UN2 : reconfiguring the world city

Abstract

The establishment of the United Nations' "permanent headquarters" in New York City was hailed as an epochal triumph: the era of post-war internationality- in terms of global politics and architectural modernism--was to be continuous and encompassing. Sixty years later, however, the UN's physical and governmental infrastructures find themselves desperately out-of-date and decreasingly relevant on the world scene; the decay of the original complex has necessitated a complete renovation, which is in turn an opportunity to rethink the architectural expression of international governance while recognizing and reinforcing the existing iconicity of the present structures. This thesis is a proposition to expand and reconfigure the UN (taking into account the increased prominence of Non-Governmental Organizations and decentralized agencies), ultimately reshaping its organizational apparatus as well as its urban identity. In reflecting on the UN as both site and subject, this project considers the realities of contemporary bureaucracy and reinterprets the tectonics and organistic rhetoric of the original complex's designers.