The MoMA/P.S. 1 Young Architecture Program has become a kingmaker of sorts for young architects in the city and beyond. Now in its 12th year, the program has returned to Brooklyn to select its new architectural royalty, suggesting yet again that all the city’s creative types have indeed left Manhattan for fairer (and more affordable) shores.
Interboro Partners are not exactly neophytes, having worked on a handful of high-profile installations and projects in the city in recent years, such as Lentspace and Made in Midtown. What does set the firm apart though is that its goal is as much about traditional architecture as radical urban planning–demonstrating the more holistic, macro-focused approach that is in vogue with many young designers (see: Bjarke Ingels, who was a runner-up in last year’s competition).
SLIDESHOW: Playing P.S. 1′s String Section. >>
Titled “Holding Pattern,” Interboro’s pavilion consists of a simple yet elegant lattice of ropes connecting the museum itself to the ground, beneath which are arrayed benches, ping pong tables, mirrors and lights, all of which will be donated to the community at the end of next summer, when the canopy comes down. The firm determined the materials through interviews with neighbors. “Warm-Up’s programmatic requirements seating, shade, and a water feature-sometimes overlap with the needs of Warm Up’s neighbors,” the firm writes on its Web site.
“Simple materials that transform a space to create a kind of public living room and rec room are trademarks of this young Brooklyn firm,” Barry Bergdoll, the chief curator of MoMA’s Architecture & Design Department, said in a release. “Interboro is interested in creating elegant and unpretentious spaces with common materials. Their work has both a modesty and a commitment quite at odds with the luxury and complex computer-generated form that has prevailed in the city in recent years.”
While simple, this appears to be the largest pavilion yet, at least in terms of the space it covers.
Last year, Brooklyn-based (but Dutch- and Chinese-born) firm SO-IL won with a similarly stringy proposal, and it has only heightened their profile, which they earned working on the new New Museum. Past winners have included other hot shots WorkAC, OBRA, and super-of-the-moment firm SHoP, which realized three major new projects last week.
SLIDESHOW: Playing P.S. 1′s String Section. >>
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article misidentified one of the members of SO-IL as Danish, not Dutch. The Observer regrets the error.
mchaban [at] observer.com | @mc_nyo
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