06/22/08
Text: Ashley Houk
MoMA and P.S.1 opened to the public their Young Architects installation in the P.S.1 courtyard today, and it’s an awe-inducing feat of engineering. The 9th Annual Young Architect Program winners, Dan Wood and Amale Andraos, of the WORK Architecture Company (WORKac) transformed the simple gravel courtyard into of P.S.1 into P.F.1 or, Public Farm 1. WORKac is an award-winning architectural group that designed a temporary boutique for Isaac Mizrahi’s clothing for Target, in Rockefeller Center, and is currently working on many projects globally, including developments in Las Vegas, Times Square and Beirut. For P.F.1., WORKac erected a flying carpet made of giant, glorified paper towel rolls, on top of which are plant beds with 51 different varieties of fruits, vegetables and herbs. Live chickens live in en enclosure nestled into a massive concrete wall. The entire assemblage was made on a $70,000 budget and used 51,000 screws and nearly 20 tons of special lightweight soil. What is maybe even more outrageous than the structural feat is that Wood and Andraos knew nothing about farming when they pitched their idea for the installation, which was selected from 40 applicants by the P.S.1 /MoMA judges. When the strawberries, potatoes, basil, dill, collards, beans, zucchini, carrots and countless other fruits and veggies are ready to eat, a member of Public Farm 1 will harvest them, and they are free for the public to take. The crops are watered via a drip irrigation system that uses siphoned rainwater.
The project also features lots of shade and seating, and a little pool which will come in handy during the Warm Up series, a dance party in the courtyard, which kicks off July 5; expect heavy-hitting electronic sets from the likes of James Murphy and Matthew Dear. Public Farm 1 will be up through the summer.
Also, be sure to check out the Arctic Hysteria exhibit inside, featuring a round up of Finnish artists and work by Iceland’s Olafur Eliasson. It’s well worth your $5.
