Minneapolis, Minnesota—based Jennifer Newsom and Tom Carruthers of Dream the Combine have won the 19th annual Young Architects Program (YAP), sponsored by The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and MoMA PS1, with their project entitled Hide & Seek. The responsive and kinetic installation is developed in collaboration with Clayton Binkley of ARUP and will be on view in the MoMA courtyard starting in June 2018.
Hide & Seek promises to bring several dynamic, performance-based pavilions to PS1’s courtyard spaces in order to create a “multiplicity of viewpoints where everyone’s experience is valid,” Newsom explained over telephone. The installation is made up of nine discrete compositional elements that run throughout the courtyards, including three platform areas containing opposing, movable mirrored walls. These mirrored spaces will attempt to unify the adjoining courtyard areas while integrating a performance stage, a concessions stand, and a cool-down spot into the installation. A small ancillary courtyard will contain an oversized catamaran fabric hammock. Portions of the remaining installation will be shaded by overhead fabric sails outfitted with misters calibrated to give the space an ethereal atmosphere after dark.
Each of the three main steel-framed structures will contain two inward-facing, gimbaled mirrors that can be manipulated by party goers to reflect each weekend’s unique “catharsis of movement,” according to Newsom. The infinitely-reflective mirrors create an “illusion of space [that] expands beyond the physical boundaries [of PS1] and bends into new forms, creating visual connections within the courtyard and onto the streets outside,” a press release states.
Regarding the proposal for Hide & Seek, Sean Anderson, associate curator in MoMA’s Department of Architecture and Design, said, “Conceived as a temporary site of exchange, the proposal activates the MoMA PS1 courtyard as a speculative frontier to be magnified, transgressed, and re-occupied.”
For the proposal, the designers were inspired partially by the dramatic change in use seen within the courtyard between the raucous weekend parties and more reserved weekday uses of the space. In reference to the opposing nature of the courtyard’s activities throughout the week, Carruthers said, “We are trying to create an installation that’s not just an object, but that is able to be responsive at different times of use.”
Dream the Combine beat out LeCavalier R+D, FreelandBuck, OFICINAA, and BairBalliet for the YAP commission. An exhibition highlighting the five finalists’ proposed projects will be on view at MoMA over the summer.
