From October 12 to 18, NYCxDESIGN presents the Design Pavilion, a prominent public architectural exhibition in New York. Occurring during Archtober, a month-long celebration of architecture, this year's Design Pavilion highlights three imaginative installations spanning materiality, sustainability, social justice, and more.
Two tangible installations have been designed to transform Gansevoort Plaza in the Meatpacking District into urban retreats, while the third exhibit offers a digital art projection at the World Trade Center Podium, addressing the nation's history of enslavement and the quest for healing. Along with the pavilions, the Design Talks program highlights and opens discussions on relevant issues of the profession, centering around themes of sustainability, repurposing, and waste reduction.
Read on to discover the architectural installations on display during the 2023 NYCxDESGN festival.
Related Article
Temporary, but with Long-Lasting Effects: 6 Ways in Which Architecture Festivals Can Revitalize a CityBamboo Cloud by llLab
Positioned above Gansevoort Plaza, the "Bamboo Cloud," a creation by Shanghai-based architectural studio llLab., redefines the conventional applications of bamboo, investigating its viability as an eco-friendly construction material. This endeavor follows a previous installation in Guilin in 2020. The structure strives to demonstrate bamboo’s qualities by integrating bamboo strips woven into an open framework that uses the fibers of the material to give strength to the structure. The pavilion stabilizes the hollow space with structural resilience and demonstrates how the technique could be used at an even larger scale. Collaborating with architectural lighting design firm L'Observatoire International and lighting suppliers Nanometer Lighting Color Kinetics, "Bamboo Cloud" is illuminated from beneath, enhancing its aesthetic appeal.
Bamboo Cloud defines a temporary new space offering visitors a seat under its playful game of light and shadow, to contemplate community. Its materiality spreads a golden light that will mark this New York City street. - Hanxiao Liu, co-founding partner at llLab
Public Display by Michael Bennett / Studio Kër
The second installation in Gansevoort Plaza is named ‘Public Display,’ designed by Michael Bennett, a former Super Bowl Champion who now ventures into architecture as the Founding Principal and Creative Director at Studio Kër. The structure takes cues from the intricate interplay between materials and space, focusing on the qualities of Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT). The installation creates a balance between the weight of the materials and the empty space generated, providing a platform for dialogue and communication. It now serves as the setting for the Design Talks during this year’s festival. With programming curated by the Stockholm-based industrial design studio Form Us with Love, the talks delve into topics like waste management, the circular economy, and sustainability-related subjects.
Public Display is a tribute to our environment, with a commitment to sustainability and an artistic presentation. Plus, the space offers a series of community conversations. To listen is to love, so we create a sacred space to listen. - Michael Bennett, Founding Principal and Creative Director at Studio Kër
I Was Here by Yes We Are Mad
Conceptualized by Marjorie Guyon with video and animation co-created by Marc Aptakin, Roy Husdell, and Yoel Meneses of Yes We Are Mad, the ‘I Was Here’ project represents a series of public art installations that aim to serve as an acknowledgment of American history. Hosted by Spireworks this October, the project features animated Ancestor Spirit Portraits projected on all sides of The World Trade Center Podium. This location, so relevant to recent American history, used to be the site of the second-largest auction for enslaved Africans in the nation. The presentation pays tribute to the unnamed individuals from the past and seeks to heal the wounds of sites impacted by the legacy of enslavement. Following its activation in Lower Manhattan, NYCxDESIGN plans to support "I Was Here" through a series of projections and digital experiences throughout the city over the next year.
When I was three, I took the ferry and climbed to the very top of Lady Liberty to see the land and sea through her eyes. Like the Statue of Liberty, the Ancestor Spirit Portraits of the ‘I Was Here’ project are iconic - their presence allowing our city, our country, and our world to see through their sacred, ancient eyes - Marjorie Guyon, artist and founder of ‘I Was Here’
NYCxDESIGN, initiated by the City of New York in 2011, plays a crucial role in gathering a worldwide design community across design disciplines. The festival encompasses various events, including exhibitions, installations, trade shows, talks, product launches, and more across the city's five boroughs. The Design Pavilion, an integral part of NYCxDESIGN, is a free public design exhibition founded in 2015, promoting the importance of design through experiential installations, pavilions and urban interventions. Last year’s edition of the festival, which also celebrated its 10th year anniversary, presented pavilions and interventions by artists and architects such as CLB Architects, Vitra x Lutfi Janania, and Foscarini.
