Taking place during Archtober – New York’s month-long celebration of architecture – this year’s edition of Design Pavilion will feature three activations that evoke motifs of materiality, sustainability, social justice, and more. Focusing on architecture and sustainable building materials, these installations draw public attention to a vision of sustainable and ethical practices through the lens of design.
Two built installations, Bamboo Cloud and Public Display both on display in the Meatpacking District’s Gansevoort Plaza, will act as ‘urban oases’ for passersby as well as temporary forums designed to inspire community gathering, productive conversation. The third exhibition, I Was Here, will be a digital art projection on the World Trade Center Podium.
The organization’s Design Talks series will also continue, this year held at the Gansevoort Plaza installation with a particular focus on conversations around sustainability, repurposing, and elimination of the world’s waste.
Hovering over Gansevoort Plaza, Bamboo Cloud by Shanghai-based architecture studio llLab. was designed to challenge the traditional applications of bamboo, exploring its potential as an organic, sustainable building construction material. While still retaining the beauty of a handcrafted basket with its woven structure, the installation breaks the conventional boundaries of the material by boldly showcasing its strength. Composed of bamboo strips woven into a porous surface, the pavilion naturally uses its internal force for form finding and eventually stabilizes as a hollow space.
Working in collaboration with world-renowned architectural lighting design firm L’Observatoire International and high efficiency lighting suppliers Nanometer Lighting Color Kinetics, Bamboo Cloud will also be washed aglow with light from below.
Also at Gansevoort Plaza, Public Display, is a spatial composition crafted to facilitate public gathering for connection and communication. The installation is conceptualized by Michael Bennett, former Super Bowl Champion and NFL defensive end, who is now exploring architecture as the Founding Principal and Creative Director at Studio Kër. Bennett found inspiration in the profound interplay of materials and space, becoming particularly fascinated by the properties of Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT).
The installation relies on the qualities of CLT, elevating the concept of “mass” to an art form that enhances the weight of mass, the lightness of space, and the poetry of connection. The installation not only holds substance in form, it also holds space for dialogue, making it the ideal conversation pit for this year’s edition of Design Talks.
With programming curated by Stockholm-based industrial design studio Form Us with Love, the talks will explore waste management, the circular economy, and other sustainability-related topics.
Making its NYC debut during Design Pavilion, the I Was Here project is a series of public art installations that began in 2016 in Lexington, KY, to serve as a reverent acknowledgement of American history. Hosted by Spireworks this October, animated Ancestor Spirit Portraits will be projected on all four sides of The World Trade Center Podium, 200 feet above the ground.
Conceptualized by Marjorie Guyon with video and animation co-created by Marc Aptakin, Roy Husdell, and Yoel Meneses of Yes We Are Mad, the presentation will commemorate those whose names we will never know and begin the process of healing wounded sites from the legacy of enslavement.
