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The Principals: The Latest Architecture and News

Future Expansion's "Flatiron Reflections" to Transform Flatiron Public Plaza For The Winter

Future Expansion's "Flatiron Reflections" to Transform Flatiron Public Plaza For The Winter - Featured Image
Courtesy of Van Alen Institute

The fourth annual Flatiron Public Plaza Holiday Design Competition winner has been announced--Flatiron Reflection by Future Expansion. In June 2017 non-profit groups Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership and Van Alen Institute invited ten design and architecture firms to submit proposals. “The initiative has become a valuable platform for launching new practices, a visible celebration of inventive, temporary designs that enliven public space during a chillier season, and an opportunity to understand how these spaces impact our minds and bodies” states David van der Leer, Executive Director of Van Alen Institute.

Of the ten design and architecture firms invited to submit proposals, Future Expansion with their Flatiron Reflection won the competition. Other participating firms include Annie Barrett, The Principals, Kyle May, Hive Public Space, Schaum Shieh, FIRM a.d. and Practice.

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The Principals’ Dynamic Sanctuary Pulses in Time to Visitors’ Heartbeats

Brooklyn design studio The Principals have completed the Dynamic Sanctuary, an interactive installation at Sight Unseen OFFSITE, during the 2015 NYCxDESIGN festival. Commissioned by Ford Motors, the light-based installation detects and pulses with the biorhythms of its visitors, creating a dynamic space in both name and nature.

The modular installation was manually constructed by The Principals in their Brooklyn studio. Learn more about the project and view selected images after the break.

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The Principals Install Sound Reactive, Silver-Coated "Quilt" at Neuehouse

Commissioned by Sonos to create a sound reactive installation in collaboration with the musician Dev Hynes (aka Blood Orange), The Principals created a 16-foot-tall canopy, 8-feet-wide by 36-feet-long covering the performance and grand stand seating area of the private workspace collective Neuehouse. Inspired by the work of Arthur Rimbaud, The Principals chose the name Ancient Chaos, a phrase from his poem Matinée d'Ivresse which speaks to a basic force of wonder within all of us at the hidden patterns of nature. The installation, both a sonic composition and a physical structure, creates sounds that verge on the architectural and architecture that verges on the fluid.

More information and a video of the installation in motion, after the break.  

VIDEO: "Bionic" Architecture That Moves When You Do

The Brooklyn based firm The Principals are known for their interactive design, industrial design and installation work. The video above hi-lights their latest "bionic" installation, which actually responds and reacts to human movement thanks to myoelectric sensors that pick up voltage increases on the skin when a muscle contracts. To learn more head over to their website - and make sure to check out all of The Principals other installations featured on ArchDaily.

Wave Dilfert / The Principals

Wave Dilfert / The Principals - Image 11 of 4
© The Principles

Wave Dilfert: Wave (moves in wave-form oscillations) + Dilfert (geek-like intelligence, absorbs information like a sponge).

Wave Dilfert is a new kind of space that reads the changes in light and shadow occurring within it, catalogs and calculates them, then pulses, contracts or expands in reaction. The installation was inspired by the work of Ushahidi; a non-profit, crowdsourcing disaster relief, tech innovator. Much how Ushahidi de-mystifies the complexities of war-torn or disaster ridden locales, The Principals developed a system that could de-mystify the complexities of space through sourcing the information of its users and making it accessible through interaction.

The Realization of the “Cosmic Quilt” / The Principals

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© Walling McGarity Photography

Remember the “Cosmic Quilt” kickstarter campaign we published a few weeks ago? Well, it was a success! With the help 20 students from the Art Institute of New York, The Principals were able to construct a reactive architectural environment just in time for the New York Design Week that took place May 19-21.

Continue after the break for more.

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