Design Observer

In Issue 02 of The Architect’s Newspaper (available online tomorrow), my take on MoMA’s Rising Currents exhibition. The architects involved presented their work to a surprisingly large crowd on January 9. Best quote:

Certain tropes of contemporary waterfront design immediately surfaced: walls are bad; wetlands are good. And each project seemed to have a farmer’s market, whether on a barge, repurposed railway terminus, or flupsy (a floating oyster incubator). Pavements, edges, parks, and vacant lots were all to be permeable. Food, bi-valve or vegetal, was to be grown at or on the water’s edge.

This project represents a real departure for MoMA: a formally amorphous, sustainability-oriented topic, younger architects, a non-competitive exhibition, an interactive component, and so on. The biggest news from the presentation was that the museum is thinking of a continuing series of urban, contemporary exhibitions — which can only be a good thing for NYC architecture culture.

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