This design is concerned with reconnecting the currently isolated site - cut off from its surroundings by the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel ramp – back into the neighborhood of Lower Manhattan. It consists of a series of green ‘tendrils’, spreading out from the site and creating physical connections with key nodes in the urban fabric such as Battery Park and the World Trade Center. Inspired by the High-Line, these links occur in the horizontal and vertical plane allowing the public to circulate up above the city and thus lifting the vibrancy and activities of the ground into the sky. Where they meet a ‘green wall’ is created; this vertical space in the centre of the tower hosts its social and communal activities such as meeting spaces, shops, parks, gardens, sports  and more. Located either side of the green wall are compact, super-insulated blocks of accommodation, organised as per their ideal Passivhaus orientation with hotel and residential spaces on the south for maximum solar gain and the best views, and offices to the north for indirect day-lighting. The tower is also twisted off-grid to respond to the unique plot area, and to maintain the rights of sun and light to the existing 88 Greenwich Street tower to the north.  

This design came first at the UK National Finals stage, and second at the International Finals stage of the 2011 Isover International Student Design Competition.