MoMA PS1’s annual Young Architects Program commissions one studio per year to take over its courtyard, creating an immersive installation that will be on view throughout the season. This year, chosen from five finalists, Jenny Sabin Studio won the honor with her Lumen design. At museum’s upcoming outdoor music series “Warm Up,” you’ll be sure to see and experience her unique urban landscape.
“The Young Architects Program remains one of the most significant opportunities for architects and designers from across the country and world to build radical yet transformative ideas. This year’s finalists are no exception; their projects illustrate a diversity of approaches and refreshing ideas for architecture today,” said Sean Anderson, Associate Curator in MoMA’s Department of Architecture and Design. “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.”
Working within guidelines that bring environmental issues to light, the architects must also create an innovative design to provide shade, seating, and water for those visiting during the warm months ahead. This set of expectations is nothing new to Jenny Sabin Studio though, as her firm holds these types of principles and obstacles close. They investigate where architecture, science, and mathematics meet, and Sabin has been known to work with computational design, data visualization, and digital fabrication. For Lumen, she designed lightweight tubular structures with canopies of recycles, photo-luminescent, and solar active textiles that will absorb and exude light. The knitted fabric will also encompass a misting system that will activate depending on how close the visitor is to the installation, creating a multisensory experience.
“In its 18th iteration, this annual competition offered jointly by the Architecture and Design Department at MoMA and MoMA PS1 continues to take risks and encourage experimentation among architects. Jenny Sabin’s Lumen is 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 with its responsiveness to temperature, sunlight, and movement,” added Klaus Biesenbach, MoMA PS1 Director and MoMA Chief Curator at Large.
Jenny Sabin Studio. Lumen. 2017 (rendering). Winner of the Young Architects Program 2017, MoMA PS1, New York. Courtesy Jenny Sabin Studio.
