addressing the occasion of water storage

The iconic rooftop water towers of New York City stand in timeless testament to the effectiveness of coherent and practical design. In a bid for some of the most expensive real estate in the city, urban farmers are confronted with these monoliths as beasts of simultaneous burden and beauty. In this project, five 2,000-gallon water tanks are perched within a dense scaffold of sleek, thin steel members as a space of both utility and metropolitan escape. The entry sequence compresses occupants against the tanks, which have been heated by the morning sun. Precast concrete channels beneath the tanks release water to the farm at intervals, producing a unique audiovisual experience which also serves to passively heat or cool the space, depending on the season. The entire construction is shrouded in translucent textile and white ceramic panels, which as with the rest of the structure, may be rearranged and transformed through the lifecycle of the farm.

299 Sands St Building 275, Brooklyn, NY 11201