LaGuardia Rd and 94th St, Queens, NY
New York is a city defined by a multitude of scales. Can an airport emulate the city in its degree of complexity in hierarchy and scale? An airport inspired by the urban fabric of New York? Part and whole are interdependent, connection of brain cells allow for conscious to merge as the city blocks of New York allow for the image of New York to thrive. This relationship of parts to whole is not singular, it involves functional order, consistent complexity, and an intricate layering of systems all in dialogue with one another, with its subtle differences forming the whole.
As the block, the street, the landmark, the corner store, the person, the light, compose the many pieces of the city of New York, the column, the table, the store, and the skylight follow this dialogue to create a sense of cohesion, control and de-control. Whole and part are able to exist because of their dialogue with hard and soft. Hard as is the city, the built, the manmade, soft as is the person, the green, the light.
Professor Hal Hayes
How do we create a unique sense of place within our increasingly globalized society through a large infrastructural project like an airport?
The backbone of the city of Manhattan, the grid, predominates. The grid has offered a framework for centuries of delirious growth, a skeleton built for uses to evolve and take root. Taking inspiration from the rigor and ration of the Manhattan grid, the grid as a concept is directly manifested into a building. The design concept revolves around the creation of 10 equally sliced division. Four equally located cores support the 10 divisions. As technology related to air travel rapidly advance, the creation of a loose framework for change to actively occur within is needed to guarantee a long life with a loose fit. Within this grid exists a soft disruption, a relief from the grid; the park of the building. The park echoes the relationship between the Manhattan grid and Central Park by acting as a relief space for shared public use.
