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The investigation of this project started with understanding a certain condition for domestic housing in New York City. NYC is inherently small because of the need to satisfy high density of people. As a result, housing has been designed for efficiency and constructed within tight spaces, either for limited area or for optimal revenue. These small spaces create a certain psychological condition for the inhabitants of feeling limited or bounded. In order to change this psychological condition, the space needs to be disrupted and introduced with a new agenda.

My intentions are to take the typical row housing staircase condition and transform it into an open, sculptural stairwell that becomes the focal point, bringing light and interest into the space. I have created an internal stairway that will invite the dweller all the way up to the roof, where a sense of openness and spatial quality can alter their state of closeness.

This internal stairway splits the house into two halves and disrupts the common Cartesian character in the neighboring buildings. The enclosure pinches away from the stairwell, appearing organic and amoeba-like, thus forming the interior spaces. Furniture is pushed out to the solid exterior walls to create a relationship and contrast between the thick and thin, dense and light condition with glass enclosure on the other side. The visual perception of the glazing will affect the closeness of objects.