Announced by The Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1, the New Tork-based office HWKN (HollwichKushner) has been placed as the winner of the 13th edition of the annual Young Architects Program (YAP) in NY.

The winning proposal, known as Wendy, was selected from five finalists in the 2012 shortlist: AEDS Ammar Eloueini Digit-all Studio (Paris and New Orleans),Hollwich Kushner (NY), IK Studio (Cambridge),UrbanLab (Chicago) and Cameron Wu of Harvard University (Cambridge). HWKN will provide a unique setting for the popular Warm Up summer music series, constructing an outdoor summer installation at the PS1 courtyard in Long Island City, Queens. Warm Up is an annual series held in MoMA PS1’s courtyard; it follows a tradition of introducing audiences to the best in experimental live music, sound, performance, and DJs.

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

A bit about Wendy…

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.

Photograph: inhabitat.com

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

Barry Bergdoll – the Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design at MoMA – and other pivotal figures talk about this year’s summer installation at MoMa PS1: issues of sustainability; recyclability; and the winning HollwichKushner’s deisgn.

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 (Barry Bergdoll)

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. (Barry Bergdoll)

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

Warm Up - Photohraph: blog.dubspot.com

‘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.(Klaus Biesenbach)

Photograph: trustthebrain.com

‘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.(Pedro Gadanho)

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).

Photograph: inhabitat.com

Warm Up - Photograph: societeperrier.com

Source: Karisssa Rosenfield in ArchDaily

Reference: MoMA PS1
Cite:
Rosenfield , Karissa . “HWKN wins the 2012 Young Architects Program at MoMA PS1 in New York” 09 Feb 2012.ArchDaily. Accessed 20 Feb 2012.

Images courtesy of HWKN, inhabitat.com, trustthebrain.com, thepostups.blogspot.com, rjwcollective.com, societeperrier.com, blog.dupstep.com