It's unseasonably warm today, so it's the perfect time to think about MoMA PS1's big outdoor summer installation. The museum announced that this year's architect for the Long Island City space is Jenny Sabin Studio, featuring a canopy made of "recycled, photo-luminescent, and solar active textiles that absorb, collect, and deliver light"—meaning that it will offer shade in the day and glow at night.
Warm Up is MoMA PS1's beloved outdoor music series that draws crowds on the weekend. For the past 18 years, MoMA PS1 has been selecting designs for the 20-year-old event as part of its Young Architects Program. From the press release:
Opening on June 29 in the MoMA PS1 courtyard, this year’s construction is an immersive design that evolves over the course of a day, providing a cooling respite from the midday sun and a responsive glowing light after sundown. Drawn from among five finalists, Jenny Sabin Studio’s Lumen will serve as a temporary urban landscape for the 20th season of Warm Up, MoMA PS1’s pioneering outdoor music series. Lumen will remain on view through the summer.
Now in its 18th edition, the Young Architects Program at The Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1 has offered emerging architectural talent the opportunity to design and present innovative projects, challenging each year’s winners to develop creative designs for a temporary, outdoor installation that provides shade, seating, and water. The architects must also work within guidelines that address environmental issues, including sustainability and recycling.
Made of responsive tubular structures in a lightweight knitted fabric, Lumen features a canopy of recycled, photo-luminescent, and solar active textiles that absorb, collect, and deliver light. A misting system responds to visitors’ proximity, activating fabric stalactites that produce a refreshing micro-climate. Socially and environmentally responsive, Lumen’s multisensory environment is inspired by collective levity, play, and interaction as the structure and materials transform throughout the day and night, adapting to the densities of bodies, heat, and sunlight.
Sean Anderson, Associate Curator in MoMA’s Department of Architecture and Design, said, "Jenny Sabin's catalytic immersive environment, Lumen, captured the jury's attention for imaginatively merging public and private spaces. With innovative construction and design processes borne from a critical merging of technology and nature to precise attention to detail at every scale, Lumen will no doubt engage visitors from day to night in a series of graduated environments and experiences."
Lumen (Jenny Sabin Studio)
Klaus Biesenbach, MoMA PS1 Director and MoMA Chief Curator at Large, also noted that the "Lumen" offers a "socially and environmentally responsive structure that spans practices and disciplines in its exploratory approach to new materials. Held in tension within the walls of MoMA PS1's courtyard, Lumen turns visitors into participants who interact through its responsiveness to temperature, sunlight, and movement."
The four other finalists for the Young Architects Program were Bureau Spectacular (Jimenez Lai and Joanna Grant), Ania Jaworska, Office of III (Sean Canty, Ryan Golenberg and Stephanie Lin), and SCHAUM/SHIEH (Rosalyne Shieh and Troy Schaum).
