The first MoMA PS1 “Warm Up” party of the summer goes down this Saturday in Long Island City, and this year’s courtyard installation is ready to grow. Get over your fear of mold and step inside designer David Benjamin’s totally safe new creation, “Hy-Fi.”
Brought to life through “a new method of bio-design” that has no chance of replicating beyond our ability to control it and covering every surface of the city, the installation’s self-generating fungus which will grow ever-upwards in the form of organic bricks. From the press release:
Hy-Fi combines cutting-edge engineering with innovative biotechnology to create a new building material that is grown rather than manufactured, and with it a structure that is almost entirely compostable. Its bricks are made entirely of organic matter, a combination of discarded cornstalks and living root-like structures from mushrooms. After a few days in a mold, this mixture hardens into a sturdy, lightweight solid. The natural cycle of carbon through the ground, air, water, and living matter is temporarily diverted to produce a building that grows out of and returns to nothing but earth—with almost no waste, no energy input, and no carbon emissions.
The shiny blocks near the top of the structure are the molds in which the organic bricks are grown. They are coated in a special light-refracting film invented by 3M, which helps direct light down into the towers. Once the structure is taken down, these molds will be sent back to 3M for further research. The tower is designed to create a pleasant microclimate in the summer by drawing in cool air at the bottom and pushing out hot air at the top. Hy-Fi offers shade, color, light, views, and a futuristic experience that is refreshing, thought-provoking, and full of wonder and optimism.
Hy-Fi is on view during regular PS1 hours through September 7th. And here are the lineups for all the Saturday Warm Up parties. No Thom Yorke this year, sadly.
