For Lap Chi Kwong, 38, and Alison Von Glinow, 35, the married partners of Chicago’s Kwong Von Glinow, the value of architecture needs rethinking. “It’s often seen in ‘developer terms,’ ” Von Glinow says, and measured in square footage rather than as the composition of spaces. When the pair launched their practice in 2017, they began with a series of competition entries that argue forcefully for the latter approach—for the power of clever formal solutions to improve the quality of life for building occupants. One such entry, a proposed tower typology for Kwong’s hometown of Hong Kong, consists of dozens of stacked, set back multilevel units separated by gaps that become open-air shared spaces. The result is a provocation that shows how a spatial gesture might generate new forms of community.
Towers Within a Tower: Open-air gaps between apartments in this 2017 concept for a new tower typology become shared spaces, encouraging communal interaction while bringing light and air into the heart of the building. Image courtesy Kwong Von Glinow, click to enlarge.
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