Boris Stoyanov
Convent 16
Columbia GSAPP
Fall 2024
Public Housing
Professor Galia Solomonoff
Partner Sebastian Suarez
Convent 16 directly addresses New York City’s escalating housing crisis, particularly the severe shortage of family-oriented units. By repurposing a former dead-end street into an integrated playscape, the project extends the public realm into the site, reinforcing a condition of urban continuity rather than isolation. This intervention is not an amenity but a fundamental strategy for structuring social life within the development. All 99 units are at least two-bedroom, a deliberate deviation from the market-driven proliferation of studio and one-bedroom apartments that fail to accommodate families. The project asserts that density and family-oriented housing are not mutually exclusive but, when designed intelligently, can in fact reinforce one another.
The parti of Convent 16 operates as a microcosm of its urban context, distilling the morphological conditions of the site into its fundamental spatial organization. The project is situated within a valley of buildings—an area of concentrated vertical density that gradually dissipates at its periphery. This transition is mirrored in the massing strategy, where the three buildings frame a central void, creating an architectural canyon that echoes the broader cityscape. This spatial condition is not merely a formal response but an atmospheric and experiential one: the canyon serves as both a threshold and a connective tissue, mediating between the vertical intensity of the built fabric and the openness of the playscape and green core. By embedding this logic into the parti, the project maintains a direct dialogue with its surroundings, reinforcing rather than resisting the morphological dynamics of the city.
Circulation is structured around three compact vertical cores across three separate buildings, a direct challenge to the standard model, which would typically employ two cores for a site of this scale. Conventional logic would deem a third core inefficient, but this assumption is based on an outdated understanding of efficiency that prioritizes raw numbers over spatial performance. By minimizing corridor length and strategically splitting the buildings to optimize daylight penetration, the design achieves higher operational efficiency than a more conventional scheme would allow. This approach prioritizes environmental quality over arbitrary efficiency metrics, demonstrating that a fundamental rethinking of core placement and circulation can yield both spatial and experiential benefits.
At the core of the project, a stratified green space operates at an urban scale, rather than as a residual courtyard. By vertically and horizontally layering different landscape typologies, the green core generates spatial complexity, offering moments of both tranquility and vitality. The playscape is fully integrated within this system, further dissolving the boundary between built form and open space. The result is a series of interconnected environments rather than discrete objects—an approach that reinforces social density rather than merely maximizing unit count.
The playscape is conceived with a sonic emphasis, drawing from the spatial and acoustic culture of West Harlem’s block parties. Rather than treating play as a purely visual or kinetic experience, the design incorporates resonant surfaces and embedded sound elements, fostering an urban environment that is as much about auditory interaction as it is about physical movement. The goal is not simply to provide programmed play space but to establish a dynamic acoustic territory—one that reflects and amplifies the neighborhood’s existing rhythms.
Convent 16 is not an experiment in deviation for its own sake but a recalibration of housing logic to align with the realities of urban family life. It rejects the false dichotomy between density and livability, proving that a rigorous approach to spatial organization can generate both efficiency and quality. By integrating circulation, open space, and programmatic specificity at multiple scales, the project resists the reductive tendencies of contemporary housing production. Instead, it establishes a framework where social and environmental performance drive formal decisions. In doing so, Convent 16 positions itself as both a critique and a precedent—an argument for a more intelligent, contextually responsive, and more ambitious approach to housing in New York City.