the morphed in-betweens

Expansion of New York Stock Exchange for NFT Trading

Fall Studio | 2021
University of Pennsylvania

Location : New York City, NY

Instructor: Fabian Llonch and Ali Rahim

In collaboration with Nick Sideropoulous

The rise of cryptocurrency has renewed the need for architecture to reflect evolving systems of capital. This proposal envisions an expansion of the New York Stock Exchange into a hybrid institution for NFT trading, on-site mining, and public education. Positioned within the city’s historic financial district on Wall St, the project leverages the distinctly New York city mechanism of air rights of adjacent buildings, to insert a vertical, high-density addition that projects both economic ambition and future-readiness. Deviating from the symmetrical, open-plan logic of
Beaux-Arts NYSE, the design focuses on creating programmatic dualities using complex layering of “in-between” spaces that reframe overlooked voids as sites of architectural and symbolic potential.

Evolution of New York Stock Exchange

//Financial District

wall-street-photo-tagger-yancey-iv-nyc-and-company-02-2.jpg

//New York Stock Exchange

lipi49_create_an_interior_space_in_side_a_machine_aesthetic_ins_cab3cc31-b1a6-4a1a-babf-2c

//NFT Mining Farms

The stock exchange as it currently exists was built in 1903, and is located between the corners of Wall Street and Exchange Place, and was designed in the Beaux Arts style by George B. Post. In addition, there are 200 miles of cables under the Stock exchange as in person trades have been replaced with digital trades. The project envisions that the stock exchange will be expanded to mine Ethereum NFT’s for New York City and serve as a Crypto Currency Exchange for global trades. To educate the public about the value of the purchase of NFT’s an NFT Museum is also incorporated in the building proposal.

Project Site

//Financial District

Precendent Studies

//Museum chunks: Sao Paolo Museum of Art (Left top); Long Museum (Left bottom); Design Chunk (Right)

Architectural elements are extracted from museum precedent studies and re-purposed to form a hybrid object. The process of “objectification” of architecture was essential to strip these elements of their perfunctory functions. Creating an arrangement of varied spatial sequences was achieved by playing with the concepts of disjunctive continuities as well the notion of the “in-between”. The in-between is created when elements envelop space within multiple layers of varying thickness, density and materiality.

Section

//Ssection

The museum has been developed as a series of closed and open spaces. Working with the concept of disjunctive continuity, immersive museum spaces permeate the central circulation spine. Multiple volumes are connected to this journey where various museum-related functions are programmed.

The circulation is lined with mechanical trusses that hold server equipment used for NFT Mining. With the purpose of teaching through experience rather than a formal exhibit, the visitor learns about the program in detail. Certain volumes are designed to be private to hold more administerial functions. They are accessible through a private circulation which also links to the trading floor. The overall development of the project is meant to make the visitor experience the inner workings of a machine.

//Sectional choisy view

The design integrates 200 meters of wiring required for Ethereum mining and trading directly into the architectural seams and edges. Rather than concealing this technical infrastructure, it is embedded visibly and spatially into the project’s surfaces, making the circuitry an active and expressive part of the architecture.