Today, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and MoMA PS1 in New York announced the winner of the 20th annual Young Architects Program (YAP). Led by Ana Paula Ruiz Galindo and Mecky Reuss, Mexico City–based practice Pedro & Juana has been selected from five finalists to assemble a temporary installation that will host the Warm Up outdoor music series. Called Hórama Rama, the installation will feature a 40-foot-tall and 90-foot-wide cyclorama depicting a panoramic image of the jungle perched on the PS1 courtyard walls with an immersive "junglescape" at the center.
"Finding inspiration in historical panoramas, Pedro & Juana have designed a structure that will allow visitors to immerse themselves in a fantastical wilderness, a visual refuge from the city,” said MoMA PS1 chief curator Peter Eleey in a press release. “By juxtaposing two landscapes in transition—the jungle and the Long Island City skyline—they draw attention to the evolving conditions of our environment, both globally and locally, at a crucial moment.”
The exterior of the structure will be clad in "protruding wood 'bristles'," according to the same release, which are intended to offer a sense of movement. The courtyard will also feature hammocks made in the south of Mexico and a functioning waterfall.
“Pedro & Juana's world-within-a-world, Hórama Rama, is a manifold of views in which to see and be seen, to find and lose oneself in a radically different environment," said Sean Anderson, associate curator in MoMA’s Department of Architecture and Design in the release. "The installation constructs a collection of scenes into which visitors may escape, even if for a moment, whether in a hammock or by the waterfall.”
The other finalists were State College, Pa.–based Low Design Office, led by DK Osseo-Asare; New York–based Romanian architect Oana Stanescu and Stockholm-based Japanese designer Akane Moriyama; Boston-based Matter Design, led by Brandon Clifford; and Mexico City–based TO, led by Carlos Facio and Jose G. Amozurrutia.
Last year's winner was Minneapolis-based firm Dream the Combine for its Hide & Seek installation.
