Kriston Capps
Kriston Capps is a staff writer for CityLab covering housing, architecture, and politics. He previously worked as a senior editor for Architect magazine.
Escobedo Solíz Studio is the latest winner of the Young Architects Program, the annual competition put on by the Museum of Modern Art P.S.1 in Long Island City, New York. But the real winners are Queens residents, who, every summer, are treated to one of the country’s most dynamic architecture pavilions.
This year’s program will be a huge fabric installation covering the MoMA P.S.1 museum courtyard, courtesy of Escobedo Solíz Studio, the Mexico City–based practice of Lazbent Pavel Escobedo and Andres Solíz. The woven-canopy concept beat out Young Architects Program finalist entries submitted by five emerging talents: Ultramoderne, Cobalt Office, Frida Escobedo, and First Office.
Previous winners of the competition include “Cosmo,” a movable canopy made of irrigation pipes that collected, filtered, and sprayed water, designed by Andrés Jaque’s Office for Political Innovation; “Hy-Fi,” a series of towers designed by The Living and made from bioengineered bricks, including corn-stalk and fungus-based bricks; and Coda’s “Party Wall,” which was pretty much what it sounds like.
Expect to see “Weaving the Courtyard” on your Instagram feed. Escobedo Solíz Studio’s project will occupy the MoMA P.S.1 courtyard all summer, during which the museum’s “Warm-Up” series will bring crowds for dance parties every Saturday.