Governors Island’s 2018 City of Dreams Pavilion finalists announced

The annual arts festival will announce the winner at the end of this month

By Tanay Warerkar@TanayWarerkar Jan 16, 2018, 3:45pm EST

The design competition to bring an architectural pavilion to Governors Island is back, and the organizers behind it have now announced the five finalists for the competition.

The City of Dreams Design Competition is now in its seventh year, and is organized by the non-profit FIGMENT, along with the Emerging New York Architects Committee (ENYA) of the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter (AIANY), and the Structural Engineers Association of New York (SEAoNY).

The organizers asked architects and designers to think about designing for the future with the limited economic and natural resources at hand, and to create a sustainable design.

Participants were also asked to consider the entire life cycle of building materials while handing in their proposals; they could do this by re-using waste from construction sites or by working with environmentally conscious groups, but they had to show that their use of materials and the installation process had as little impact on the environment as possible.

Here now are the five finalists for the competition:

↑ Color Waves Pavilion

This structure is designed using recycled fishing nets and rods, and the various colors of the fishing nets create a multi-colored effect within the pavilion. Designed by a group that comprises of Shujie Chen, Xiao Tong, Ning Wang, Yifeng Wang, Yifeng Wu, Bowen Zhang, Matthew Streeter, Jingwen Wang, and Sam Wilson, this pavilion’s size can also be adjusted by tightening the fishing lines. The use of fishing gear stemmed from the fact it constitutes 10 percent of the trash collected in the world’s oceans, and is a threat to sea life.

↑ Follicle: A Toxi‐Cartographic Proposal for New York City

This pavilion is made up of screen doors clad in human hair. This is then examined through Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis (HTMA), and the results are shown through color-coded strings suspended in the interiors of the pavilion. The results show “different levels of toxic, nutritional, and mineral content in the human body,” and for the designers Deborah Lopez, Hadin Charbel, Mika Portguaise, Francisco Prada López, and Anders Rod, the pavilion “expresses architecture and urban ecology as much as it empowers citizens through information.”

↑ Mossgrove

Moss is the central focus of this pavilion; reusable scaffolding posts are placed beneath a wooden lattice, and from it hangs moss-treated biodegradable burlap that creates a collage of different colors and textures. The structure can be altered to create a greater focus on the park beyond or the activities taking place in the park. The pavilion was envisioned by Sam Biroscak in collaboration with Gina Dyches, Stephanie Borchers, Annick Lang, and Anneli Rice.

↑ Oculi

Oculi is designed with largely abandoned metal grain bins, that dot the rural Northeast, according to the designers on the project, Austin+Mergold. These relics of the industrial age are elevated for Governors Island to create different shadow patterns along with colors and sound. The designers are proposing that after their use on Governors Island, these bins be reconstructed for an experimental housing cluster in NYC.

↑ The Rainbow Pavilion

Created with repurposed plastic bags that have been woven into brightly-colored clouds, this kaleidoscopic pavilion is meant to ask visitors to rethink their habits. Once under the pavilion, visitors will be able to see logos and brands of familiar supermarkets woven into the roof of the pavilion. The pavilion was designed by Christophe Cormy Donat.

The jury will now examine the finalists once again and pick a winner at the end of this month. The installation will go up on the island during the summer, when it opens once again to the public.