As part of DFA’s three-part series on the future of the City of New York, the studio founded by British-born architect Laith Sayigh has re-envisioned Pier 40 as a resilient mixed-use complex of housing, recreation and commerce which maintains the existing popular soccer field.
Situated in the very core of the city, the site has been completely inaccessible for the last 45 years. Now four new high-rise towers will change Frankfurt's skyline from the air, while cultivating its liveliness on the ground.
The intervention by dieterdietz.org immerses itself in an evocative context of a 200-year-old Chestnut tree and a very tall Sycamore in the midst of the vineyards of Chigny (Switzerland) that hide a cluster of carefully proportioned houses dating from the 19th century, which are perfectly integrated into the landscape.
The “ribbon” plan offers an open façade in relation with the context of the train tracks, the street and the park. Thus, like the Möbius ribbon, the exterior and interior spaces interlock on all sides of the building, enabling easy and fluid movement and visual continuity from the outside, from the ground floor up to the roof.