Sydney architectural practice, NBRS+PARTNERS has created adesign solution for the challenges of shifting demographic pressures with a response to balancing work and life in a highly urbanisedenvironment. Impressively, this design solution is achieved in a40-storey tower in the heart of Manhattan, New York.
Metropolis Magazine have announced that NBRS are joint winners inthe 2014 Living Cities Design Competition: an international competitionto design a visionary 21st century residential tower in New York City,in response to current demographic and social challenges.
Under the design leadership of principal Andrew Duffin, the NBRSteam created VIVO on High Line. VIVO is an innovative, dynamic,steel framed tower which can flex with the physical demands ofchanging family size and integrate the shifting balance of work andsocial connectivity. The winning design solution is the end result ofresearch into the global urban landscape, where technology is movingat break neck pace and people are responding with a desire for acontinuum of adaptation. The structural design that enabled thisflexibility was conceived together with ARUP Sydney.
In 2011, more people globally lived in a city than anywhere else, forthe first time in history. Along with the pressures of population growth,urban planners are needing to create environments which can releasethe pressure valve. NBRS understand that in the contemporary urbanenvironment, the only commodity more valuable than space is time.Our proposed solution includes a platform of city nodes that are safer,cleaner, greener, pedestrian and cycle friendly with all daily needscentred around 20 minute nodes.
The design winning Vivo on High Line is a true expression of thatimproved urbanism situated within the ultimate densely populated,high energy city: Manhattan, New York.The international jury; Kai-Uwe Bergmann of BIG, Eileen Hatfield, principalof Buro Happold, Sylvia Smith Senior Partner of FXFOWLE, and GaryHigbee Director of Industry Development Steel and Ornamental MetalsInstitutes of New York, chose two designs as joint winners.
The NBRS scheme, VIVO on High Line purposefully connects with therevitalised High Line elevated park and draws that vitality vertically toreach the New York skyline some 40 storeys above.The NBRS design focused on creating a seamless connection with theHigh Line which runs through Midtown West. The concept alludes toits early working years as the ‘life blood’ freight rail system distributingproduce throughtout Manhattan Island. The base of the tower reinventsthat history by engulfing the new greened life supply of the High Line.
VIVO creates the spirit of place for a more liveable city; resilient withaffordability; flexible and balanced; environmentally responsive.VIVO is a place of layered contextualism, vitality and interaction.It is demographically mixed, attracting individuals, couples andfamilies; permitting invention and reinvention; a place that is inclusiveand participatory. The steel design permits flexible apartment designs,responsive to the changing needs of the NYC family. A place formobile workers. A place for key workers. A place located at the heartof activity and accessibility. A place where families can live and enjoythe efficiencies and amenities of a global cultural focus. VIVO is anactivity based solution permitting vertical flexibility of use.
