Now on view at MoMA PS1 is "Wendy", the HWKN (Hollwich Kushner)-designed winner of the 13th annual Young Architects Program (YAP). MoMA and MoMA PS1's YAP is committed to offering 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 at MoMA PS1 that provides shade, seating, and water. The architects must also work within guidelines that address environmental issues, including sustainability and recycling. HWKN, drawn from among five finalists, designed a temporary urban architecture for the 2012 Warm Up summer music series in MoMA PS1’s outdoor courtyard which begins July 7, 2012.
HWKN is a New York architecture, branding and development firm. "Wendy" is an experiment that tests how far the boundaries of architecture can expand to create ecological and social effect. "Wendy" is composed of fabric treated with a ground breaking titania nanofilm to neutralize airborne pollutants. During the summer of 2012, "Wendy" will clean the air to an equivalent of taking 260 cars off the road, using a simply constructed, inexpensive construction system: the scaffold is deployed efficiently to create a 56’ x 56’ x 46’ volume to form the largest surface area possible.
In addition to Knippers Helbig, structural engineers on the project, the Wendy project was assisted by PURETi (air-purifying surface treatment),Cristal Global (titania dioxide), SDFS (general contractor), SAFWAY(scaffolding provider), Krinner Ground Screws (foundations), Dornbracht(water systems), Davis & Warshow (water and technology), Big Ass Fans (fans), Transsolar (climate engineering), Dazian (custom sewing), Bo-Tex (fabric), Art Domantay (production consultant), Bruce Mau Design (graphic identity), Soho Repographics (printing), 2x4 (merchandise design), Pentagram (merchandise design) and Supima Cotton (merchandise materials), and a team of amazing volunteers.
The other finalists for this year’s MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program were AEDS|Ammar Eloueini Digit-all Studio (Ammar Eloueini, Paris, France/New Orleans, LA), Cameron Wu (Cambridge, MA), Ibañez Kim Studio (Mariana Ibañez and Simon Kim, Cambridge, MA), and UrbanLab(Martin Felsen and Sarah Dunn, Chicago, IL). The previous winners of the Young Architects Program are SHoP/Sharples Holden Pasquarelli (2000), ROY (2001), William E. Massie (2002), Tom Wiscombe / EMERGENT (2003), nARCHITECTS (2004), Xefirotarch (2005), OBRA (2006), Ball-Nogues (2007), WORKac (2008), MOS (2009), Solid Objectives - Idenburg Liu (2010), and Interboro Partners (2011).
An exhibition of the five finalists' proposed projects will be on view at MoMA over the summer, organized by Pedro Gadanho, Curator, withWhitney May, Department Assistant, Department of Architecture and Design, The Museum of Modern Art. The exhibition will also feature the five finalists from YAP MAXXI in Rome on view now, in conjunction with the National Museum of XXI Century Arts, and YAP Chile in Santiago which will be on view in December, in conjunction with the organization CONSTRUCTO. In 2013, the YAP International program will expand to Istanbul with a recently announced collaboration with Istanbul Modern.
