-densification process throughout Manhattan be sufficient to solve the affordable housing crisis and simultaneously counteract the gentrification phenomenon?

The project was developed at the Politecnico of Torino.

KOOZ What prompted the project?

CM | MS New York has always been a city of extremes. But in recent years the extreme polarization of the United States and of its social classes is cancelling the city that we have come to know in movies, books, songs and trips. On one side we have what we called “Capital City”, a city that is ruled by the hegemony of the Real Estate, whose ultimate scope is the Highest and Best use of its land. Following this idea the city becomes a mere asset to be invested in.

On the opposite side we have a city that we called “Segregation City”, the city where minorities have been relegated to, that offers fewer and fewer opportunities of emancipation.

Our project aims to identify and house who is left standing in between these two extremes, in the hopes that acting on the middle ground might have a positive effect on both extremes.

KOOZ What issues does the project identify with the contemporary city? How can these be approached and redefined as opportunities?

CM | MS One of the core issues that we identified was the ever decreasing Affordability of homes in New York City. In fact the entirety of our thesis work started from the plan “Housing New York 2.0”, which sought to bring to New York 180’00 new affordable units by 2026. Along with the affordability crisis we identified Gentrification as a second issue, that is strictly connected to the un-affordability process, and is sometimes used as a tool by the real estate for its developments.

These issues have then become the heart of the project, and trying to avoid triggering them is what made us look the city with a different pair of eyes.
We searched for under used spaces within the city, that could host the new affordable units, believing that new construction trough demolition is the main motor of displacement. This concept made us focus on the flat roofs as a new buildable layer that through a micro densification process, could house not only homes but also small functions needed by the communities, creating what we called a Co-Habitat.

KOOZ What questions does the project raise and which does it address?

CM | MS The project plays with the grayish lines that divide public and private. We wanted to establish a new way of inhabiting the city, as we felt that traditional development wouldn’t be able to solve its current problems. We strongly believe that the city planning department should have a central role in regulating the city development, if real estate is to keep its hegemony we fear that New York might turn into the next Dubai, a city of extreme lux but that has no soul to it. During our research we came up with a new possible urban policy we called Rooftop zoning, which will grant the city a new buildable layer, creating new allowances for the existing communities. We indicated a set of generic rules that would help avoid the over construction of the rooftops thus avoiding its speculation.

KOOZ How and to what extent has the current pandemic informed the way we inhabit the city?

CM | MS The pandemic has definitely had a huge impact in the way we inhabit the cities. In Italy we went trough an extremely rigid lockdown last March which meant that people went from working in offices to working at home over a weekend. Although many would argue that internet connection is all that was needed, we believe that many families experienced great problem in relocating their work at home, due to a lack of dedicated spaces.

If we look at countries like the United States, where cities are mainly organized by zoning laws, the office areas were essentially no mans land. We believe that this prompted a larger debate that sought to decentralise functions and work towards the “15 minute city”, which is closer to the European city model, whilst even before the rigid lockdowns were lifted, there has been a newly found love for open air spaces. People who had the opportunity were leaving cities for their second homes amidst nature.
This most definitely underlines a problem that is being discussed increasingly amongst the academic researchers.

KOOZ How do you imagine cities developing in the coming 50 years?

CM | MS Certainly in the coming 50 years the ways of living, working and experiencing the city will change according to needs and events. It is not easy to imagine the changes between now and half a century in the future, considering that a pandemic in a few months can overwhelm and upset lives, habits, minds, economies and the whole world that relates them. However, we imagine that the will of urban, architectural and city intelligences etc. may have the key role of offering new tools at an interdisciplinary level, to be able to deal with the new needs of the city so as to allow New York to adapt to the new way of living the world, and once again to be its cradle and capital of the Western world. The NYAC proposal is an idea and a design proposal that has its roots in this thought. Reviewing the city from a different point of view, looking for fertile soil in an area that seems saturated.
We imagine that a new use of unused spaces such as the bituminous surfaces of flat roofs, is able to create a new urban landscape for the city of New York and could be scenario capable of pulling the existing metropolis towards 2070 offering new social realities.

KOOZ What is for you the power of the architectural imaginary?

CM | MS We believe that the architectural imaginary plays a central role not just in architecture but in the everyday life of everyone, and this is its greatest power. It can be understood and enhanced by the collective mind, since it affects all the built spaces around us. Ultimately architecture is certainly a game of references, the more you know, the easiest it becomes to design.

Bio

Carlo Musso and Michele Simonetti are two architecture master graduates at Politecnico di Torino. Their master thesis has been deemed worthy of mention by the graduate committee.
They are currently working with collaborative office PlaC – Plateau Collaboratif, and together have completed both private works, national as well as international competitions.