FIGMENT, the summer-long art and design festival that pops up on Governors Island every summer, has selected not one but two pavilions to be built for its 2015 summer “City of Dreams” program. The two designs are well underway, but they need your help to make it across the finish line. They are both seeking funding for construction, so if you have an interest in New York City’s cultural programming, check out their Kickstarter campaigns and chip in to show your support!
Image courtesy Izaskun Chinchilla Architects
Image courtesy BanG studio
Billion Oyster Pavilion by New York-based BanG studio is a combination of the City of Dreams brief and the work of The New York Harbor School’s Billion Oyster Project. Oysters thrived in New York harbor until the water became too polluted to support them around the turn of the 20th century. Today, the water is finally healthy enough to reintroduce oysters. After its life on Governor’s Island, the Billion Oyster Pavilion and its cast-concrete elements supports, or “Reef Balls,” will become homes for oysters. Its woven canopy will become “Oyster Condos,” or metal cages filled with old oyster shells. Both will be covered in oyster spat and placed in the harbor.
Organic Growth by Izaskun Chinchilla Architects of Madrid and London is inspired by nature. Its flower-like canopies are made of reused and donated bike wheels, car rims, tripods, and umbrellas. These smaller elements will be given new life after the pavilion. Umbrellas and tripods will become shading devices, while larger elements might be used for chandeliers.
Billion Oyster Pavilion needs to raise $22,000 by April 7 and Organic Growth is looking to raise $20,000 by April 25. Kickstarter has become a new way of realizing projects that otherwise would not be able to get funding. This empowering mechanism has enabled huge civic projects like the + POOL, as well as mobile museums, floating saunas, and social design projects.