The project probes the notion that the increments of architecture (units, buildings, parcels of land, etc.) increasingly operate primarily as financial investment assets in contradistinction with the performance attributes typically associated with the art and science of building.  New York City for example has a total of 845,000 houses and apartments and 102,000 units or 12 percent of its housing market vacant.  This number is predicted to grow to 25% of the entire housing market if the growth of capital keeps increasing at the same rate by 2018.  The people who own these condominiums are usually foreigners seeking a haven and are referred to as Skim Milk New Yorkers, only in New York 2% of their time.  This number has grown rapidly and explains why so many windows dotting the imposing facades of Fifth, Madison and Park Avenue apartment buildings are pitch dark every evening.  These buildings are referred to as Zombies.  Obviously Zombies are linked through the financial interconnectedness between them.  As there is greater capital in the world, the construction industry thrives and generates more capital.  As new capital is grown in the UAE for example it is invested in non-traditional instruments including real estate in New York City as interest rates in the bond markets are at 1 percent.  The companies or people investing in these properties live elsewhere in the world, and if these investments continue large parts of mid-town will become a ghost town.  How can architecture take on this issue and be more in alignment of global capital markets?

Collaborators: Jun Yan,  Yuchi Shi

"Asset Architecture” by Ali Rahim

Highlights 

(Awards | Exhibitions | Publications)

• Asset Architecture 1, “Massive Void” by Joongho Lee & 2 collaborators, University of Pennsylvania, pp. 94-99 (ISBN 978-1-4951-7735-4), 2015