US Building of the Week
Testbeds Pilot Structure at The Garden by the Bay
Testbeds, a design research project by New Affiliates and Samuel Stewart-Halevy, is one of twelve projects in MoMA's New York, New Publics exhibition that opened last month. A pilot project, realized last year, was made with a mockup from 30 Warren Street, a residential project developed by Cape Advisors, who donated four custom precast panels and a large window. The architects answered a few questions about the structure located in a community garden at The Garden by the Bay.
Location: Far Rockaway, New York, USA
Clients: NYC Parks GreenThumb, The Garden by the Bay
Architect: New Affiliates
- Project Team: Ivi Diamantopoulou, Jaffer Kolb, Samuel Stewart-Halevy
Contractor: Think Construction
Site Area: 8,000 sf
Building Area: 760 sf
Testbeds is a self-initiated project undertaken by New Affiliates with Samuel Stewart-Halevy in partnership with NYC Parks GreenThumb. Through the Parks Department, Testbeds worked with the Garden by the Bay to realize the structure.
Testbeds is an ongoing initiative to repurpose architectural mockups from large-scale development projects as structures for community gardens. This project is the first realized result of the initiative.
The structure is designed around a mockup from a condominium in Tribeca, consisting of a facade system made of four concrete panels and a large window frame. The mockup anchors a small community room facing onto the garden. Designed in consultation with the site’s gardeners, the structure features a large shade canopy, the community room, a greenhouse and a small storage area.
The project acts as a gateway linking the current garden to a planned future site at the adjacent lot. It provides much-needed shade to the beachside garden, which has no large surrounding trees and other features for comfort.
The initiative is centered on the reuse of wasteful byproducts that arise within processes of design and construction. Mockups are expensive and well-crafted, but are typically thrown away after the conclusion of architectural testing; here they serve as the basis of new, useful structures. The project also seeks to balance high-end materials (the mockup itself), with easy-to-source and readily available construction materials that the gardeners can purchase, transform, and fix over time.
Email interview conducted by John Hill.
