An innovative artistic installation at the PS1 and the programme that promotes such construction have set examples for the region to find design self-sufficiency.
Ever since its establishment in 1971, the PS1 Centre for Contemporary Art in Queens has championed the innovative and the experimental — transforming abandoned buildings and producing bold surveys of the works of emerging artists and designers in New York through initiatives such as the Young Architects Programme.
An annual competition held under the programme, which is in its ninth year, calls for the creation of an outdoor installation in the PS1 courtyard, which becomes a space for socialising during New York’s summer months.
This year’s winning proposal, Public Farm 1 (PF1), by Dan Wood and Amale Andraos — the husband-and-wife duo who founded the Work Architecture Company — is an architectural allegory of the pressing social issues of our time.
Juxtaposed against the grey, concrete walls of PS1, this green, urban-farm concept descends to the museum’s gravel courtyard like a flying carpet.
The PF1 has been fabricated using heavy-duty cardboard tubes bolted together and stands as an ecological infrastructure in the neighbourhood.
“[Public Farm 1] asserts itself as a cultivated and cultivatable structure that is a timely comment on issues that range from sustainability to post-industrialisation,” says Barry Bergdoll, chief curator of architecture and design at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), which jointly sponsors the Young Architects Programme.
Wood and Andraos are advocates of such urban farming methods and handle courses on ecology and urbanism at the Princeton University.
The couple’s idea of promoting sustainability and agricultural self-sufficiency through activist architecture comes through in this farmers’-market-meets-flying-carpet structure that is playful and, at the same time, engages viewers with thoughts and ideas.
“Although not a solution, [the structure] is unique in that it is a witty, almost tongue-in-cheek commentary on some of the pressing environmental and food shortage issues facing the world today,” Bergdoll says.
Perfect blend
And it is in this Kundera-esque blend — of the “lightness” of a social space with the “heaviness” of engaging young artists and designers in creative thinking and experimentation — that the charm of the Young Architects Programme lies.
Zehra Ahmad, a final-year architecture student at the Rhode Island School of Design who had volunteered at the Young Architects Programme, is greatly inspired by the experience. “As a budding architect, I think it is critical to work on a site and expose oneself to the nitty-gritty of construction,” says Zehra, who is setting up a forum for exchange of ideas among design students.
Such a forum, which encourages imaginative thinking, is, perhaps, nowhere more urgently required than in the Gulf.
The region has, in a decade, seen a flurry of construction activity coinciding with its emergence as an economic powerhouse.
However, while the vista across the Dubai Creek pays homage to the grandeur of the Burj Al Arab and the hauteur of The Burj Dubai, structures designed by home-grown architects are conspicuous by their absence.
As it is witnessing one of the greatest concentrations of architectural commissions in the world today, the Gulf is in desperate need of young students of architecture and design who can rethink some of the closed design practices and are willing to experiment.
However one of biggest hurdles the region is facing in fulfilment of this demand, it seems, is the paucity of higher education programmes in architecture.
Wood and Andraos feel it might be beneficial for the region to bring in the European model of open competitions so as to bring out young, local talent and develop a healthy community of artists and designers.
“PF1 has generated more publicity and interest than anything we have done [earlier],” says Wood, who left his job as a partner at the Office of Metropolitan Architecture in Rotterdam four years ago to start Work Architecture Company with the Harvard-educated Andraos. “It has certainly given us tremendous momentum.”
The couple, whose initial projects were “either competitions or cancelled”, have worked on projects such as the Diane von Furstenberg store in New York’s meatpacking district and the Cadavre Exquis Libanais in Beirut.
They confess that they are excited about the potential of the Young Architects Programme to prove itself a serious solution for the Gulf.
A special bond
Having lived in Beirut and Dhahran, where her father worked as an architect, Andraos says the region holds special significance for her. “Should such an initiative in the Gulf be possible, it is definitely something we would like to be involved in,” she says.
Bergdoll says: “The MoMA can bring its expertise of having organised something like this and can work with individuals on a regional level to bring about what could be a very fascinating and fruitful endeavour.”
That would mean that the only news from the construction industry in the Gulf would not be of yet another famous foreign architect constructing yet another famous building, he added.
The efforts could then lead to more architectural competitions, design symposiums and exchange-of-art exhibitions that could enable both sides to learn about each others’ work.
Then we might bear witness to an emerging interest in the largely ignored realms of modern art and design in the UAE, which has so far announced franchises of a couple of classical art museums.
But in a country of specific cultural traditions and climactic requirements such as the UAE, the key will be to initiate serious conversations on the subject.
“The first step is to create a cultural dialogue and build a bridge with local museums and cultural centres, or even a couple of people with access to spaces and resources, as this will be critical to understanding what we can exchange with the region.
"The cultural dialogue model, as opposed to the franchise model, is what we are interested in,” Bergdoll says.
The dialogues and exchanges can develop a cadre of locally trained curators who start to develop their own projects and cultural voice.
This could prove critical to running large museums and institutions of higher learning locally.
With competitions, the region’s young designers can think creatively, get noticed and, with time, the fruits of these endeavours may well be seen across the Dubai Creek as well.
