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Vallée Verticale
residential highrise
project with paola bokobsa
professor erich schoenenberger
pratt institute
fall 2020
Vallée Verticale investigates the blurred lines between the living and the public spheres. The structure accomplishes this by creating layers of seclusion and togetherness, allowing transitional spaces between residential and public activities
The building breaks away from the typical high-rise residential typology, by stripping away the normative hierarchy. The offsetting of amenities and public spaces throughout the tower and ties them with localized and delocalized circulation. This vertical motion transforms into a kinetic, varied experience, much like that of New York City.
The interior of the edifice starts with the atrium, which allows for what feels like a lobby on every floor and a new opportunity to get away from the private space and into a new experience. The strands of the tower not only serve as circulation, but also function as the primary structure. The floor plates are all in tension with these clusters of tubes, found throughout the exterior and interior of the highrise. This tension morphs the atrium, creating a dynamic floorplate and generates various qualities of light, shadows, and views.
The organizational layout of the apartments exists in tandem in its relationship with local circulation paths found on each floor and lie among program space. Three typologies emerged from this: Studios, Duplexes, and Triplexes. They all find a unique spot and interrelate with each other’s spatial interiorities. The latters aggregate on both extremities of the building, to allow for the main tubes and program areas to exist at the heart of the structure.
By blurring the lines between the private and public, and between the old and the new, our project symbolizes a timeliness approach to live collectively. Through a dynamic structure, site-specific materials, and environmental research, Vallée Verticale stands as a kinetic machine during a time of rapid change.
