This summer PS1 Contemporary Art Center, an arm of MOMA, celebrates the 10th year of Warm Up, its annual summer music series, in New York. This year folks who go to catch the DJs and live music will have the opportunity to also visit a farmers market, dip their feet in a cool pool, and generally chill in the shade of Public Farm 1, by Work Architecture Company. It’s a series of recyclable cardboard tubes that grows rainwater-irrigated veggies while providing solar-powered cell-phone charging and community playspace. Whew!
Among the interactive components of PF1 are swings, cubby hole seats, a periscope, and columns that provide different tactile and acoustic experiences– like being fuzzy or sounding like nighttime. It’s farm as playground. Farm as chill space. Farm as music concert companion. Farm as Fun. It’s a concept as vital to sustainability as the term “organic.” Plus that wading pool looks really nice for a hot day.
Work AC recently won the 2008 Young Architects award, but readily acknowledges that PF1 came to fruition with the help of a number of groups. The Queens County Farm Museum and the Horticultural Society of New York gave the plants greenhouse space and assisted with other aspects of the project. The watering system and weekly farmers’ market were created with the help of the Council on the Environment of New York. And of course, the PS1 public turned out en masse to provide a festive atmosphere.
+ Work Architecture Company
+ PS1 Warm Up
Via Arch Daily
Top Photo © Elizabeth Felicella
I wasn’t sure about the recycled tubbing planters initially but seeing them from the side I think it works really well. Great design.