Escobedo Soliz Studio Wins MoMA PS1's 2016 Young Architects Program

Architecture News

Mexico City-based Escobedo Soliz Studio has been named the winner of MoMA and MoMA PS1's annual Young Architects Program (YAP) in New York - now in its 17th edition. Selected over four other finalists, the winning project, Weaving the Courtyard is “neither an object nor a sculpture standing in the courtyard, but a series of simple, powerful actions that generate new and different atmospheres," says the architect. It will serve as a "temporary urban landscape" for the 2016 Warm Up summer music series in MoMA PS1’s outdoor courtyard.

"Weaving the Courtyard is a site-specific architectural intervention using the courtyard’s concrete walls to generate both sky and landscape, with embankments in which platforms of soil and water suggest the appearance of a unique topography," says MoMA.

"A reflective wading pool will stand at the back of the courtyard allowing visitors to cool off in fresh water. Using the modulation of holes existing in the concrete by the formwork ties from when the walls were originally poured, the architects will weave a textured canopy suspended over the courtyard, or a 'cloud' made of contrasting yet colorful ropes. Variations of density will be visible throughout the weaving, inviting visitors to interact and occupy spaces for different periods of time. The woven cloud will provide shade to the visitors below while recasting the courtyard in a bright colored web. As the materials will be largely unaltered by the construction process, they can be re-used at the close of summer."

“This year’s finalists of the Young Architects Program explored a range of approaches, materials, and scales to effectively question the MoMA PS1 courtyard as an arena for escape. Escobedo Solíz’s ingenious proposal speaks to both the ephemerality of architectural imagery today but also to the nature of spatial transactions more broadly. From the evocative woven canopy that will engage visitors overhead to a reflective wading pool, Weaving the Courtyard sensitively brings together elements of MoMA PS1’s Warm Up Series with an exuberant collection of zones and environments,” said Sean Anderson, Associate Curator in MoMA’s Department of Architecture and Design."

Weaving the Courtyard will open at MoMA PS1 in Long Island City in early June.

Image © Escobedo Soliz Studio