Sou Fujimoto Architects has unveiled a proposal for the firm's first project in the New York City. The Collective, as the 10-story residential mixed-use development is known, is set to rise in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. When completed, the project will bring 440 housing units and a collection of co-working, dining, and public plaza spaces to the area.
The three-building complex is faced with brick modules and features square-shaped punched openings as well as a series of all-glass enclosures designed to bring daylight and views into shared and amenity spaces. The Collective will bring a mix of unit types to the site, including 2- and 3-bedroom suites and studio apartments.
The complex is set to be built over the site of the former Slave Theater, a structure that once served as a community gathering and protest space. The Slave Theater that was torn down in 2016 after a protracted ownership dispute, according to Curbed.
In a press release, the architects write: “Our core inspiration is the site itself,” adding, “A social gathering point, a nexus of black culture, and a place of activism and education, The Slave Theater has an incredible legacy. Our project’s architectural design is based on these ideas, offering a space that will be as valuable to the surrounding neighborhood as it will be to The Collective’s community.”
The project is designed for The Collective, a co-living developer outfit that opened a facility in London in 2016 and has forthcoming branches in Chicago, Miami, and New York City.
Listen to episode 132 of Archinect Sessions, “A Conversation with Sou Fujimoto on the 'Futures of the Future'”.
perfect. Beautiful without trying to hard.
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Does the facade feel a little "PoMo"-ie to anyone?
In the Aldo Rossi sense.
perfect. Beautiful without trying to hard.
Paul, very good interview. I, too find Sou's work (and personality) fascinating. Tx, Rich
What a departure from Fujimoto's recent work. I admire the ability to work in different modes rather than pushing the same ideas, especially in sites where they do not belong and will not work. Is there precedent in his earlier designs?
I don't know if he's referencing this, but it recalls public housing throughout NYC:
The Astoria Houses, from Antonio's rent control post.
At any rate, this building will identify itself as public housing, for the better, and does so in the middle of what looks to be a trendy street or may become so. I've read the gentry are moving to Bed-Stuy. This is another step in improving relationships between people, bringing different groups together rather than relegating the less well off to isolated spots, designated poverty zones—the projects.
Yet obviously Fujimoto elevates this bare style with distinction in many design refinements. And as he elevates style, he elevates the lives of those who live within. The stepped openings on the front help make the transition between this building and the shorter two next door. These and the other openings, according to this post, bring light to the communal areas. They also mark the building as different from other housing, low income or high income. This complex is more than stacked housing. It is a collective, a community, with communal parts.
I guess these renderings are all we've got. I'm really curious to see the whole plan, how the narrow front leads to the rest of the complex and courtyard. I'm also not clear who will come here and how affordable the units might be, whether there will be subsidies The Collective says it's committed to affordable housing.
Wow, I like this. I'm skeptical the white will hold up, however.
I misspoke. It won't identify itself as public housing, which it isn't, but as affordable housing of some collective sort. But there is the resemblance and my point still applies: a basic type has been elevated.
There's definitely something wonderfully understated about this project. Although, I feel tension in the reception/lobby space...somewhere between oppressive and intimate. Although, I think I understand why it is the way it is.
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