From the Museum of Modern Art Press Release:
The Museum of Modern Art and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center present an installation in P.S.1’s outdoor courtyard by Los Angeles-based firm Ball-Nogues, led by Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues, winner of the eighth annual MoMA/P.S.1 Young Architects Program. The competition invites emerging architects to propose an installation for the courtyard of P.S.1 in Long Island City, Queens. The objective of the Young Architects Program is to identify and provide an outlet for emerging young talent in architecture, an ongoing mission of both MoMA and P.S.1. This year, five finalists selected by a closed nomination process were asked to present designs for an installation at P.S.1.
The winning installation, Liquid Sky, designed by Ball-Nogues (Los Angeles), will be on view in the P.S.1 courtyard beginning June 21. Liquid Sky will immerse the viewer in kaleidoscopic patterns of color created by sunlight filtering through an array of translucent, tinted Mylar petals that resemble blossoming flowers of stained glass. Together, the petals form a tensioned surface that reconfigures the horizon, cresting above the walls of the P.S.1 courtyard. Six towers constructed from untreated utility poles support the surface while providing discrete spaces at their base for relaxing on enormous community hammocks made of brightly colored netting. For the adjacent outdoor gallery, the team has designed the Droopscape, a slack catenary belly that shifts and flows in the wind, supported by drench towers that periodically soak visitors below with their gravity-induced tip buckets by Fountainhead. The winning proposal was designed in collaboration with Paul Endres of Endres Ware Architects/Engineers and the Product Architecture Lab at Stevens Institute. As in past years, the project will serve as the venue for Warm Up, the popular music series held annually in P.S.1’s courtyard.
“Ball-Nogues’s exuberant project, Liquid Sky, combines the zest of a joyful event space with rigorous research into new materials and digital fabrication,” states Barry Bergdoll, Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design at The Museum of Modern Art. Low-tech assembly is joined with experiment in the latest cutting and fabrication techniques gleaned from the sailing industry. They posit a project whose research will hold resonance and application long after this summer’s Warm Up series. Liquid Sky is a rich palette of atmospheric effects and brilliant color with an undertone of the ephemeral circus spectacle.
According to P.S.1 Director Alanna Heiss, “To hear five great, young architects present their dream of a temporary pavilion is to fall in love five times. The winner, Ball-Nogues, from the Echo Park area of Los Angeles, gave us a Fellini-esque project: a circus tent whose canvas has been replaced with phosphorescent scales of hallucinogenic colors. This astonishing but low-tech creation cannot fail but to delight viewers of all ages.”
Ball-Nogues principals, Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues, describe the experience of their installation: “When you step into Liquid Sky, you’ve set your mind and body free from the weight of the urban environment and are submerged into an atmosphere of soothing exhilaration, subtle stimulation, and inspirational calm. As the installation changes from day-to-day, even hour-to-hour, your expectations create your own unique experience.”
Designers and Principals in Charge: Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues
Project Team: Paul Endres, Mark Pollock, Erik Verboon, Corey Brugger
Canopy Membrane Analysis and Formfinding, Structural Engineering: Endres Ware: Paul Endres, Benjamin Corotis, Mary Barensfeld
Parametric Modeling and Scripting: Product Architecture Laboratory, Stevens Institute of Technology: John Nastasi, Mark Pollock, Erik Verboon, Corey Brugger
Canopy Membrane and Structural Consultants: Arup Los Angeles: Bruce Danziger; Arup New York: Matt Jackson, Matt Clark; Werner Sobek New York: Will Laufs
Water Effects Design and Engineering: Fountainhead Water Systems Design, Los Angeles: Jenna Didier, Oliver Hess, Nick Blake
Hammocks: Sheila Pepe
Project Coordinators:: Chris Reins and Elizabeth Lande
Poster Series Curator: Israel Kandarian
Construction Coordination:Ball-Nogues Studio
Construction Team Leaders: Mark Pollack , Justin Capuco, Jed Geiman, Scott Mitchell
Construction Team: Danny Abalof, Andrea Abramoff, Rocio Barcia, Bogyi Banovich, Bridget Basham, Tripp Bassett, Harrison Blair, Lorka Birn, Lander Burton, Maria Camoratta, Steven Chen, Dianne Chia, Malachi Connely, Ceasar Cotta, Jonathan Cottle, Elizabeth Cunningham, Dino, Susannah Dickinson, Erin Egenberger, Kate Feather, Michael Ferrante, Bruce Foster, Hiroe Fujimoto, Owen Gerst, Lee Gillentine, Adrian Grenier, Yarden Harari, Mark Horne, Steve Keene, Keivon Kianfar, Greg Kay, Da Sul Kim, Nicole Kotsis, Michael Lindsey, Margot List, Catherine Lohanata, Sabrina Lupero, Andrew Lyon, Brittany Macomber, Mia Lai, Miles Mercer, Paul Matys, Cristina Milleur, Scott Mitchell, Ry Morrison, Charon Nogues, Caroline O’Leary, Meaghan Pierce-Delaney, Alex Pollock, Raphael Periera, Cindy Poulton, Ardo Pizzi, Jar Rittoral, Todd Rouhe, Larissa Santoro, Karl Schmid, Benno Schmidt, Jess Shirley, Jesse Seegers, Skyler, Rico Suarez, David Wicks, CK Dickson Wong, Tom Wu, Coe Will, and other generous contributors
Special Thanks: Brooke Hodge, Sylvia Lavin, Tripp Bassett, Monica Jeremias, Charon Nogues, Nancy Ball, William Ball, Mario Nogues, Tony Barre, Josh Levine, Meaghan Lloyd, Socrates Sculpture Park, Mark di Suvero, David Jargowski, Hood Sailmakers, Hale Walcoff, John Gluek, Tom Obed, Benjamin Keating, John Drezner, Gary Hummel, Eliott Pattison Sailmakers, Britt Holmes, Tom Majich, Jason Moses, Texas A&M University: Carol Lafayette, International Rigging – Simon Franklyn, Elizabeth Cunningham, John Nastasi, David Bott, Tom Wiscombe, Hardy Wronsky, Southern California Institute of Architecture, Pablo Castro and Jennifer Lee, Susan Hengst, Tracey Tanner, Tasha Lemel, Deagan Day Design, Jamaica Jones, Michael Lindsey Sculpture, Scott Walker
