A cool vegitectural proposal from Sam Biroscak in collaboration with Gina Dyches, Stephanie Borchers, Annick Lang, and Anneli Rice is “Mossgrove is a proposal for an architectural pavilion to be built in Times Square during NYCxDESIGN from May 12-20, 2018. It highlights the possibilities of two under-appreciated urban elements: scaffolding and moss. Individually, scaffolding and moss are both considered nuisances or visually unappealing. Together, they form a bio-mechanical partnership that challenges us to view the most ordinary materials as having extraordinary potential.” A few images below show off the proposal and how it goes together.
Read more about the project and check out the video as well from their Kickstarter page.
MORE PAVILIONS: CITY OF DREAMS
The proposal for Mossgrove was also one of the finalists from the competition for the Governors Island City of Dreams Pavilion, seen here in a post from CurbedNY. From the Call for Proposals, The winning proposal, seen below, is Oculi by Austin + Mergold in collaboration with Maria Park (Cornell) and consulting engineers Chris Earls (Cornell) and Scott Hughes (Sillman). From the site: “The winning design team will construct an architectural pavilion out of up cycled metal grain bins, connecting Upstate and Downstate. The City of Dreams Pavilion, so named for its focus on the future of a world that faces strains on both economic and natural resources, aims to promote sustainability-oriented thinking amidst the architecture and design communities, requiring designers to consider the environmental impact of their designs from materials sourcing to disposal (or ideally reuse) of waste a the end of the season.”
A few other finalists of note, which albeit less mossy, did have some cool features, are seen below, including Color Waves Pavilion, where the “…structure is designed using recycled fishing nets and rods, and the various colors of the fishing nets create a multi-colored effect within the pavilion.” The design team included Shujie Chen, Xiao Tong, Ning Wang, Yifeng Wang, Yifeng Wu, Bowen Zhang, Matthew Streeter, Jingwen Wang, and Sam Wilson
Similarly airy and colorful is The Rainbow Pavilion by Christophe Cormy Donat: “Created with repurposed plastic bags that have been woven into brightly-colored clouds, this kaleidoscopic pavilion is meant to ask visitors to rethink their habits. Once under the pavilion, visitors will be able to see logos and brands of familiar supermarkets woven into the roof of the pavilion.”
More hairy than airy, designers Deborah Lopez, Hadin Charbel, Mika Portguaise, Francisco Prada López, and Anders Rod created Follicle: A Toxi-Cartographic Proposal for New York City which uses the installation to investigate urban environmental issues: “This pavilion is made up of screen doors clad in human hair. This is then examined through Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis (HTMA), and the results are shown through color-coded strings suspended in the interiors of the pavilion. The results show “different levels of toxic, nutritional, and mineral content in the human body”
I’m reminded of one of my favorite installations from 2008 for the MOMA PS1 Young Architects installations, Public Farm 1 by Work Architecture Company (see post here). These site specific installations are an interesting way to experiment with design concepts at a scale that is appropriate, leading to new solutions and technologies that can inform larger project work. These are also interesting ways of temporarily activating public spaces and parks, creating attractions that are longer lasting than an event, and more interactive than static art.
HEADER: Mossgrove proposal image for City of Dreams Pavilion, via Curbed NY