Re:Construct - Art Center & Artist Residence

Staten Island in NYC in recent years has been a hotspot for artists for working, living, or gathering because of its affordability, especially around the north shore area. However, a recent series of private developments is taking place around the north shore area, aiming to transform the “forgotten” borough of NYC into an internationally renowned tourist attraction. This has made some detrimental impacts on the north shore because there is less and less space available and the rent prices have always been surging. Coincidentally some other areas of Staten Island have been a territory of abandonment, with many disused large-scale infrastructures dotted across the island - abandoned railway tracks, vacant & derelict buildings, the ship "graveyard", etc . The project aims to reutilize these forgotten infrastructural pieces and reassemble them in a new architectural form, enabling them to fulfill their original promises of providing community facilities. The project is seen as a rebirth of existing elements instead of a construction of new materials. While serving the community needs, can the building also deliver a new message through art?
The building consists of four "layers" of programs vertically - a public park on the ground plane, an art gallery & exhibition space on the second floor, co-working spaces on the third and artist living units at the top with a roof terrace embracing panoramic views towards Manhattan, accessible to all public. The building is elevated from the ground plane through three circulation cores and the super-truss structure reused from the abandoned gas tanks, returning the urban space to the public and activating the neighborhood through a series of communal activity spaces. The building acts as a manifestation, through the metaphor of art, that architecture is not a one-time consumption, but a new beginning of recycling. Only when demolition is not the end but a symbol of rebirth, can we eventually move into a new chapter of sustainable future.