Coney Island

After about an hour's travel on the subway you arrive at Coney Island. It was so different from NY. It was run down and neglected, but that just added to it's charm. As you leave the station Nathan's famous frankfurters are on your right and ahead of you is the approach to the beach and arcade promenade. When you reach the promenade you overlook the vast expanse of white beach with neon lifeguards. The arcade promenade sends you back to the 1950's with games like 'shoot the freak', a cart roller coaster and the wonder wheel. The only place I can relate Coney Island to in Britain is Blackpool, but Coney Island is so much better and more charming than Blackpool could ever be.

MOMA: Two designers

Matthias Megyeri:Has created a 'Sweet Dreams Security System'. He recreated objects you would relate to protection and security i.e. chains and glass objects into cute, lovable objects. His designs mess with the cold, harsh ways we restrict people i.e. glass embedded into walls and pad locks and creating a new way to represent these defensive objects in a sensitive way.




Jordi Canudas: Created the 'Less Lamp'. A beautiful lamp that is unique to every owner. The lamp is an plaster egg with a hammer so you crack the egg thus, creating a lamp that suits its specific location by controlling how much light and direction it's cast.

High Line

The High Line is an inspiring landscape. When you're walking up the street towards the High Line you start to see trees floating in the sky. When on the High Line you wander through buildings and different areas of planting, but whats really fun is as you walk you are parallel to advertising boards and you overlook the traffic below. High Line is inspiring because it's a new way to create green space in an urban environment by taking an above ground derelict railway and creating a green corridor across NY.

Rockefeller

My main reason to go up the Rockefeller Tower was the view of Central Park, and it was well worth the effort. The view of Central Park was outstanding and allowed me to understand the size of the park compared to the rest of NY. The view from the opposite side of the Tower was of the Empire State building and I could see the Chrysler Building (partially hidden by a Met life building) and the Hudson River.

P.S.1

P.S.1 is the Institute of Contemporary Art. It's an exhibition space for experimental art and emerging artists.
When I arrived, the courtyard was displaying 'afterparty' by MOS, the winner of the 2009 young architects' program. The design was basically a series of hairy shelters that keep people cool by induction. I'm not sure about the design, I like the idea of keeping people cool using chimneys and induction by creating breezes but I don't understand why it's hairy...


Another piece that was really fun was Leandro Erlich's 'Swimming pool'. A piece that allowed you to go under the surface of a pool whilst staying dry. It was a bazaar experience.

MOMA: Ron Arad exhibition

Ron Arad's exhibition 'No Discipline' was a huge collection of his work from models of architecture to lighting and chairs. The space was so dynamic with a central undulating form that created different themes and spaces to categorise his works and give the space an order/flow. His works are very dramatic either in shape/form or materials used, but all of his work is very natural with no sharp corners and is very curvy, representing movement.
Zion Square Sculpture was one of my favs in the exhibition. It looks really simplistically beautiful as a structure, but comes alive with the sun's movement.
The design's canopy is based upon 400 rectangular cells representing the different materials used to create paths. The structure is transformed with the sun's movement across the sky creating changing shadows throughout the day and year. The video below shows a model of the canopy and how the sun's movement casts dramatic shadows.



http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2009/ronarad/#/2/-1

New York

I went to New York for two weeks over the summer and the next set of blogs covers places, exhibitions and designs that I visited and enjoyed.