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Dissolving Corbin Building בניין לשימוש מעורב by Zihua Mo

Dissolving Corbin Building בניין לשימוש מעורב by Zihua Mo is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2026 פרס הכסף של A' Design Award in עיצוב אדריכלות, בנייה ומבנים Competition Category.


כסףאדריכלות· 2026

Dissolving Corbin Building בניין לשימוש מעורב

by Zihua Mo

פרס הכסף של A' Design Award Winner in אדריכלות Category

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The Design

About Dissolving Corbin Building בניין לשימוש מעורב

בניין קורבין המתמוסס הוא עיצוב בניין לשימוש מעורב המבוסס על שימוש חוזר מסתגל של בניין קורבין ההיסטורי בלואר מנהטן, ניו יורק. המתחם האנכי מתנשא לגובה של כ-55 מטרים על פני 15 קומות ומשלב מגורים, מטבחים משותפים, מתחם מזון ציבורי, שוק מזון וחקלאות אנכית. שלד פלדה חדש נושא יחידות מודולריות טרומיות עם חיפוי לבנים וטרקוטה מפורט. גינות גג ובר גג מעל מרכז פולטון הסמוך מרחיבים מסלול ציבורי המתחיל בתחנת הרכבת התחתית. בישול וסעודה משותפים נתפסים כמרחבים קהילתיים.

The Recognition

About the פרס הכסף של A' Design Award

העיצוב Dissolving Corbin Building בניין לשימוש מעורב זכה בפרס הכסף של A' Design Award, הכרה יוקרתית ביותר הניתנת לעיצובים ברמה הגבוהה ביותר, מרהיבים ומרשימים. זוכי הכסף הם יצירות מבריקות להפליא ויצירתיות מאוד שממחישות את המומחיות, הכישרון והחדות של מעצביהן. מהעיצוב Dissolving Corbin Building בניין לשימוש מעורב מצפים שיהיה יצירה נפלאה, דגם מופת, מקצועית להפליא וחדשנית לעומק. העיצוב הזה שזכה בפרס הכסף של A' Design Award הוא המצאה בולטת מאוד ומוערצת שמועילה ודוחפת קדימה את גבולות האמנות, המדע, העיצוב והטכנולוגיה. העיצוב Dissolving Corbin Building בניין לשימוש מעורב הוא יצירה שרבים מקנאים בה, שמעוררת רצונות, מביאה רגשות חיוביים ומציתה התפעלות ופליאה.

Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

Unique Properties
The project dissolves the historic Corbin Building into a vertical ecosystem where housing, communal kitchens, and a public food court intertwine. Solid walls transform into porous layers that blur domestic and urban scales, while a design language of dissolution mediates between ornate historic façades and contemporary simplicity. More than housing, it becomes an urban catalyst that nourishes community, fosters continuity across the city, and reframes everyday rituals as cultural infrastructure.
Dimensions & Packaging
The project envisions a vertical mixed-use complex with an approximate height of 55m and 15 floors, integrating housing, communal kitchens, a public food court, a food market, and vertical farming. A rooftop bar is added atop the adjacent Fulton Center, while rooftop gardens extend from the historic Corbin Building. A new steel frame hosts prefabricated modular units with articulated brick and terracotta cladding, with strategies emphasizing porosity, modular assembly, adaptability, and sustainable urban integration.
Tags
Adaptive Reuse, Mixed-use Building, Communal Living, Food Culture, Urban Catalyst, Historic Preservation, Vertical Farming, Public Food Court, Rooftop Bar, Community Architecture
Production Technology
The design was informed by studies of natural morphologies and part-to-whole relationships, which shaped a methodology of 'dissolving'. To realize this vision, the historic masonry is reinterpreted through a new steel structural framework combined with factory-prefabricated modular units. These modules enable the complex articulation of brick and terracotta surfaces, assembled on site with precision. Digital modeling and parametric simulations guided iterations, while renderings tested spatial integration with the city.
Design Challenge
The hardest challenge was breathing new life into a landmark once valued only for its façade. Balancing historic ornament with contemporary simplicity demanded a design language of dissolving. Socially, the project sought to counter fragmentation with food as a universal connector, while technically it explored how modular construction could realize intricate brick and terracotta forms.
Research
This conceptual design research explored adaptive reuse of historic buildings and the role of food culture in urban life. The aim was to test how dissolving boundaries between private and public could foster community. Methods included studies of natural morphologies, urban context analysis, and digital modeling. Simulations examined flows of residents and visitors. Results showed that shared kitchens, vertical farms, and food markets can reframe eating as cultural infrastructure with impacts on business vitality, social cohesion, and urban design practice.
Inspiration
The project is inspired by the challenge of renewing a historic building once valued only for its façade, giving it a second life through functional transformation and a dialogue between classical ornament and contemporary simplicity. At the urban scale, it seeks to dissolve boundaries, weaving architecture into the flows of transit and everyday life. Against a backdrop of global unrest and retreating cosmopolitanism, the design turns to food as a universal language, using shared rituals of cooking
Project Duration
The project was initially conceived between September and December 2022 in Philadelphia, United States, as an early conceptual study. It was further developed and deeply refined from January to September 2025, focusing on the adaptive reuse of the historic Corbin Building in Lower Manhattan, New York, and its integration with the adjacent Fulton Center. The design has been prepared for international design award submissions and exhibitions, presenting both architectural innovation and cultural discourse at a global stage.
Operation Flow
For the public, the building is entered through a food market and court linked to the subway, offering a place for gathering, dining, or simply passing through. A rooftop bar atop Fulton Center extends the experience to the city skyline, attracting visitors and workers nearby. For residents, daily life unfolds in porous clusters with shared kitchens, terraces, and corridors lined with vertical farms that provide food and greenery. Both flows converge in rooftop gardens, where living and visiting overlap as shared community rituals.

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