There’s a building in New York that, at first glance, probably won’t impress you. A perfectly symmetrical box, carefully placed on a narrow lot in Chelsea. The façade is a strict grid of squares, often covered with metal bars. Everything seems dull, cold, and unwelcoming.
But once you understand how this building works, even a “weekend architecture buff” like me is overwhelmed by excitement.
An Architectural Experiment in the Heart of Manhattan
Shutter Houses is an 11-story building that could be called an architectural experiment. Every window is equipped with motorized metal shutters, controlled by a button. Residents can completely change the character of their apartment—from a secluded retreat to an open terrace.
Behind the metal shutters lies a transparent glass façade: two-meter-high windows and sliding doors literally blur the line between the interior and the city. One button, and the apartment transforms into either a bunker or a full-floor balcony.
Japanese Philosophy
The building’s designer is Shigeru Ban, a Japanese architect and winner of the 2014 Pritzker Prize (the architectural equivalent of an Oscar). Shutter Houses is his first residential project in the United States.
This building is an excellent example of how the Japanese philosophy of transparency, simplicity, and spatial control can be integrated into the dense mass of Manhattan.
How it’s arranged inside
Each apartment is a duplex with ceilings up to six meters high. The lower level houses the common areas, including a double-height living room with panoramic windows. The upper level houses the private bedrooms.
A minimum of detail, maximum airiness. Light, reflections, and the textures of metal and glass all contribute to the feeling of a moving, living architecture.
Shutter Houses fits perfectly into its context: just steps from the High Line, close to the Gagosian Gallery and buildings by Frank Gehry and Jean Nouvel (both of whom, incidentally, also own the Pritzker). It seems that this house doesn’t just sit alongside the art—it itself becomes part of the exhibition, a living and breathing architectural installation.
📍 Shutter Houses / 524 W 19th St, New York
