Narrative

During the US Prohibition, nightclubs went underground as illegal speakeasy bars owned by the “mafia” and ruled by political interests. Al Capone, Mickey Cohen, Johnny Dio, John Gotti and Frank Costello dominate the nightlife scene. Gangsters used “bars” in order to discuss political aspects and business.

On 1933 the prohibition was finished and nightclubs in New York revived. Stork Club, El Morocco and Copacabana became famous places where politicians took their discourse. Few decades after the disco era took the magic and essence of partying. Studio 54 became the predilection place for celebrities, wealthy, aristocrats and politicians. Nevertheless nightclubs for this time became known for being hedonist places. Rampant promiscuity, public sex and massive quantities of drugs ingested in clubs.

The only aspect that has last through history at nightclubs is the political discussions. Nevertheless most of the clubs in the city don’t have ideal spaces to protect privacy discourse. Policlub (Political Club) at Howard St and Broadway emerges based on 3 principles: privacy (political discussions), security and freedom of speech.

The club is composed by three main pavilions: the dancing floor, bar - booth seating and the VIPS (political and regular). The political VIPS (4) are located in a secure place where the access is limited and controlled. In the other hand regular VIPS (4) face the dancing floor and their level of privacy isn’t so high.

The dancing floor and the booth seating are the core of the project surrounded by the VIPS and service areas. The skin of the project is a honeycomb (hexagons) mesh. Each pavilion is characterized by a different surface geometry and scale of the mesh. In order to hierarchy and characterize spaces hexagons change dimensions. Greater scale meshes to large spaces and vice versa. The Dancing floor envelops shape (cone) works as a thermo siphon cooling the air. This means hot air is vacuumed by a process of air pressure.