14 Vertical Connections When dealing with verticality or vertical constructions, one can’t escape gravity. This invisible force prohibits us from moving freely and limits us to a horizontal way of living. Our body and senses are configured to work in a horizontal world, take the human eyes for an example; our field of sight is close to 180 degrees horizontally but only around 130 degrees vertically. But as in many other cases, humans have found ways to adapt to new conditions and ways of living. One of the major issues with vertical constructions was accessibility, not only for disable people but for everyone. Up until the last decades of the 19th century the only way to connect vertical spaces were staircases, or in some cases sloping platforms or ramps. However, with the invention of the gravity defying device called the elevator, humans could now connect vertical spaces in a very efficient way. If a regular door can be seen as a horizontal mediator of spaces, then the elevator could be seen as the vertical version of a door. However, unlike the movement through a doorway, one can’t see the upcoming space while entering an elevator. Not that this is an issue since the floor plans of a lot of high rises looks the same and the elevator simply moves you from one space to the exact same space (just a few meters up or down in the same building). With elevators, we could have the opportunity to create extraordinary spatial sequences and really take advantage of the fact that most floors in high rises are completely solitary. One building who uses the elevators to their full potential is the Downtown Athletic Club (DAC) in New York. From the outside the building looks like any other early 20th century high rise, but the program inside the building and the way it is distributed, is unlike many others.1
Interior golf course 1
Swimming pool 1
1. Delirious New York - A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan. Koolhaas, Rem. 1972
Downtown Athletic Club in New York 1