This week, the sprawling cobweb-like installation Lumen by the 2017 Young Architects Program winner Jenny Sabin Studio, will be unveiled across the courtyard at the Museum of Modern Art’s Queens outpost, PS1. Following in the footsteps of past winners, the studio has created an otherworldly space that changes the dynamic of the courtyard. Last year’s winner, Weaving the Courtyard, featured a cat cradle-style awning made of neon-colored ropes, which stretched above the courtyard and was accompanied by a shallow wading pool below. In 2015, Cosmo was installed, using unaltered materials to form basketball-hoop-shaped structures that doubled as a water filtration system. The striking visuals of 2016’s Weaving and the utility of 2015’s Cosmo have been unified in Lumen.
The objective of the Young Architects Program initiative is to create a temporary, outdoor installation that provides accommodation for visitors during the annual Warm Up Summer Music Series and is at the forefront of technology and architectural innovation. The program is in its 19th year and remains a highlight for the architecture community. Applicants must be submitted by scholars and industry professionals and the winner is chosen by a panel of esteemed judges, including Glenn D. Lowry, the Director of MoMA and Klaus Biesenbach, Director of MoMA PS1.
Lumen by Jenny Sabin Studio for The Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1’s Young Architects Program 2017. Image courtesy MoMA PS1. Photo by Pablo Enriquez.
Lumen is a responsive design composed of more than 1,000,000 yards of robotically woven and digitally knitted fiber, along with 100 stools placed under honeycomb canopies that cast hexagonal shadows onto the courtyard underneath. An interactive lighting component is rigged to the canopies, incorporating 250 tubular structures that emit an ethereal glow when daylight fades. A misting system is also set up to create a “micro-climate” to refresh visitors. The web-like structure of Lumen‘ recalls the anti-form aesthetic of Ernesto Neto’s Léviathan Thot and Eva Hesse’s string and latex draperies—underscoring the natural tendencies of materials to respond to physical forces, and to those in close proximity.
Below, see more photos of the winning installation:
Lumen by Jenny Sabin Studio for the Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1’s Young Architects Program 2017. Image courtesy MoMA PS1. Photo by Pablo Enriquez.
Lumen by Jenny Sabin Studio for the Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1’s Young Architects Program 2017. Image courtesy MoMA PS1. Photo by Pablo Enriquez.
Jenny Sabin Studio, Lumen (2017). Young Architects Program 2017, MoMA PS1, New York.
Lumen by Jenny Sabin Studio for the Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1’s Young Architects Program 2017. Image courtesy MoMA PS1. Photo by Pablo Enriquez.
Lumen by Jenny Sabin Studio for The Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1’s Young Architects Program 2017. Image courtesy MoMA PS1. Photo by Pablo Enriquez.
Lumen by Jenny Sabin Studio for The Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1’s Young Architects Program 2017. Image courtesy MoMA PS1. Photo by Pablo Enriquez.
Lumen by Jenny Sabin Studio for The Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1’s Young Architects Program 2017. Image courtesy MoMA PS1. Photo by Pablo Enriquez.
Lumen by Jenny Sabin Studio for The Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1’s Young Architects Program 2017. Image courtesy MoMA PS1. Photo by Pablo Enriquez.
“Young Architects Program 2017: Lumen by Jenny Sabin Studio” will be on view at MoMA PS1, 22-25 Jackson Avenue at the intersection of 46th Avenue, Long Island City, New York, June 29–September 4.