Juan Viera

Englewood, NJ USA

The city of Newark is engaging city with its ups and downs. The area is quilt of residents and users that enter and engage it throughout the day and night. Where this project is located is a great example of those who use its transportation and its roads to commute and go about their daily lives. One of Newark’s blights is the number of shipping container its ports have collected over its use. Like many other ports the issue of what to do with the thousands that come in and never leave. For this city the idea of reusing it is a great example of how Newark engages its city’s problems.

For this mixed used multifamily apartment building the shipping container where used as a medium to explore how to stack them like building blocks and in cutting, opening, and attacking them. The idea was to create bi-level lofts that allow day lighting and give the option for the resident to feel in a open and not cramped apartment. The bottom core piece is the most crucial, in where the integration of local economy and retail helps fuel the new community of these boxes. The boxes where manipulated to make the feel light and airy from all view of the exterior. This project was an exploration in creating a new habitat and community to the residents and commuters just as the transit system has been to the infrastructure of a city.