Afterparty, New York, New York, United States

Tower scheme takes MoMA top prize

MOS, an interdisciplinary design practice based in New Haven, Connecticut and Cambridge, Massachusetts, is this year’s winner of the MoMA/PS 1 Young Architects Program, which gives emerging architects the opportunity to transform P.S. 1’s courtyard into an “urban beach” that plays host to the museum’s popular summer-long music series “Warm Up”. Now in its 12th year, the program is a right of passage for young architects; catapulting many from virtual obscurity onto the global stage. Past winners as, for example, SHoP, ROY and Tom Wiscombe, who cut their architectural teeth at P.S.1, are today highly sought after design talents with impressive portfolios of built work.

MOS’s proposal dubbed “afterparty” features a series of towering forms visible from the street that are part urban shelter part cooling generators. The interior of the conical thatched rooms will provide shade, similar to a Bedouin tent in which the dark textile creates its own microclimate shielding from the summer heat. Cool air from the courtyard's thermal mass will be drawn up through a series of chimneys by induction to create a breeze and cool-down atmosphere for the Warm-Up crowd.

“The project proposes to deal with issues of sustainability and a return to basics”, said Barry Bergdoll, the Philip Johnson Chief Curator of the Department of Architecture and Design at MoMA. “Its combination of forms...are evocative at once of the vernacular village structures world wide and of the open ruined vaults of the Roman Forum.”

To be built of lightweight aluminum, thatching and concrete for a budget of $70,000, the project is set to open in late June.

Sharon McHugh
US Corresponden
source: www.worldarchitecturenews.com
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