A plan for the mirrored tent pictured above beat out 80 other entries in an international design competition and will now be installed at the StreetFest event on May 4. The street fair is part of the second-ever Ideas City confab, the New Museum's effort to marry the worlds of art & culture and urban studies. The tents, called MirrorMirror and designed by Buffalo, N.Y.-based architecture firm Davidson Rafailidis, are fairly simple structures, with a 45-degree apex, aluminum-framed panels wrapped in reflective mylar foil, and open sides at their base. Individual units are 12 by 16 feet, and several can be put side by side to create a longer covered space; during next weekend's street fair, you can find them near the New Museum on Bowery at Prince Street.
According to Bustler, one member of the design competition's jury said that both walking beneath the mirrors and looking at the surrounding buildings and scenes reflected in the exterior will be uber-cool for visitors. The concept overall is (mind the archibabble) "a disruptive act in the perception of the city: it constructs serendipitous encounters through its mirrored, inclined walls. It shelters the activities any street tent does, but it does so by generating a network of gazes, encounters, and surprises where the citizen becomes self-conscious of its participation and construction of a collective act."
· Ideas City and StreetFest [official sites]
· Davidson Rafailidis Wins 2013 IDEAS CITY StreetFest Competition [Bustler]
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