full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Moshe Safdie: How to reinvent the apartment building

Unscramble the Blue Letters


So a few yares ago, we decided to go back and rethink Habitat. Could we make it more affordable? Could we actually achieve this quality of life in the densities that are prevailing today? And we realized, it's basically about lihgt, it's about sun, it's about nraute, it's about fractalization. Can we open up the surface of the building so that it has more contact with the exterior?

We came up with a number of models: enmocoy models, cheaper to build and more compact; membranes of housing where people could design their own house and create their own gardens. And then we dideced to take New York as a test case, and we loeokd at Lower Manhattan. And we mapped all the binildug area in Manhattan. On the left is Manhattan today: blue for hionusg, red for office buildings, retail. On the right, we reconfigured it: the office buildings form the base, and then rinsig 75 stories above, are apartments. There's a street in the air on the 25th level, a community street. It's pmerlbaee. There are gardens and open sapces for the community, almost every unit with its own private geadrn, and community space all around. And most important, permeable, open. It does not form a wall or an obstruction in the city, and light permeates everywhere.

Open Cloze


So a few _____ ago, we decided to go back and rethink Habitat. Could we make it more affordable? Could we actually achieve this quality of life in the densities that are prevailing today? And we realized, it's basically about _____, it's about sun, it's about ______, it's about fractalization. Can we open up the surface of the building so that it has more contact with the exterior?

We came up with a number of models: _______ models, cheaper to build and more compact; membranes of housing where people could design their own house and create their own gardens. And then we _______ to take New York as a test case, and we ______ at Lower Manhattan. And we mapped all the ________ area in Manhattan. On the left is Manhattan today: blue for _______, red for office buildings, retail. On the right, we reconfigured it: the office buildings form the base, and then ______ 75 stories above, are apartments. There's a street in the air on the 25th level, a community street. It's _________. There are gardens and open ______ for the community, almost every unit with its own private ______, and community space all around. And most important, permeable, open. It does not form a wall or an obstruction in the city, and light permeates everywhere.

Solution


  1. permeable
  2. housing
  3. decided
  4. years
  5. spaces
  6. nature
  7. rising
  8. building
  9. light
  10. looked
  11. economy
  12. garden

Original Text


So a few years ago, we decided to go back and rethink Habitat. Could we make it more affordable? Could we actually achieve this quality of life in the densities that are prevailing today? And we realized, it's basically about light, it's about sun, it's about nature, it's about fractalization. Can we open up the surface of the building so that it has more contact with the exterior?

We came up with a number of models: economy models, cheaper to build and more compact; membranes of housing where people could design their own house and create their own gardens. And then we decided to take New York as a test case, and we looked at Lower Manhattan. And we mapped all the building area in Manhattan. On the left is Manhattan today: blue for housing, red for office buildings, retail. On the right, we reconfigured it: the office buildings form the base, and then rising 75 stories above, are apartments. There's a street in the air on the 25th level, a community street. It's permeable. There are gardens and open spaces for the community, almost every unit with its own private garden, and community space all around. And most important, permeable, open. It does not form a wall or an obstruction in the city, and light permeates everywhere.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
high density 2
public realm 2


Important Words


  1. achieve
  2. affordable
  3. air
  4. apartments
  5. area
  6. base
  7. basically
  8. blue
  9. build
  10. building
  11. buildings
  12. case
  13. cheaper
  14. city
  15. community
  16. contact
  17. create
  18. decided
  19. densities
  20. design
  21. economy
  22. exterior
  23. form
  24. fractalization
  25. garden
  26. gardens
  27. habitat
  28. house
  29. housing
  30. important
  31. left
  32. level
  33. life
  34. light
  35. looked
  36. manhattan
  37. mapped
  38. membranes
  39. models
  40. nature
  41. number
  42. obstruction
  43. office
  44. open
  45. people
  46. permeable
  47. permeates
  48. prevailing
  49. private
  50. quality
  51. realized
  52. reconfigured
  53. red
  54. retail
  55. rethink
  56. rising
  57. space
  58. spaces
  59. stories
  60. street
  61. sun
  62. surface
  63. test
  64. today
  65. unit
  66. wall
  67. years
  68. york