"In a city like New York, dominated by regulations and defined by a strong post-crisis development boom, the architect is bound by varied constraints." Eran Chen, the founder of ODA, explains in the description of the book. "Code, market, and zoning are the words as common in the architect's vocabulary as context, proportion, and light. Consequently, residential architecture has shifted its focus from fundamental qualities of living. In Unboxing New York, we investigate these topics to recover the power of design to affect change. Design is a tool that can help us improve our lives and accommodate the individual's needs, allowing them to adapt to the world we live today." 

ODA is a New York-based architecture firm founded in 2007 by Eran Chen. The firm has established its unique position by the imaginative and mold-breaking designs in New York City in a short amount of time and emerged as one of the most recognized firms of its generation.

Designed and built more than 50 projects in New York City and expanding their projects into other US Cities as well as the overseas countries like London, Paris, and Rotterdam, ODA seeks to reconcile the conditions of vertical urban living with the qualities which benefit and nurture us as human beings. They infuse their buildings with features like generous terraces, pixelated facades, and asymmetrical rooftop silhouettes that make them recognizable as ODA designs. Driving by the idea, their goal is to recognize and honor the unique characteristics of each built spaces and to arrange them in new ways, respectful of their differences.

Unboxing New York is a behind-the-scenes examination of the changing shape of New York City revealing the forces, theories, and histories that have transformed the city, studying the common conventions that architects deal with as a result. ODA describes Unboxing New York as the culmination of more than ten years of transformational opportunity, ambitious design, and selfless commitment from a team of brilliant people. Chen adds, "We use the phrase unboxing New York to refer to our quite but unyielding revolution to break away from the single dimension experiences dictated by much of the city's architecture. Unboxing New York also refers to the idea of articulating what is understated, defining what was once anonymous, and expanding what is currently locked."

Different than any traditional architectural monograph consisting of built projects with photographs and short descriptions, ODA takes a dramatically different approach with Unboxing New York, creating something neither a monograph or a manifesto, but an on-going diary stands to share ODA’s ideas, thoughts and the experience of 10 years practice as defined by Eran Chen.

The book is made up of five chapters: Living, Zoning, Developing, Marketing, and Building with the combination of essays, hundreds of descriptive diagrams and visuals. The chapters consist of essays written by Chen, other ODA team members and also contributors and working partners of ODA. These correspond roughly with the process of architecture and specifically to the projects including the office’s some of the key projects 10 Jay Street, 100 Norfolk and Denizen Bushwick in New York City. 

As former New York Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff said, one has to be optimistic to develop an architectural practice. Architecture is creating a place, and forming a structure to be within, shaping the defined relationship between people and their surroundings. It is a manifestation of ownership of our domain and destiny, recognition of our existence within the whole, and therefore an active effort to improve our lives. With rich experience designing and building in New York with over 50 designs, ODA is uniquely positioned to lead this exploration. ODA is an optimistic and pragmatic studio that questions the fundamental aspects of our lives, and with their first publication, they weave together their stories, experience, and thoughts which makes Unboxing New York an insightful, educational look at the inner workings of ODA as well as the city we call it home.

For those who would like to hear more about Unboxing New York, you can watch the full conversation between Eran Chen and David van der Leer, Principal of DVDL Design Decisions on the changing shape of New York City and the release of the book here.

Unboxing New York

Published by Actar Publishers

ODA New York | Hardcover | 8 x 10 in. | 276 pages | ISBN 978-1-945150-77-7

All images © Elif Merve Unsal