NEWFAR – Manhattan, New York

NEWFAR proposes an unthinkable shift in the value of space, challenging citizens to imagine how the latent potential of the real estate market could be translated into unforeseen social capital. In an inconceivable twist in the history of New York real-estate market, un-used slivers of FAR (floor to area ratio) are aggregated and re-distributed as NEWFAR creating a constellation of shared spaces in the form of fantastical communal typologies for collective urban life. The first nine programs include a forum, apothecary, sound bath, rehabilitation center, sleep room, bathhouse, kitchen, spiritual cave, and floating garden.While each typology is designed for a simple activity such as eating, healing, play or reflecting, their shapes remain ambiguous and reveal the latent potential of the market in the form of a net-cosmopolitan reality. NEWFAR explores architecture’s capacity to connect the individual to the collective through scale-less forms and their organization throughout the city.