#plug in shell

[theearthlab]

Early diagrammatic sketches / parti diagrams for Phase I: Plug-In Shell and Earthlab.

[theearthlab]

Architecture and Design Magazine for the 21st Century. Organizer of the Annual Skyscraper Architectural Competition.

Another example of a plug-in shell building-- utilizing an exoskeleton into which smaller elements providing living and working space are plugged in. This one includes a spine which houses all the public / civic uses.

Another interesting feature of this project is its structural dependence on the existing highway system. The Tompkins development will also be linked with the existing municipal circulation-- not physically, but programmatically.

[theearthlab]

Futuristic Vertical City Holds Plug-In Hexagonal Housing Units

Malaysian architect, Tay Yee Wei, designs a vertical community structure.... The tower itself serves as a scaffolding-- as the population of urban areas fluctuates, modular units can be "plugged in" to the structure to accommodate an expanding population.

A great precedent for our Option B of Phase I of the Tompkins Ave development. It has always been thought that a building's primary programmatic use (those spaces inhabited directly by the people inside it) should also be the primary thing to be designed, with the back-of-house portion (mechanical, structural, circulation & conveying systems) designed in subordination. This flips it, giving users the power to design their own inhabited space within the constraints of the shell of the structure-- which primarily consists of back-of-house systems.

[theearthlab]