SK8 / New Mobility New York City

EXPANDING THE SPECTRUM OF MOBILITY TO RECONFIGURE THE CITY.

Urbanism is afraid of its own shadow. Ideas that once failed us remain unthinkable, yet the most trite observation one can make today is just how different our world is from its   past. Population has doubled since 1960, half of which has flooded into cities. This is old news, but why has it not licensed us to re-examine old ideas?
This urban explosion has rendered cities immobile, drawing crowds to the term mobility. Yet, although it is precisely its breadth that makes the term potent, its margins are often left unexplored. Our proposal situates itself in this crossroads of badlands, at the outskirts of mobility and the unthinkable in urbanism, the territory in which urban innovation has historically been incubated. Rethinking postwar fantasies of smooth urban space, pliable streets cutting across codified boundaries of inside and out, we activate and support alternative forms of urban movement, from skateboards to strollers, in concert with mass transit.

TEST SITE

The concept of New Mobility is here applied to a troubled site in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Transforming the Brooklyn Queens Expressway from a barrier to a destination, New Mobility here re-invigorates aging infrastructure with a host of commercial, cultural and recreational uses. The concept generates valuable leasable space while also bridging its surroundings to eliminate the other “side of the tracks” reputation that plagues real-estate adjacent to infrastructure hubs everywhere.

URBAN RESPONSE TO NEW MOBILITY

From seating to skating, massive murals and skyroom restaurants, the ambition of New Mobility is to re-imagine mobility by looking beyond the car. An urban response to New Mobility will entice different forms of movement to co-exist at hubs of intense urban activity.