小岛是一个公共公园，庇护着哈德逊河上的三个新的表演场所。它被设计成人们和野生动物的天堂，是一个绿色的绿洲，由雕塑般的花盆支撑在水面上，从曼哈顿下西区穿过跳板，只需很短的步行距离。

Little Island is a public park that shelters three new performance venues on the Hudson River. Designed as a haven for people and wildlife, it is a green oasis, held above the water by sculptural planters, and located just a short walk across a gangplank from Manhattan’s Lower West Side.

Heatherwick工作室最初受慈善家Barry Diller和哈德逊河公园信托基金的邀请，为曼哈顿西南边的一个新码头创造一个亭子。设计团队没有设计一个位于哈德逊河公园的装饰物，而是看到了一个机会，重新思考码头可以是什么。出发点不是结构，而是游客的体验：在水面上的兴奋，离开城市并沉浸在绿色中的感觉–灵感来自于中央公园，在那里你有可能忘记你是在美国人口最密集的城市中。

Heatherwick Studio was initially invited by philanthropist Barry Diller and the Hudson River Park Trust to create a pavilion for a new pier off the southwest of Manhattan. Instead of designing a decorative object to sit in the Hudson River Park, the design team saw an opportunity to rethink what a pier could be. The starting point was not the structure, but the experience for visitors: the excitement of being over the water, the feeling of leaving the city behind and being immersed in greenery – inspired by Central Park, where it’s possible to forget that you are in the midst of the most densely populated city in the United States.

码头在传统上是平坦的，以便于船只停靠，但它们必须是平坦的吗？与曼哈顿平坦的街道相比，设计团队希望为这个城市创造一个新的地形，它可以上升到塑造各种空间。第一个迭代方案是漂浮在水面上的卷曲的叶子，它的叶脉在边缘像肋骨一样上升，为空间遮风挡雨。在其基础上提升公园的想法来自于水中现有的木桩，这些木桩是过去从曼哈顿海岸线延伸出来的许多码头的遗迹。在可见的木尖下，这些木桩已成为海洋生物的重要栖息地，是鱼类的保护性繁殖地。

Piers were traditionally flat to allow boats to dock, but did they have to be? In contrast to the flat streets of Manhattan, the design team wanted to create a new topography for the city, which could rise up to shape a variety of spaces. The first iteration was a curled leaf form floating on the water, its veins rising like ribs at the edges to shelter the space from the wind. The idea of raising the park on its foundations came from the existing wooden piles in the water, remnants of the many piers that used to extend from the shoreline of Manhattan. Beneath the visible tips of the wood, the piles have become an important habitat for marine life and are a protected breeding ground for fish.

Heatherwick Studio将码头设想为一个完整的体验；一个单一的、有凝聚力的物体，而不是不相关的元素粘在一起。为了支持任何类型的码头，新的桩子是必要的。桩子不再是支撑甲板的棍子，而是成为了甲板–它们延伸到种植槽中，连接在一起，形成公园的表面。桩子的高度是不同的，以创造公园的轮廓：码头的一角被抬起，使阳光能够照射到海洋栖息地，边缘下降，以确定山丘、观景点，并为表演开辟一个天然的圆形剧场。这样一来，码头和它的支撑结构就是一个整体。

Heatherwick Studio envisaged the pier as a complete experience; a single, cohesive object, rather than unrelated elements stuck together. New piles would be necessary to support any type of pier. Instead of sticks holding up a deck, the piles become the deck – they extend into planters that join together to create the park’s surface. The height of the piles varies to create the park’s contours: the corner of the pier is lifted to allow sunlight to reach the marine habitat, and the edge falls to define hills, viewpoints and to carve out a natural amphitheatre for performances. In this way, the pier and its supporting structure are one.

种植槽或 “花盆 “里装满了一百多种本地树木和植物，它们鼓励生物多样性，并能在纽约的气候中茁壮成长–岛屿的每个角落都代表着不同的小气候。为了确定花盆的形式，设计团队参考了大自然和河流结冰时在木桩周围形成的马赛克冰。工作室将其重新解释为一个方格图案，看起来是有机的，但使用重复的元素，可以标准化地制造。在周边最明显的地方，我们小心翼翼地改变花盆的角度和重复性。为了使混凝土结构具有光滑的触觉质量，Heatherwick Studio与当地的一个制造者密切合作。预制构件通过船只运输并在现场组装，最大限度地减少了对城市的干扰。

The planters or ‘pots’ are filled with more than a hundred different species of indigenous trees and plants, which encourage biodiversity and are able to thrive in New York’s climate – each corner of the island represents a different microclimate. To determine the pots’ form, the design team looked to nature and the mosaic of ice that forms around the wooden piles when the river freezes. The studio reinterpreted this in a tessellated pattern that appears organic but uses repeated elements that could be standardised for fabrication. Care was taken to vary the angle and repetition of pots at the perimeter, where they were most visible. To give the structural concrete a smooth, tactile quality, Heatherwick Studio worked closely with a local fabricator. The precast components were transported by boats and assembled on site, minimising disruption to the city.

Architects: Heatherwick Studio
Area: 11000 m²
Year: 2021
Photographs: Timothy Schenck, Angela Weiss, Getty Images, China News Service, Getty Images, Alexi Rosenfeld, Getty Images
structural Engineer: Arup
Landscape: MNLA
Mechanical Engineering: Arup
Design Director:Thomas Heatherwick
Group Leader:Mat Cash
Project Leaders:Paul Westwood, Neil Hubbard
Technical Design Leader:Nick Ling
Project Team:Sofia Amodio, Simona Auteri, Mark Burrows, Jorge Xavier Méndez- Cáceres, John Cruwys, Antoine van Erp, Alex Flood, Michal Gryko, Ben Holmes, Ben Jacobs, Francis McCloskey, Stepan Martinovsky, Simon Ng, Wojtek Nowak, Giovanni Parodi, Enrique Pujana, Akari Takebayashi, Ondrej Tichý, Ahira Sanjeet, Charles Wu, Meera Yadave
Executive Architects:Standard Architects
Making Team:Jordan Bailiff, Einar Blixhavn, Darragh Casey, Hayley Henry, Hannah Parker, Luke Plumbley, Jeff Powers
Client:Hudson River Park Trust (HRPT) & Pier 55 Project Fund (P55P)
Main Contractor :Hunter Roberts Construction Group
Marine Engineers:MRCE
Cost Consultants:Gardiner & Theobald
City:New York
Country:United States