Miguel de Guzman

In February, MoMA PS1one of the oldest and largest nonprofit contemporary art museums in the country, announced Spanish architect Andrés Jaque as the winner of the Young Architects Program (YAP), now in its sixteenth year celebrating emerging talent in the field. The design will be the main spectacle of the annual “Warm Up” summer party the institution hosts on the rooftop of its Long Island City, New York, location. To combat the inescapable heat eventgoers endure, the competition asked contestants to create a temporary design that would provide shade, seating, and water, while addressing an environmental issue.

Spanish architect Andrés Jaque on site with COSMO.
Image courtesy of Andres Jaque/Office for Political Innovation. Photo by Photo by Miguel de Guzmán / Imagen Subliminal.com Spanish architect Andrés Jaque on site with COSMO.

Jaque’s answer to this necessary design component is COSMO, a moveable fixture made of irrigation pipes the crowds can move in whatever direction they see fit. Alluding to the main source of water that New Yorkers depend on, the circular tubes filter and recycle the same 3,000 gallons of water that is completely purified over the course of a four-day cycle—becoming purer with every rotation. This facet plays into MoMA PS1’s guideline to integrate sustainable features related to the aforementioned environmental topic.

The architect's design is specifically focused on a statistic published by the United Nations, that estimates by 2025, two-thirds of people across the globe will live in countries with “water-stressed conditions.” The 44-year-old designer, who directs the Office for Political Innovation and teaches at Columbia University, designed COSMO as an installation to not only bring awareness of water scarcity, but as an instrument that can be reproduced in other locations across the world to give people access to drinking water.

Now, the structure is realized and anxiously awaiting for the arrival of live music lovers and design enthusiasts to interact with it tonight at 6:30 p.m. when it opens.

Image courtesy of Andres Jaque/Office for Political Innovation. Photo by Miguel de Guzmán / Imagen Subliminal.com
Image courtesy of Andres Jaque/Office for Political Innovation. Photo by Photo by Miguel de Guzmán / Imagen Subliminal.com
Image courtesy of Andres Jaque/Office for Political Innovation. Photo by Photo by Miguel de Guzmán / Imagen Subliminal.com
Image courtesy of Andres Jaque/Office for Political Innovation. Photo by Photo by Miguel de Guzmán / Imagen Subliminal.com
Image courtesy of Andres Jaque/Office for Political Innovation. Photo by Photo by Miguel de Guzmán / Imagen Subliminal.com
Image courtesy of Andres Jaque/Office for Political Innovation. Photo by Photo by Miguel de Guzmán / Imagen Subliminal.com