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Governors Island first opened to the public in 2004 and has since become one of New York City’s most exciting summertime attractions. Accessible only by ferry and almost entirely car-free, the park hosts a medley of annual events and attracts upward of 500,000 visitors each year.
For the seventh year, a collection of art and design groups opened up a contest to create a new pavilion on the island. The initiative, dubbed the City of Dreams Pavilion Design Competition, is the project of Figment, Emerging New York Architects Committee and the Structural Engineers Association of New York. Earlier this week, the five finalists for the competition were announced, each with a compelling design for the pavilion concept.
The pavilion will only be in place for the summer season (around four months), and entrants were asked to consider how they would construct a temporary structure in “the most efficient and sustainable way possible.” The finalists certainly took that to heart. One design is made up of discarded fishing gear; another is partially made out of moss; another is made out of plastic grocery bags.
The winner of the competition will be announced by the end of January, and the new pavilion should be completed and in place by May 1.
Check out the finalists’ designs and explanations below.
Color Waves Pavilion by Shujie Chen, Xiao Tong, Ning Wang, Yifeng Wang, Yifeng Wu, Bowen Zhang, Matthew Streeter, Jingwen Wang and Sam Wilson
“Abandoned and discarded fishing gear makes up about 10 percent of trash collected in the world’s oceans, creating a major threat to the well‐being of sea life. Color Waves Pavilion imagines a gathering space enclosed and sheltered by recycled fishing nets and fishing rods. The design combines the structural advantages of the two materials to create a light, interactive and playful pavilion structure. Layered fishnets of various colors reflect the sunlight and cast ever‐changing shadows on the visitors. The form of the pavilion morphs with the wind and can be adjusted by tightening the fishing lines on the fishing rods. After the season, the building components can be reused for recreational fishing and interior decoration.”
Mossgrove by Sam Biroscak in collaboration with Gina Dyches, Stephanie Borchers, Annick Lang and Anneli Rice
“Architectural responses to sustainability often revolve around boundary‐pushing technology or adaptive algorithms. By giving form to the formless, Mossgrove highlights the biological intelligence of moss, an ancient ecological workhorse that holds immense potential as an architectural response to climate change. Through the strategic placement of reusable scaffolding posts, Mossgrove creates two clearings beneath a wood lattice. Moss‐treated biodegradable burlap is hung from the lattice to create a collage of various species, colors and textures. By varying the size, depth and density of the moss, one can ‘tune’ the clearings to be more or less porous to the park, allowing greater focus on programs within or connectivity to the park beyond.”
The Rainbow Pavilion by Christophe Cormy Donat
“We aim to construct a pavilion entirely from sustainable materials and repurposed plastic bags, woven into brightly colored, intricate 'clouds.' The form and detail of the building will naturally intrigue viewers, enticing them to take a closer look. Upon inspection, visitors will see the familiar logos and brands of their favorite supermarkets and clothing stores woven into the fabric of the building. The kaleidoscopic installation will intrigue, educate and engage visitors, inspiring them to rethink their habits and redesign their lives.”
Oculi by Austin+Mergold
“The landscape of the rural Northeastern U.S. is dotted with metal grain bins. A product of the industrial age, when faith in technology‐driven progress outstripped our considerations of what came after, the grain bin now exists as an artefact, underused and nearly abandoned. We have now entered the moment of the 'after.' Oculi reuses this vestige of the agro‐industrial age in ways akin to those of the medieval inhabitants of Rome who reconsidered the remains of the Ancient Empire—with a bizarre combination of pragmatism and poetry. The grain bin is our contemporary spolia and can be both useful and fanciful. A de/reconstructed version of a grain bin is a field of elevated oculi that register the path of the sun, producing a range of shadow patterns below, augmented by pattern, color and sound. Following the de‐installation of Oculi, the bins will be reconstructed as an experimental housing cluster in Central New York, a House‐in‐a‐Can.”
Follicle: A Toxi‐Cartographic Proposal for New York City by Deborah Lopez, Hadin Charbel, Mika Portguaise, Francisco Prada López and Anders Rod
“Follicle is a collective being with multiple personalities gathered from across Manhattan—an aggregation of deformed screen doors clad in human hair that are examined through Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis (HTMA), revealing different levels of toxic, nutritional and mineral content in the human body. The results are rendered visible in the space through color‐coded strings suspended from the interior, which can be read by visitors as an inverted toxi‐cartographic map of the city. Tags hanging at the end of each string carry information about the mineral in question, as well as a QR code that directs users to an interactive website where they can restructure the information based on different parameters. By manifesting itself through hair grown on people and revealing its mineral content, Follicle is about expressing architecture and urban ecology as much as it is about empowering citizens through information.”
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