"Living Cities" winners propose vertical solutions for future housing in NYC

Along with the world's major cities, New York City is looking up to vertical building as a solution while housing space continues to grow scarce. In NYC alone, demographers predict The Big Apple's population will grow even bigger with a million more residents by 2040.

Metropolis magazine invited architects and engineers to address this issue by proposing new ideas for urban housing in the "Living Cities" competition. Designs required features like creative use of structural steel framing systems, sustainability, and a height of 30-40 stories. Proposed designs also had to account for the lifestyles and needs of residents within New York's five boroughs.

At the end of the competition, two winners and four runners-up were selected.

Check 'em all out below.

Winning proposal: Urban Alloy
By Chad Kellogg, Matthew Bowles, and Nina Mahjoub of AMLGM

Project description: "The most dynamic cities of the 21st century, such a s New York, are anthropomorphic alloys that act as engines for innovation and social cohesion. These cities, with their continually evolving demographics, will forge the dynamic societies of the future. With the rapid rise of near instantaneous communication, a city's livability has gained prominence as an attractor for top minds. In order to secure its future as the leading global center, New York needs to continue to grow in smart ways."

"We see the opportunity to draw the energy of Manhattan out int o the four other boroughs without disrupting existing land use. We propose a residential typology rooted in the remnant spaces surrounding the intersection of transportation infrastructure, such as elevated train lines and freeway interchanges. With the proposed design and specified materials, we aim to optimize a heterogeneous and highly linked set of living environments capturing the air rights above these systems."

Explanation of structural steel and enclosure solution choices:

"Diagrid Structural Steel:
1. Unlike concrete structures that benefit from a very regular floor to floor height because of the need to reuse formwork, steel structures can efficiently be constructed with each unique member cut by an automated system.
2. GPS systems can handle geometric complexity of the overall structure via locating each member during the erection process.
3. Cantilevers - favorable strength to weight ratio allowing large cantilevers and small footprints
4. High recycled content and positive life cycle analysis

"Unitized Curtain Wall System:
1. With the rapid acceleration of automated manufacturing processes, mass customization and automated assembly has begun, and will replace traditional building techniques.
2. Precision
3. Slender structural profile - maximizes views and daylight
4. Ability to efficiently Unitize "

"The combination of escalating land prices and the acceleration of city migration have made urban renewal based modes of densification unfit for the contemporary city. Urban Alloy is the symbiotic repurposing of the air rights above transportation corridors in New York. Urbanist’s have long touted the benefits of greater housing density near public transportation hubs - Urban Alloy proposes the advancement of this idea by locating the system directly on the intersections between surface and elevated train lines. We have chosen the intersection of the LIRR and the 7 train as a test case. The paradigm of one size fits all is obsolete. Urban ci tizens want diverse living situations where they can work, play, eat and rest within a pedestrian zone. As technology creates the market desire and a conditioning for personalization, society is more willing to pay a premium for spaces that are tailored to their particular needs."

"The skin concept reflects a desire to optimize shading and daylighting performance on the surface of a complex volume. The surface of the towers transition from a cylindrical to a triangular extrusion across it's height in rel ation to the blend in floor heights. A composite or alloy of multiple flexible systems is required to optimize a skin in which every point has a unique environmental exposure."

"The system developed for this structure is deployed on a grid that follows the geometric directionality of the surface. At each intersection of the grid the normal of the surface is analyzed against its optimal solar shading and daylight transmitting requirements. An authored algorithm then generates vertical and horizontal fin profile that blends with profiles at adjacent intersections. The result is an optimized system of decorative metal fins that are unique but fabricated with the same logic and process."

Winning proposal: Vivo on High Line
By Andrew Duffin and NBRS+Partners

"VIVO engages the sense of the Big Apple: the reward, the life and the sustaining energy. The intent is to draw life from the High Line and connect that vitality from the horizontal to the vertical. When the West Side Line was opened in 1934 it was designed to pass through city blocks, through the elevated base of buildings. We have reclaimed that intent. VIVO grows from evocative screens engulfing the old West Side Line now reinvented as the linear public park known as the H igh Line. The podium screen engulfs the High Line folding it in and extending the lifeblood into the building base and like capillary action drawing it vertically. The structu regrows upward as if drawing nutrients from the High Line. Like an apple draws life from a branch. VIVO maximises steel structure and facade design to permit an environmental and planning responsiveness. VIVO permits reinvention."

"The steel solution permits agility. Efficient steel design reduces building weight, foundation design, and allows responsiveness. Agility allows for flexible internal space planning and changes of internal use, future proofing the base building against the pressures of demography, market and demand. It's a hybrid structural system where the triangulated diagrid system acts as an exoskeleton providing lateral stability and vertical support. This frees the internal space from needing internal intermediate structure allowing ultimate flexibility for remodeling or use changes over its life span. VIVO is alive and responds to the daily and seasonal energy of NYC."

"VIVO creates the spirit of place for a more livable city; resilient with affordability; flexible and balanced; and environmentally responsive. A place of layered contextualism, vitality and interaction. A place of demographic mix attracting individuals, couples and families; permitting invention and reinvention; a place that is inclusive and participatory. The steel design permits flexible apartment designs, responsive to the changing needs of the NYC family. A place for mobile workers. A place for key workers. A place located at the heart of activity and accessibility. A place where families can live and enjoy the efficiencies and amenities of a global cultural focus. VIVO is an activity based solution permitting vertical flexibility of use."

"VIVO is offsite componentry construction, transport ed to site and lifted into place efficiently. The panelised skin is an environmentally responsive composition of glass and metal screen. The multifaceted facade permits unique tuning for each aspect. It excludes the harsh man-made and natural conditions and opens to capture breath and light where nature is kind. The profile, the external facade length, the shallow plan, the adaptable breathable curtain wall, the unique aspect designs all create an environmentally responsive solution."

"VIVO reflects true urbanisation and a reinvented connectedness to a livable city. The steel design permits it to morph as demography and culture change. VIVO completes the reinvention, the recycling of the West Side Line just where the new High Line Spur is planned. VIVO is a conversation with the High Line drawing reference and energy from the original life blood of Manhattan. The illustrations capture the central idea of connecting with and feeding from the lifeline of NYC, they describe the layers of detail through planning flexibility and responsiveness, structural componentry and flexible permissibility, and aspect facade environmental reactiveness. VIVO grows and draws life from Manhattan and gives back vital connectedness and layers of responsiveness."

All images courtesy of Metropolis magazine.

For more details on the winning and runner-up projects, click here and here.

Click the thumbnails below to see the runner-up entries.