Advisor: Aki Ishida

As the most private, most vulnerable state common to all, sleep is crucially dependent on society in order to be sustained. In post industrial cities, there is a great disconnect between our body’s circadian rhythm and the 24/7 lifestyle incubated by society. In a work environment that operates across time zones, the temporality of our built environment is no longer in sync with the solar cycle as it once was in the pre-Edison era. Chronobiology, the study of the effect of time and rhythms on living systems, is guided by a human sleep cycle that is under constant attack by our 24/7 culture. For a city to be sustained, its inhabitants’ sleep must be actively protected.

Situated in the Midtown East neighborhood of Manhattan, an institute for sleep explores the relationships among a building, its urban context, and people’s mental and physical states. Researchers study the impact of physical environment on human chronobiology and quality of sleep.

A coalescence of light, fabric, and form drifts patients through the building, catches and releases them into space, and creates both a comforting and sensuous environment. Connected by glass floors, habitable rooms are scattered atop a double layered floor system as if to float amidst the cloud.