Unboxing New York, ODA

Today, architecture finds itself balancing between the lyrical and the pragmatic. In a city like New York, dominated by regulations and defined by a strong post-crisis development boom, the architect is bound by conventions and prescribed parameters. Code, market, and zoning are words as common in the architect's vocabulary as context, proportion, and light. Consequently, residential architecture in particular has become less about the fundamental qualities of living and more about decoration. In Unboxing New York, ODA investigates these architecture topics to recover the power to design and propose.

Unboxing New York is a behind-the-scenes examination of the changing shape of New York City since 2010—revealing the forces, theories, and histories that have transformed the city—and studies the common conventions that architects deal with as a result. In five thematic chapters with a variety of short articles, new diagrams, interviews, and research texts, Unboxing New York presents the realities of the profession and lays out an accessible and engaging roadmap to working within a highly regulated large metropolis to create valuable additions to urban life.

8 × 10”
Hardcover
316 pages

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Editor: Original Copy
Project Team: Julia van den Hout, Kyle May
Client: ODA NY
Graphic Design: Studio Lin
Actar, Fall 2018

All photos by Studio Lin.