HWKN (HollwichKushner) Win MoMA/P.S.1 Young Architects Program
New York-based HWKN (HollwichKushner), a firm headed by two of the impresarios behind Architizer, has won the 13th edition of the Museum of Modern Art's Young Architects Program—an annual competition to design a temporary structure for the courtyard attached to P.S.1, the New York City museum's contemporary art outpost in Queens.
The firm's design is a large blue sea urchin, named Wendy, suspended from a network of scaffolding. Its spines, made of high-tech fabric, are designed to clean pollution from the air around the site, which neighbors a taxi garage and the approach to the Queens-Midtown Tunnel. It will go on view sometime in June and serve as a venue for the Queens kunsthalle's annual "Warm-Up" series of outdoor events. Watch P.S.1's site for details.
Images courtesy HWKN
The fabric that HWKN plans to use in the installation was developed by designer Helen Storey and scientist Tony Ryan. Watch a video about the material below.