Title: At A Distance: Durham Crypto Emporium
Location of Proejct: Durham, North Carolina
Project Completion Date: 03/11/2022
Firm Name:

Short Description: Located in the heart of downtown Durham, At a Distance: Durham Crypto Emporium serves as a symbol of opposition to the idea of cryptocurrency. The function of cryptocurrency is inherently inaccessible to many people. At a Distance: Durham Crypto Emporium uses democratized spaces to polarize the reality of cryptocurrency by creating interchangeable and accessible spaces between the public and crypto-mines.

Architect's Statement: Cryptocurrency, bitcoins, and NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are relatively new words that had recently been introduced to our vocabulary. The popularity of the industry has gloried the idea of virtual currency and virtual reality. Social Media has coined the crypto industry as a profitable industry for everyone. Take, for instance, the trend of buying and selling NFTs, where one buys or sells a digital piece of art at values of hundreds and even thousands of dollars. While it is a profitable market for some people, it is not for most. The NFT market is usually most beneficial to high or high-middle-class people. At a Distance: Durham Crypto Emporium blurs the boundaries between reality and virtual reality through the organization of spaces that gives a potential solution to the question: How does virtual reality and currency become accessible to the general public?

At a Distance: Durham Crypto Emporium is located in the middle of downtown Durham, North Carolina. The site is surrounded by historic spaces as well as spaces that are newly built. A special aspect of Durham is that in many cases the city wants to utilize existing spaces such as the American Tobacco Campus and Durham Central Park. These spaces are currently open and used by the public. In conjunction, there are also many newly built space that allows Durham to grow. The design of At a Distance maintains the idea of old and new that the city of Durham has established.

The form of At a Distance: Durham Crypto Emporium comes from wanting to utilize the slope of the site and the existing mural. The user would be able to access the public roof promenade from Rodney Street and enter one of the entrances from the top floor. The other entrance is facing Foster Street, where upon entering the building the user would be able to see the existing mural.

When entering from either entrance, the user would be able to experience the NFT Gallery at both of the destinations. This is made possible through the idea of mirroring. Like the concept of a periscope, this mirroring reflects images from one mirror to another. It allows for the user to experience a space without actually being there, hence, the idea of “at a distance”. It also creates opportunities for distortion from floor to floor, similar to how the idea of NFTs and Cryptocurrency is distorted from person to person. The Rodney Street entrance is the destination of the roof access. The roof access is a public space where the user has to circulate the whole roof path to reach the entrance on the top floor. This public access can also act as a space where people can stroll or gather. At the entry, the user will be able to experience the main display piece of the NFT Gallery as well as the distortions created in between the middle floors without having to enter those private spaces. The private spaces (2nd and 3rd floor) are sandwiched between the public spaces (1st and 4th floor). When circulating the roof access, the user would experience the piezoelectric louvers in action. The louvers incorporate the sustainable aspect of the design to power the crypto-mining happening on the 2nd and 3rd floors, while also filtering the interior experience from the exterior. Piezoelectrics in the louvers are generated from stress. The louvers are stiffened to accommodate the wind force in the area in order to create stress to generate energy.

The program of the project was to design a 15,000sf crypto emporium to respond to the newfound idea of cryptocurrency. At a Distance: Durham Crypto Emporium finds a balance between the environment and the reality of the crypto industry. It gives a solution to how the virtual currency industry can be immersed and utilized by everyone. It creates a space merging accessibility and cryptocurrency.