Charlotta Chan

Transient Seam inhabits forms an adjacency to Grand Central Terminal, providing a place of sanctuary amidst the intense flows of Manhattan. The island metropolis operates at speed, driven by the urgency and efficiency of commerce.  Intensified by the current pandemic, New Yorkers are ever more in need for a space of solace in the city, an escape from the crowd. Responding to the social context by offering a series of intimate spaces, of pause and reflection, linked and bridged together by a vertical perambulation that leads to an enclosed garden.  

The architecture of Transient Seam is, itself an outcome bridging and wandering. Manhattan seems to be as real in fiction as it is in reality. Grand Central, like a chimera, holds numerous identities and so the project was drawn out of a survey that sought to blur readings - both measured and experienced. In doing so, Grand Central was interrogated through a form of cartographic perambulation through which an architecture of connections and bridging has emerged.

Nestled within a perforated husk is a curation of spaces that cater to different acts of sanctuary, each offering a different purpose and feeling. They are moments of tranquility deep within the bustling city. The architecture is a journey through these spaces that bridges from the energy of the concourse below to the calm of the garden above.