In New York, the fashion for oversized skyscrapers is not new, but a new generation has become a real fashion: the “super-slenders”. It is also in this city that architects imagined the project of the longest skyscraper in the world.
We are not telling you anything by telling you that space is a rare commodity in New York and that the price per square meter in this city is enough to make your hair stand on end! This is why New York is the second most vertical city in the world, just behind the unbeatable Hong Kong (China).
Currently, fashion is no longer really big buildings, but « super-slenders » (the super-slender). Urban planners, architects and property developers agree to build large buildings while reducing the surface area of their footprint.
In New York, nearly twenty of these super-slenders have emerged from the ground (or are under construction) in recent years, such as 432 Park Avenue by Uruguayan architect Rafael Viñoly delivered in 2015. With its 426 meters in height , the building however remains behind the One World Trade Center (541 meters) and the Empire State Building (443 meters). However, 432 Park Avenue is the tallest residential tower in the world.
A brand new super-slender project is attracting the attention of architecture enthusiasts: the Big Bend designed by the Oiio architectural firm. The least we can say is that its characteristics are very daring, qualified by some as madness. It is a kind of giant arch with a length of 1200 meters, which would make it the longest building in the world exceeding the highest, namely the Burj Khalifa in Dubai and its 828 meters.
» There is an undeniable obsession in Manhattan. It is undeniable because it is made to be seen. A building can stand out in many ways, but the best way is to surpass all the others “, indicates the Oiio firm in the presentation of the Big Bend project.
The project has not yet found a buyer, but architecture fans are waiting to find out where such a skyscraper will be built (perhaps near Central Park). In any case, the shape of this super-slender is a little joke on the way in which architects « bend over backwards » to find solutions to the saturation of New York’s building space.
Sources: The Independent – Konbini