Rendering of HWKN’s Wendy, winning design of Young Architect’s Program 2012. Image courtesy of HWKN.

The Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1 have announced the New York based office HWKN (HollwichKushner) as winner of the annual Young Architects Program (YAP) in New York. As winners of the 13th edition of the program, HWKN will construct an outdoor summer installation at the PS1 courtyard in Long Island City, Queens. The winning proposal, known as Wendy, was selected from five finalists and will provide a unique setting for the popular Warm Up summer music series.

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Rendering of HWKN’s Wendy, winning design of Young Architect’s Program 2012. Image courtesy of HWKN.

A large scaffold will craft an environment defined by shade, wind, rain, music and visual identity. The simple, inexpensive construction system will maximize the surface area with a 70’ x 70’ x 45’ volume. The structure will support a large amount of blue, nylon fabric that will be treated with ground breaking titania nanoparticle spray, capable of neutralizing airborne pollutants. Wendy will clean the air to an equivalent of taking 260 cars off the road, while her “spiky arms” engage visitors with a variety of micro-programs like blasts of cool air, music, water cannons and mists to create social zones throughout the MoMA PS1 courtyards.

Rendering of HWKN’s Wendy, winning design of Young Architect’s Program 2012. Image courtesy of HWKN.

“The jury was greeted with a particularly impressive group of proposals this year, all of which represented months of sustained research into problems both specific to a summer installation at MoMA PS1 and to new directions for architecture in terms of material research, ecological responses, and recyclability,” said Barry Bergdoll, The Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design at MoMA. “HollwichKushner’s design is at once based in emerging science of materials related to environmental cleansing—the material actually removes the carbon dioxide emissions produced by cars in Long Island City—but also on a zany quest for a space that is simply good fun. Even passengers on the elevated 7 train will feel compelled to head to MoMA PS1 to experience Wendy and figure out what in the world it can possibly be all about.”

“HollwichKushner is proposing a monumental gesture in the MoMA PS1 courtyard that, in its dimension and volume, creates a dialogue with the, at the moment, currently installed geodesic dome,” added Klaus Biesenbach, Director of MoMA PS1 and Chief Curator at Large at MoMA. “While the dome hosts our winter series SUNDAY SESSIONS, Wendy will enhance the courtyard environment for our famed summer Warm Up series. The project is not only innovative but also visualizes ecological awareness and responsibility.”

“HollwichKushner’s proposal for YAP 2012 is sure to make a memorable impression over the summer at MoMA PS1,” said Pedro Gadanho, Curator in MoMA’s Department of Architecture and Design. “It is iconic, but with a twist. By combining off-the-shelf materials and scaffolding systems with the latest cry in nanotechnology it is able to produce both an out-of-the-box ecological statement and a bold architectural gesture. It is economical and terse in terms of its design, and yet, through its positioning and scale, it also smartly projects different possibilities for use and social appropriation across the entire site where it sits—including the ability to reach out for those outside the museum’s walls.”

Wendy will open to the public in late June. Check out out these past winners:  Interboro Partners Holding Pattern (2011),  SO-IL Pole Dance (2010), MOS Architects Afterparty (2009) and Work AC PF1 (2008).

Reference: MoMA PS1