New York architecture and design practice Axis Mundi have designed a conceptual alternative to French architect Jean Nouvel’s design for a 73-storey tower next to the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Axis Mundi’s design is an attempt to rethink the New York skyscraper for the post-boom era, expressing the diversity of uses within instead of “one-note architecture that makes a singular visual image and little else.” The surface of the facade would be broken up by the varying depths of these residences, allowing for balconies and gardens. An arcade through the ground floor would connect West 53rd and West 54th Streets. New galleries for the MoMA would occupy three floors above this, with a three-storey volume above the galleries set aside for community activities.
The architectural diversity Beckmann envisions starts with a double-ring, multi-level floor-plan unit, anchored by two cores that run the full height of the building, containing elevators, stairs and other vertical services. The ring units called “SmartBlocks” make possible a wide variety of floor plans. Single-unit layouts can mix with duplex, or triplex layouts. The units can shift in and out, adding rich texture to the surface, creating vertical garden space, and linking the units in unique ways. The malleability of the ring units accommodates living and working, extended families, and new forms of tenancy and ownership. Any grouping of these could be purposed for a hotel. The building is enriched by the multiplicity of forms and textures people create within their vertical neighbourhoods.
