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Gateway to Chinatown: Oculus on Canal [Finalist]
Gateway to Chinatown: Oculus on Canal [Finalist]
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Other Projects by e+i studio
Gateway to Chinatown: Oculus on Canal [Finalist]
Firm
STATUS
Concept
SIZE
3000 sqft - 5000 sqft
BUDGET
$500K - 1M
Chinatown Gateway pavilion by e+i studio
Design concept: gateway, portal, oculus
Our Gateway to Chinatown pavilion is conceived as both a portal and passageway between the communities of Chinatown and Little Italy as well as the active tourist population, creating an intertwining gesture aimed at engaging neighbors and casual users in a cultural exchange.
The pavilion creates a new multipurpose public space for individual and collective use as well as larger community gatherings for the multiple celebrations that take place in Chinatown. It speaks of movement, passage and change, while also providing a space for static enjoyment with the piazza-like steps that afford possibilities of seating and interaction with new technology, as well as places for the community to gather and come together.
The form is an impactful gesture, seemingly complex yet emergent from a simple straight-line system: a ruled surface. The twisting gesture of the two mirrored planes creates the oculus, an opening, that frames the view as well as generating a form that entices exploration, inviting users to move in and around it. It is a form that must be experienced by sitting on the steps, walking through it and engaging with it.
The project harnesses the unique site conditions into a dramatic form highly attuned to the prow-like location: when viewed from the prow of the site the project seems to collapse into a single vertical line; when viewed from Canal Street the contemporary form evokes the traditional shapes of Chinese pagoda roof and hutong hut, while maintaining a highly contemporary cutting edge formal gesture.
The pavilion acts as a gathering location, seating space, and performance backdrop. For us, the gateway is about connecting, and creating an oculus into the future that still recognizes the heritage of the site by paying homage to traditional motifs and symbology but allowing something entirely new and contemporary to emerge.
SOCIAL INTERACTION AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Technology
Technology is enabled as a further means of engaging residents and visitors. The pavilion will provide wifi connectivity, interactive screens that can provide calendar events, and selfie image captures that can be transmitted to friends or rebroadcast to the other gateway sites both in the immediate vicinity as well as globally. The use of projection techniques serves to further distribute the awareness and engagement. The plaza-like seating steps have integrated charging station and head-phone jack to plug one’s headphones to connect to oral histories about the site and neighbourhood
Community Planting
The Canal Street side of the pavilion has a portion of the steps that are given over to the community for planting. These integrated Planting Modules encourage the community to come together during community planting initiatives, and seasonally adopt a plant to visit and water regularly. The planters are flushed into the stepped frames, creating a “live” planted tapestry seamlessly integrated with the architecture.
Public Arts Program
The pavilion provides unique spaces on either side to run a public arts program, calling on artists to propose site-specific work for these locations. There would be a temporary residency, providing an ever-changing artwork landscape, that allow for surprising and engaging exposure of rotating artworks by local and international artists.
“Tell your story”
“Tell your story” is an integrated network that is connected to other gateway sites and even abroad. One can stand and record a verbal story or take a picture, in the designated screens. The shared media will be played in the different site Gateway sites.
Pop-up Event Stage
Rotating out from the raked seating, the pop-up events Stage opens onto the southeast side of the site, providing a perfect venue for public performances and festivities. When not in use it is rotated into position disappearing behind the plaza steps. During street festivals and events, the pavilion’s stage rotates out converting the Gateway into a performance venue, opening onto the Baxter and Walker street corner.
WAYFINDING AND ORIENTATION
The pavilion itself acts as a wayfinding system: the prow points East along Canal Street toward the Manhattan bridge, and neighborhood indicators are cast into the paved sidewalk to orient and direct the visitor. The information kiosk, visibly located on the western side of the site for easy accessibility, provides further in-person recommendation and directions. In addition, interactive screens located on the sides of the kiosk can provide additional wayfinding functionality, such as custom shop itineraries, restaurant recommendations, sightseeing visits, local programming and more. The pavilion can also act as an obvious meeting point for tourist and residents alike. The open plaza steps allow friends to sit and await each other, while the integrated technology keeps the user connected and engaged.
ENVIRONMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS
Environmental comfort
The pavilion structure acts as a buffer between the heavy traffic of Canal street and the neighborhood and small shops along walker and Baxter, mitigating sound.
Greenspace and nature
The project calls for the relocation of the Ginko Trees, and preferably they could be replanted in a line, following the line of sight of the project’s prow, and could go on the side walk of walker as there seems to be enough space.
Natural elements are introduced into the project by providing space for plants in the areas where the steps are too narrow for seating. In addition to discouraging people from going too high up, it also provides added green tapestry to the project, livening it up as it changes coloration and flowers through the seasons. These planter modules along the Canal street elevation together with the collective planting initiative will provide opportunities to integrate more nature into the pavilion.
Lighting and Solar energy
We propose for the pavilion to be entirely self-sustaining energetically and have all the lighting and electricity needs powered by solar cells on the pavilion roof. From the solar analysis we have done we found that the roof of the proposed pavilion is exposed to the sun for the majority of the day, making it optimal to integrate Solar Tiles in order to have a self-sustaining lighting system, that charges during the day and is used to power artificial lighting at night. There are precedents to this system and its application to our site would be further studied with the lighting engineer and in consultation with the
community. The edges of the pavilion are dramatically illuminated with lines of light, that contour the eyelet form. While ground level lighting is provided by low level floor wash, improving pedestrian safety.
CULTURAL IDENTITY
Our gateway pavilion fuses a contemporary form with nuanced references to traditional Chinese architecture. The tiled roof, wood cladding, and sinuous curves are evocative of eastern motifs while the elegant ruled-surface form explores contemporary geometry. The project aims to express a culture which is forward looking contemporary and cutting edge while still recognizing the vitality and importance of Chinese traditional architectural elements, colors and heritage.
The project emerges from the fusion of seemingly different aspects; the traditional and the new, as well as from different traditions and cultural liasons, that we hope will speak equally to everyone.
PAVILION PERCEPTION AND REACH
The pavilion is experienced by the different users; pedestrians and vehicles as well as having reach far beyond the triangle’s footprint. Vehicles and wheeled transportation along Canal street receive an amazing ever-changing view of the pavilion as they drive along canal street. The pavilion presents a striking iconic profile featuring a flatiron-like knife-edge profile when viewed by cars coming off of the Manhattan bridge and descending along Canal street.
MATERIALITY
Main structure: Timber (glulam and marine grade ply)
Timber has an aesthetic quality that speaks to the heritage of Chinatown, and the craftsmanship that is inherent in the use of timber and timber joinery. The structure could be timber or steel, but we would like to recognize the heritage of traditional wood construction and of wood joinery by using timber as the main structural material. Glulam beams (Glued laminated timber) are engineered wood that allow us to have the aesthetic of wood and benefit from higher and more reliable performance of the material. While timber expands and contracts at a faster rate than steel, glulam has much lower embodied energy than reinforced concrete and steel. For the sheathing, the steps, and the kiosk we
also propose using timber, specifically marine-grade ply. The underside of the steps can be metal panels painted red.
Roofing Materials: ceramic and Solar tiles
We propose using red ceramic tiles for the roof; inspired by the scales of Chinese dragon these custom tiles can be developed further into Solar tiles. The Solar Tile system is an assembly of photovoltaic cells fully integrated with the ceramic tile used for the roof covering. These tiles convert sunlight into electric power, by means of the photovoltaic effect, creating a roofing system is the perfect match between passive and active elements.
Design concept: gateway, portal, oculus
Our Gateway to Chinatown pavilion is conceived as both a portal and passageway between the communities of Chinatown and Little Italy as well as the active tourist population, creating an intertwining gesture aimed at engaging neighbors and casual users in a cultural exchange.
The pavilion creates a new multipurpose public space for individual and collective use as well as larger community gatherings for the multiple celebrations that take place in Chinatown. It speaks of movement, passage and change, while also providing a space for static enjoyment with the piazza-like steps that afford possibilities of seating and interaction with new technology, as well as places for the community to gather and come together.
The form is an impactful gesture, seemingly complex yet emergent from a simple straight-line system: a ruled surface. The twisting gesture of the two mirrored planes creates the oculus, an opening, that frames the view as well as generating a form that entices exploration, inviting users to move in and around it. It is a form that must be experienced by sitting on the steps, walking through it and engaging with it.
The project harnesses the unique site conditions into a dramatic form highly attuned to the prow-like location: when viewed from the prow of the site the project seems to collapse into a single vertical line; when viewed from Canal Street the contemporary form evokes the traditional shapes of Chinese pagoda roof and hutong hut, while maintaining a highly contemporary cutting edge formal gesture.
The pavilion acts as a gathering location, seating space, and performance backdrop. For us, the gateway is about connecting, and creating an oculus into the future that still recognizes the heritage of the site by paying homage to traditional motifs and symbology but allowing something entirely new and contemporary to emerge.
SOCIAL INTERACTION AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Technology
Technology is enabled as a further means of engaging residents and visitors. The pavilion will provide wifi connectivity, interactive screens that can provide calendar events, and selfie image captures that can be transmitted to friends or rebroadcast to the other gateway sites both in the immediate vicinity as well as globally. The use of projection techniques serves to further distribute the awareness and engagement. The plaza-like seating steps have integrated charging station and head-phone jack to plug one’s headphones to connect to oral histories about the site and neighbourhood
Community Planting
The Canal Street side of the pavilion has a portion of the steps that are given over to the community for planting. These integrated Planting Modules encourage the community to come together during community planting initiatives, and seasonally adopt a plant to visit and water regularly. The planters are flushed into the stepped frames, creating a “live” planted tapestry seamlessly integrated with the architecture.
Public Arts Program
The pavilion provides unique spaces on either side to run a public arts program, calling on artists to propose site-specific work for these locations. There would be a temporary residency, providing an ever-changing artwork landscape, that allow for surprising and engaging exposure of rotating artworks by local and international artists.
“Tell your story”
“Tell your story” is an integrated network that is connected to other gateway sites and even abroad. One can stand and record a verbal story or take a picture, in the designated screens. The shared media will be played in the different site Gateway sites.
Pop-up Event Stage
Rotating out from the raked seating, the pop-up events Stage opens onto the southeast side of the site, providing a perfect venue for public performances and festivities. When not in use it is rotated into position disappearing behind the plaza steps. During street festivals and events, the pavilion’s stage rotates out converting the Gateway into a performance venue, opening onto the Baxter and Walker street corner.
WAYFINDING AND ORIENTATION
The pavilion itself acts as a wayfinding system: the prow points East along Canal Street toward the Manhattan bridge, and neighborhood indicators are cast into the paved sidewalk to orient and direct the visitor. The information kiosk, visibly located on the western side of the site for easy accessibility, provides further in-person recommendation and directions. In addition, interactive screens located on the sides of the kiosk can provide additional wayfinding functionality, such as custom shop itineraries, restaurant recommendations, sightseeing visits, local programming and more. The pavilion can also act as an obvious meeting point for tourist and residents alike. The open plaza steps allow friends to sit and await each other, while the integrated technology keeps the user connected and engaged.
ENVIRONMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS
Environmental comfort
The pavilion structure acts as a buffer between the heavy traffic of Canal street and the neighborhood and small shops along walker and Baxter, mitigating sound.
Greenspace and nature
The project calls for the relocation of the Ginko Trees, and preferably they could be replanted in a line, following the line of sight of the project’s prow, and could go on the side walk of walker as there seems to be enough space.
Natural elements are introduced into the project by providing space for plants in the areas where the steps are too narrow for seating. In addition to discouraging people from going too high up, it also provides added green tapestry to the project, livening it up as it changes coloration and flowers through the seasons. These planter modules along the Canal street elevation together with the collective planting initiative will provide opportunities to integrate more nature into the pavilion.
Lighting and Solar energy
We propose for the pavilion to be entirely self-sustaining energetically and have all the lighting and electricity needs powered by solar cells on the pavilion roof. From the solar analysis we have done we found that the roof of the proposed pavilion is exposed to the sun for the majority of the day, making it optimal to integrate Solar Tiles in order to have a self-sustaining lighting system, that charges during the day and is used to power artificial lighting at night. There are precedents to this system and its application to our site would be further studied with the lighting engineer and in consultation with the
community. The edges of the pavilion are dramatically illuminated with lines of light, that contour the eyelet form. While ground level lighting is provided by low level floor wash, improving pedestrian safety.
CULTURAL IDENTITY
Our gateway pavilion fuses a contemporary form with nuanced references to traditional Chinese architecture. The tiled roof, wood cladding, and sinuous curves are evocative of eastern motifs while the elegant ruled-surface form explores contemporary geometry. The project aims to express a culture which is forward looking contemporary and cutting edge while still recognizing the vitality and importance of Chinese traditional architectural elements, colors and heritage.
The project emerges from the fusion of seemingly different aspects; the traditional and the new, as well as from different traditions and cultural liasons, that we hope will speak equally to everyone.
PAVILION PERCEPTION AND REACH
The pavilion is experienced by the different users; pedestrians and vehicles as well as having reach far beyond the triangle’s footprint. Vehicles and wheeled transportation along Canal street receive an amazing ever-changing view of the pavilion as they drive along canal street. The pavilion presents a striking iconic profile featuring a flatiron-like knife-edge profile when viewed by cars coming off of the Manhattan bridge and descending along Canal street.
MATERIALITY
Main structure: Timber (glulam and marine grade ply)
Timber has an aesthetic quality that speaks to the heritage of Chinatown, and the craftsmanship that is inherent in the use of timber and timber joinery. The structure could be timber or steel, but we would like to recognize the heritage of traditional wood construction and of wood joinery by using timber as the main structural material. Glulam beams (Glued laminated timber) are engineered wood that allow us to have the aesthetic of wood and benefit from higher and more reliable performance of the material. While timber expands and contracts at a faster rate than steel, glulam has much lower embodied energy than reinforced concrete and steel. For the sheathing, the steps, and the kiosk we
also propose using timber, specifically marine-grade ply. The underside of the steps can be metal panels painted red.
Roofing Materials: ceramic and Solar tiles
We propose using red ceramic tiles for the roof; inspired by the scales of Chinese dragon these custom tiles can be developed further into Solar tiles. The Solar Tile system is an assembly of photovoltaic cells fully integrated with the ceramic tile used for the roof covering. These tiles convert sunlight into electric power, by means of the photovoltaic effect, creating a roofing system is the perfect match between passive and active elements.
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