Weaving the Courtyard at the Museum of Modern Art in New York

Each year for the past 17 years the Museum of Modern Art, in conjunction with the Young Architects Program (YAP), hold an international design competition to transform the museum’s courtyard each summer into an aesthetically pleasing area for visitors (International New York Times, February 1, 2016).

Established in 2000, the Young Architects Program provides an outlet for emerging talent. The objective of the competition is to provide visitors to the musuem with an outdoor recreational area for the summer – and to use the pre-existing space to the best effect. There are rules, regulations and a tight budget. The courtyard of MoMA in Long Island City, Queens, New York, is a large triangular entrance and outdoor area which serves as the venue for music concerts and live bands.

For the competition the deans of architecture schools and the editors of architecture publications nominate about 20 students, recent architectural school graduates, and established young architects to submit a portfolio of work for review. The panel selects three finalists who are invited to draft proposals for the courtyard site. Winners are chosen each February.

The 2016 YAP winner was the Escobedo Soliz Studio from Mexico City. Lazbent Escobedo and Andres Soliz formed the Studio in 2011. Their design for the MoMA courtyard is called ‘Weaving the Courtyard.’

Weaving the Courtyard will open in June for the summer season at MoMA. It uses a pattern of holes in the courtyard’s concrete walls, formed when the walls were originally constructed (out of concrete), as a template for weaving a colourful rope canopy. The architects call it a cloud over the outdoor space that will allow sunlight and heat to provide light, colour, and shade.

Underneath the woven cloud will be embankments with platforms of soil and water, and a reflective wading pool in the rear of the courtyard for MoMA visitors to cool off. The architects describe their design as ‘neither an object nor a sculpture’ but an atmosphere. The materials for the construction are reusable and sustainable.

MARTINA NICOLLS is the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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