PRESSURIZED

FITNESS CENTER NEW YORK CITY, NY | 2013

Advanced Studio: Conditioning Urbanism

Columbia University

Collaboration with Wei Huang

Critic: Phu Hoang high resolution: pressurized corridor wind: regional (weather station) / local (anenometer) sound: pressure (decibel meter) / noise levels (recorder)

The project aims to research and investigate the role that “air design” has in forming our cities. “Air design” is the conditioning, or modification, of air engineered to fill the volumes within buildings. From the early technologies invented to modify temperature and humidity, building systems are now capable of modifying the air of pollution, mold, odors, noise, static electricity and even electromagnetic radiation levels. Conditioning this air is regarded as secondary to the occupiable spaces that it serves.

The projectargues that the requirements of “air design” have become so extensive that it can no longer be considered in service to the program. This conditioning of air has led to a parallel and invisible program with extensive impact on the built environment.

second level plan: sound propagation

The project aims to redefine the urban fitness center by harnessing various resolutions of wind and sound, both from within the building and the surrounding urban context. The wind tunneling effect that occurs between buildings serves as a spatial generator for the shrinking and expanding zones of air and sound plenums.

The new fitness center aligns the sequence of air with the architectural specificity required for each fitness activity. In addition, different forms of enclosure provide various levels of sound attenuation, from the ambient sounds of the neighborhood filtered by the exterior performative skin to the ones that propagate within each programatic chamber.