CENTER FOR ARCHITECTURE | AIANY

I attend two events at the Center for Architecture (AIANY) in the last week. The first was 'Experiments in Design: 20 Years of MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program' which was a presentation about MoMA's pavilion competition that attracts young architect talent from around the world. This year's winners were Pedro y Juana, and their work comments on artificiality and the contrast between the rainforest and the urban. It was an interesting project, and it was good to see the types of architecture that MoMA and by extension New York, celebrates.

--

The second event was an exhibition opening and talk called 'Big Ideas, Small Lots' in which the results for a competition hosted by AIANY and the affordable housing council in New York ran. 5 winners were chosen for their creative use of left over space in the city, and these works were presented on large competition boards. However, I found the rest of the exhibition even more interesting, as it exposed that the city does have government-owned plots of land that could be used for public events. Whilst the competition was interesting and well-meaning, it did also focus around luxury housing, and I thought the proposal do not necessarily meet the immediate needs of the city.

Couldn't these lots be used for schools? Community centres? Anything but designer housing?