Tomorrow City on the Lift

Tomorrow City on the Lift Re-thinking of Manhattanism* built on the Elevator System *Ideology of Skyscarper in Manhattan ”WHY DO WE SPEND SO MUCH TIME WONDERING ABOUT THE FUTURE? WHAT IS THE FUTURE, ANYWAY? COULD THE FUTURE BE HIDDEN IN OUR PAST?” Manhattan’s urbanism is not located in the middle of site planning, landscape or other horizontal layout, but located in the verticality.Elisha Otis’ invention of ‘elevator’ in1853 is the quintessential factor that shaped the the city of New York. Every New Yorker starts their day pressing the button in the elevator panel. However, the elevator space is treated like ‘non-space’. Most elevator systems are located in the middle of the building without light, view and wind, just like the prison cell. It’s primarily because these systems are considered as part of “engineering”, not as “architecture”.

What if we change the location & scale of the elevator? What if we maximize the capacity of the elevator?

What if this ‘non-space’ becomes the ‘major-space’? What if this ‘serving’ space transforms into ‘served’ space?

What if your office’s lobby is in the elevator? What if the toilet is in the elevator? What if you come across the hill in the elevator?

What if conference room is in the elevator? What if your gym’s swimming pool is in the elevator?

Unprecedented explorations of the New York start right from there. (Maybe Elisha Otis’ imagination was not fully scrutinized in the last century.