The challenge of Tomorrow entry by Gabriel Radakovitch

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I have worked on the design of the tower/pavilion that will stand in the middle of the new square. I used a panel of different materials and colours to give it an handcrafted and childish look. Like a kid’s tree house in the back garden.

The structure is made of red painted steel. The floor is painted wood. The platform is accessible by slopes (instead of stairs) so it can be enjoyed by limited mobility persons as well. The walls are covered with pretty plastic upcycled tiles.

See you next week for a new update.

The challenge of Tomorrow entry by Gabriel Radakovitch

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Hi folks,
I’ve been working on the design of the square surrounding the pavilion. It has to be a secret garden as the idea of childhood was part of the design with the colourful pattern on the ground. A playful space but not a playground. Another thing I knew from the beginning was that the tower/pavilion could be converted into a scene for music bands to play on.

I came up with the idea of hills. They had many advantages : they are a playful feature but not naive, they are a screen to hide the road on the west and they act as stands for the public offering views to the top of the pavilion. The inspiration for the design came from a book by Tove Jansson : “Who will comfort Toffle” that I loved when I was a child.

I started with a floor plan. On the Hudson Yards floor plan, the square is used as a road, but there is another possible route for cars so I chose to pedestrianise it. I kept an access on the north for delivery vehicles and ambulances and I added a cycle lane. I grouped the trees in a cob, so there will be only one “soil sandwich” to dig. I used the floor plan to model the square. I liked the idea of the paving blending into the hills. I spent a lot of time deforming the pavement with FFD’s. Because of that, the paving slabs are curved and it isn’t realistic but I deliberately chose to keep them like that as I love the way the paving rolls around the surface of the hills. In the middle of the process, I did a quick test with Twinmotion to see if I was happy with the look of the paving. Real time render engines are a good way to try things, has you get an immediate visual feedback. After that, I chose to add more “grass holes”.

Next update will definitely contain the tower/pavilion, stay connected !

The challenge of Tomorrow entry by Gabriel Radakovitch

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Hi all,

It wasn’t easy to get started. I don’t feel very comfortable with Hudson Yards gigantism and I prefer to work on smaller projects. The solution I found was to work on something simple, at a human scale. The concept is a square vibrant of colour to contrast with the grey glass-cladding buildings of the neighbourhood. In the middle of it will stand a small tower carved of wood and common materials. The tower will act as a public space, a bit like the Vessel. It will be surrounded by benches.

This isn’t very futuristic and might be off the subject but I want to address the issue of glass tower ageing. Beside not being a very ecological solution, glass tower often fade a lot with time in my opinion. In the images, I will try to show the impact of time on Hudson Yards through dirt layered textures. New York tomorrow might not be as wealthy as it is today and taking care of this glass giants is very expensive.

I choose 35 Hudson Yards to be the background of the first image. This is the tallest residential skyscraper in Hudson Yards. However it contains only 143 flats and the less expensive costs $4,250,000. Not affordable for everyone… On the contrary the square will be accessible to all visitors. Contrasts again, I love them !

I modelled the 35 Hudson Yards first. I knew it will play a core role in the images. I will be happy to share the model if anybody needs it. Let me know in the comments. I am quite new to 3DS max so any feedback will be appreciated. Good luck to all !