FREEDOM TOWERS

 

Modernity has promised us a world of simple order and minimalist styles. The strip windows, open concept, and towers in the park had become the craft of choice in building many of the great American cities. These transformations have engendered a generation of horizontal spaces. Case in point, our most common means of vertical translation are reduced to the moving cages we call elevators. Ramps have become a stigma of inefficiency and stairs are relegated to service exit routes.

​

While all built geometries are naturally three-dimensional by existence, they may not be designed for three-dimensional experiences; this means, not all of its dimensions are affable. In particular, the high-rise typology embodies this predicament. While its inhabitant capacity has revolutionalized urban expansions, it has also imprisoned its very patrons within expensive, and often secluded glass prisons. Inhabitants are removed from the intimacy of the street and the socio-cultural qualities of the city. A third-dimensional design must therefore re-integrate these airborne residents back with the urban fabric. One approach is to create a connected web of stratified spaces beginning with ground level commerce, second level patio, third level retail... fifteenth level amenity sky-lobbies.

​

The World Trade Centers were once the urban obelisks of Manhattan. While WTC inhabitants enjoyed its open columnless interiors, city wanderers are orientating around an experientially unaffable landmark that may otherwise be made out of stone - like its predecessor. Furthermore, if the World Trade Center has other means of vertical transport or urban integration, it may have provided alternative means of egress during the ultimate tragedy. Considering designs for all six sides of a cube is practicing architecture in the third dimension.