Housing Works Bookstore & Cafe. New York, NY.

Phase 1

This class project was to design the Housing Works Bookstore and Cafe using sustainable material. My given material was Enviro Board, a construction panel made from compressed rice stalks. Conceptually, I started by considering the many aspects of rice and proceeded to create a color palette and moti

Rice

Sacramento delta rice farm

Growth of rice

Color Palette

Motif

Phase 2

Pop-up Seating

"Using those palettes and developing our understanding of site-specific human sensory phenomenology, we will first design small site-specific spaces on campus which address programmatic, ergonomic, and perceptual challenges of a persons reading and drinking a beverage, while abstractly conveying experiences of the essence of aspects of the plants, and the formal possibilities of the panels themselves."

I took a part of the pattern and transformed it into irregularly formed lanterns and stacked them. They are placed in a site with high ceilings and open areas with seating, and add a feeling of privacy to the seating areas.

Phase 3

Housing Works Bookstore & Cafe

"Inspired by a deep investigation of the botany and ecologies of a particular set of plants ethically fabricated into interior construction panels, and the processes involved in those transformations, this studio develops comprehensive sets of design palettes to use in the design of a NYC non-profit, Housing Works Bookstore Cafe, which is in partnership with the panel manufacturer to develop a singular space brand to advance the unique missions of both enterprises. The project will be conceived as a prototype system of built in and free standing elements that can be adapted to a wide range of future sites, while being designed for a significant New York City interior."

Site

To deterimine the floor plan, I applied one of the three color palettes to define the geometry of spaces.

Floor Plan

Housing Works Bookstore and Cafe is a non-profit organization. Most of their revenue comes from selling donated books and renting the space for weddings, concerts, children's reading time, movie night, and so on. Therefore, the sales space has to be easily converted into an event space. I designed not only the space but also funiture that would fulfill two purposes, bookshelves and furniture for a party.

Basement: This is where they sort the books, store and sell them.

Ground Floor

Mezzanine: All the workers here at Housing Works are volunteers. One of the design objectives was to not conceal the volunteer lounge. As the solution, I raised the partition wall of the lounge about a foot. The outer partition wall has a built-in screen and becomes a big movie screen. This floor is also a designated as a sales floor for valuable books.