The WTC I&II is an enigmatic building, an icon of capitalism. A small piece of a grand visionary plan. A grand plan that was abandoned after the initial gold rush of capitalism had subsided. It is a modernist composition of two towers and a podium. This theme was continued in the nearby third tower, while the fourth was never built. The distinctive podium serves as a mediator between the vertical high-rise of the two towers and the street level. The original master plan connected several of these platforms with a network of streets above the urban landscape.
The organizers of the REA#2 summer school deconstruct the monolith and assign each office a part of it. In this workshop, we will focus solely on the deep plan. The Deep Plan At its best it acquires a Platonic neutrality; it represents the plint where pragmatism, trough sheer rationality and efficiency, assumes an almost mythical status. Typical plan is deep.. the hidden potential of depth We limit our research to the core of this horizontal microtopia: the internal space beyond the influence of the outer shell. According to Wikipedia, it is “a building in which the horizontal distance to the outer wall is many times greater than the height from floor to floor.” It is an economic solution to maximize profit, filled with countless technical functions or strange undefined dark spaces. While the floor plan of the towers is a textbook example of the typical plan, the deep plan is not a Platonic neutrality but a conglomerate of various structures. A messy mix of structural solutions, dominated by the two structural cores of the towers that pierce through it. This is the world we will dive into, beginning with the analysis of the given condition. We approach the problem on a structural level and devise new interventions to break open the monofunctional block.
