The document summarizes the architectural design of a new 20-story condominium building in Tribeca called Five Franklin Place. The building features a black metal facade that wraps around the structure in thickening and thinning curves, intended to act as a "burka" and provide resistance to the transparency of glass. While the building turns its inky facade away from Broadway, its glossy casing will attract enigmatic attention. The design cleverly maximizes space on a tight lot and gives each apartment a second floor and rooftop terrace, where the shroud drops to allow classic rooftop views.
The document summarizes the architectural design of a new 20-story condominium building in Tribeca called Five Franklin Place. The building features a black metal facade that wraps around the structure in thickening and thinning curves, intended to act as a "burka" and provide resistance to the transparency of glass. While the building turns its inky facade away from Broadway, its glossy casing will attract enigmatic attention. The design cleverly maximizes space on a tight lot and gives each apartment a second floor and rooftop terrace, where the shroud drops to allow classic rooftop views.
The document summarizes the architectural design of a new 20-story condominium building in Tribeca called Five Franklin Place. The building features a black metal facade that wraps around the structure in thickening and thinning curves, intended to act as a "burka" and provide resistance to the transparency of glass. While the building turns its inky facade away from Broadway, its glossy casing will attract enigmatic attention. The design cleverly maximizes space on a tight lot and gives each apartment a second floor and rooftop terrace, where the shroud drops to allow classic rooftop views.
Fabric plays an u ncredited role in a rchitecture, mostly in the for m of drawn shades that give glass-skinned boxes a second, inner hid e. In this pla n for a Tribeca building, published here for the first t ime, the great Dutch architect Ben Van Berkel bri ngs cloth-or the idea of cloth-out of doors, swaddling a twenty-sto ry condo in black met al sear vcs t hat thicken an d th in as t hey wind their way around. T he facade becomes a b urka, a for m of resistance to the im mod est t ra nsp arency of J!;las.~. Five Fran klin Place, the first New York project for Van Berkel and his firm UNStudio, comes at a moment when th e city has re....erted to its natural suspicion ofa rchi tecture as public spectacle. In t hat clois tered spirit, the building will turn its inky back t o Broad way and face the cobbled alley a h alf-block o....er. Van Berkel is not in the habit ofdesigning buildings to go unno ticed, h owever, and this one's glossy casing will attract enigmatic attention in the same way that a masked figure would. Its mission is to eke m ultimillion-dollar luxe outofa tigh t lot, and to do it with cleverness. cu rves, and fine detail. Ai; it goes up, Fi....e Fra nklin Place breaks free of its stu mpy ne ighbors, and each apartme nt acquires a second floor and a rooftcrracc where even the building machi nery gets to inhabit a chic wh ite pod. There, the shroud drops, giving way to classic rooftop exhibitionismthe kind that binoculars ....'ere mad e for. JUSTIN DAVIDSON
Kenneth Frampton - John Cava - Studies in Tectonic Culture - The Poetics of Construction in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Architecture-MIT Press (2001) PDF