This project creates a building system that is adaptable to the disparate site conditions of New York City to address affordable housing: the one unit-wide 25’x100’ lot type, the pier type, the superblock type, and the tower Type with setbacks and cascading balconies.  

The design of the Table Top Apartments as Affordable Housing in New York emerges from the use of a few simple modular elements which aggregate to create a new mode of living between the inhabitants, their neighbors and the public.  The concept of the module is taken from a table top with four legs where the table top or slab is shaped as either a circle, square or rectangle, and the table legs or columns serve as the building’s structure and space for vertical services. The post-and-slab Table Top units stack and aggregate, creating different combination of unit types to emphasize the project’s assertion that diversity paired with density makes for a healthy and sustainable living environment. A simple storefront glazing system mediates between the interior of the units and the exterior, while private spaces and bathrooms are enclosed in wood cabinets.

The use of three different table top shapes, which are deliberately misaligned when stacked and rotated, create apertures in the slab between units. This vertical courtyard space forms a realm that acts as both a space for public circulation as well as a vertical courtyard, bringing in light and air.  These spatial juxtapositions generate a new way of living in Affordable Housing that is dense, diverse, open, and light.