My final year project proposes a new structure for Ground Zero in New York. The scheme enters into the urban conditions in today's metropolis but also illustrates my interest in the recent history of this exceptional place.

I have sought an urban infill for Ground Zero by thinking about the city through the theory of Manuel Castells. Castells defines the quality of a place in terms of the 'space of flows' and the 'space of places'. The space of flows is the space of the networks and flows of information. This is only indirectly linked to the space of physical experience in the city or metropolis. The space of places by contrast is occupied by the masses, by ordinary people. These still inhabit places characterized by a particular form, function and meaning.

The design is structured on the basis of this theory. The MASS/STRUCTURE accommodates two systems. A closely orchestrated system organized around high-speed lifts acts as a 'subway' network, conveying users as quickly and efficiently as possible to where they have to be. They are not just choosing a storey when travelling by lift, but an entire network. There are, for example, office lifts, leisure lifts and residential lifts. All lifts are located along the edges of the footprints of the former Twin Towers. In this way, the former towers are responsible for the impact of the networks they were once very much part of and so are the throbbing heart of the new structure. In addition, there is an informal public route of ramps and plazas that gives New Yorkers the freedom to explore the structure at their own pace and by a route of their own choosing. The memorial spaces between the two towers are left empty in the design. With a floor-to-floor height of some 60 metres, these are sterile spaces that make their visitors feel small and helpless. Inside, you are surrounded by patterns of letters spelling out the names of the victims. All these names are inscribed without letter spacing and incorporated horizontally, vertically or diagonally. Only the bereaved are informed as to where the names of their loved ones can be found, enabling them to privately pay their respects. The victims remain anonymous to everyone else.

The skin of the STRUCTURE reflects the networks inside this urban project. The floor-to-floor height can be read off from the way the skin is modelled. Each network can additionally be identified by being coded with its own pattern. Just as the earth's strata reveal something of its history, so my project's skin says much about the metropolis that is Manhattan. Indeed, the skin can be read as an intensified DNA pattern of Lower Manhattan.

Place of education: Tilburg Academy of Architecture and Urbanism
Specialization: architecture
Tutors: Geert Driesen, Martien Jansen, Stefan Bendiks, Marc Glaudemans