SCI-Arc Faculty and 2018 MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program (YAP) finalists Kristy Balliet (BAIRBALLIET) and David Freeland (FreelandBuck) will discuss their respective competition proposals. The conversation with be moderated by Tom Wiscombe.
Design: BAIRBALLIET, Kelly Bair & Kristy Balliet
Loud Lines, 2018
Loud Lines proposes making buildings of drawings. Expanding on the problem of the line within the architectural discipline, Loud Lines transforms two-dimensional lines into three-dimensional volumes. Lines become spatial as well as material, inviting PS1 party-goers to inhabit the courtyard “between the lines”. Loud Lines are formally idiosyncratic as they abide by structural vector logics but feature peculiar intersections. Loud Lines are materially nuanced as they are both colorless (black by day), and vibrantly colorful (pulsing a neon glow by night). Loud Lines exude atmosphere, cooling the courtyard with misting water and rendering their solidity as porous. Loud Lines present themselves as both bold urban icons (reaching high in the sky) and background frames (providing a backdrop to the party). Bucking the tradition of canopies or objects, Loud Lines offers a series of drawn frames that form a variety of rooms each with their own spatial characteristics, suggesting a multitude of audiences and engagement.
Design: FreelandBuck, David Freeland & Brennan Buck
Out of the Picture, 2018
Our finalist proposal for the 2018 MOMA PS1 Young Architects Program, Out of the Picture, emerges from images. It’s a physical space for being together, but it is made to be translated into other, virtual formats. It borrows the language of images (graphic density, saturation, illusion, legibility) and translates it back into something physical. Visitors enter a world of imagery, where everything is somehow recognizable but a bit out of focus and low resolution. Our proposal brings the streetscapes of Long Island City into the PS1 courtyard, both literally and scenographically. Objects from the street (stoops, benches, mailboxes, fire hydrants) invade the courtyard while it’s bounding walls host views outward, onto the city. A canopy, woven from the same scenes, extends overhead, casting recognizable shadows. Out of the picture isn’t all surfaces and flatness - it’s also about space. Appearances shift as you move; the courtyard fills with meaningful points of view where illusionary spaces emerge, layers align, objects and building come into view or disperse into pattern and color. Our proposal develops from our interest in the history of Trompe l’oeil, drawings that project out, through the picture plane, into the real world. Trompe l’oeil relies on a particular point of view, a place to stand where the illusion works best. The proposed canopy acts as an intricately folded picture plane, creating multiple, simultaneous views of what’s being drawn. This multiplies the implied station points, dispersing them throughout the courtyard rather than consolidating them at a single center. The canopy is made from three interlocking seven-foot-deep triangular trusses that span up to 90 feet between the walls of the PS1 courtyard. Fabricated by Fabric Images, Inc., Non-woven fabric would be printed, CNC-cut, and held taught by zippered connections, wrapping the truss. The result is a three-dimensional drawing at building scale that asks to be puzzled over and made sense of – both as a massive floating object and a continually surprising landscape of illusion.