just threw my two-cent comment hat into the feedback ring at the Bustler entry on the winners of the 2011 PS1 young architects program. Above is one of the fun competition images from Interboro partners, and follows is the text of my comment:
I’m not sure why everyone is jumping up and down, yelling “where’s the architecture?!”. a question for all these commenters then: what is architecture? lay down some definitions and frameworks to at least give a sense of where your critique is coming from. i understand the comment about the formal simplicity of the canopy, thhtough treating it as though it is what the projext is all about seems to miss the point. the first point of the project appears to be to provide the courtyard with an envelope, albeit a thin, porous and form-fitting one. having defined the physical boundary through a material device, the design then infiltrates that boundary, not with a formal gesture, but with a sort of community-interaction device. rather than fill the courtyard with something whimsical (balls and nets) or surreal (furry pillars), the space is populated by objects that carry relational meaning for the community. this is a refreshing detour from the reliance on formal material gestures and instead allows for a critical assessment of the relationship between the institution of PS1 and the cultural milieu in which it physically resides.
for my part, i do wish that the formal expression carried out in the canopy did show some kind of responsiveness to the infiltration of the community’s interest, such that we are not seeing a simple canopy connecting nearest points of multiple rooftops, but instead saw a form that was generated by the content of the space. for example, could the location of the particular items “held” for certain institutions define local points of change in the canopy, such that someone seeing the canopy from the outside would be able to distinguish different regions of the courtyard, and perhaps even associate them with particular denizens of the neighborhood.
all told, i think this is an interesting departutre for YAP, insofar as “architecture” is being operated upon across time and socioeconomic boundaries, much to the chagrin of those looking for some hot new formal gesture.
