Interesting concept by Diller Scofidio. It reminds me of the popular “pod” concepts of the mid to late 90’s that so many of us tried to understand in studio and beyond. You know the ones where there was a neat envelope taking on smooth forms and surfaces, but then inside was a Swiss cheese-like arrangement of programmatic chaos and glory. I use to love that idea, and will probably use it again.
In any case, I can’t help but say that this looks very much like a 1st or 2nd year studio concept not because it looks bad or quirky, but because of all the frame-less glass holding up concrete on the exterior. Uh oh…It looks like the higher ups let another underpaid intern run loose with coffee in one hand and a blistering fast water cooled desk-top system in the other. Yes I know the intent is probably to cantilever everything from some deeply inset structural core members, but come on…. Are they really proposing that 80% of this budget will be in structure alone? Something tells me there is a pretty big round of “value engineering” in order here. Nevertheless hats off to D +S, keeping architecture elevated in our minds.
