A web-like cellular canopy designed by Ithaca-based Jenny Sabin wraps the courtyard of MoMA PS1’s courtyard in Long Island City, New York - the robotically knitted fabric was designed by Jenny Sabin Studio as part of The Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1’s 2017 annual Young Architects Program. 

Sabin's photoluminescent textile - called Lumen - is still on view until September 4 within the courtyard of MoMA PS1 to experience light, shadow and colour spontaneously over the course of the day.

Lumen was made of over 1 million yards of digitally knitted fiber and its large-scale cellular canopies feature 250 hanging tubular structures, 100 robotically woven recycled spool stools, and a misting system that responds to visitors’ proximity.

The installation is a socially and environmentally responsive structure that can adapt the density of bodies, heat, and sunlight with various forms. Insipired by collective levity, play, and interaction, the structure continuously transforms itself in a different appearance throughout the day and night.

Jenny Sabin uses different fields to create this web-like installation including biology, materials science, mathematics, and engineering. All inputs of these technologies integrate high-performing, formfitting, and adaptive materials into a structure where code, pattern, human interaction, environment, geometry, and matter operate together.

Lumen will also house MoMA PS1’s pioneering outdoor activity "Warm Up 2017" on July 22, 2017, developed an integral part of MoMA PS1’s contemporary program.

"Knitting and textile fabrication offer a fruitful material ground for exploring these nonstandard fibrous potentials. As with cell networks, materials find their own form where the flow of tension forces through both geometry and matter serve as active design parameters," said Jenny Sabin.

"Lumen undertakes rigorous interdisciplinary experimentation to produce a multisensory environment that is full of delight, inspiring collective levity, play, and interaction as the structure and materials transform throughout the day and night."

Jenny Sabin was selected as the winner of MoMA PS1 YAP 2017 in February 2017 and other finalists for the Young Architects Program 2017 included Bureau Spectacular (Jimenez Lai and Joanna Grant), Ania Jaworska, Office of III (Sean Canty, Ryan Golenberg, and Stephanie Lin), and SCHAUM/SHIEH (Rosalyne Shieh and Troy Schaum).

Five finalists' proposed projects are also exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art from July 1 to September 4, 2017. The YAP exhibition will also be hosted by MoMA's international partners at MMCA, Seoul, South Korea - opening July 10, 2017 - and CONSTRUCTO, Santiago, Chile from March 8 to April 30, 2018.

Celebrating its 18th edition, the Young Architects Program at The Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1 offers emerging architectural talent the opportunity to design and present innovative projects, challenging each year’s winners to develop creative designs for a temporary, outdoor installation that provides shade, seating, and water. The architects must also work within guidelines that address environmental issues, including sustainability and recycling.

Last year, Escobedo Solíz Studio won MoMA PS1’S 2016 Young Architects Program with "Weaving the Courtyard" and used colourful ropes that created variations of density. The woven cloud provided shade to the visitors below while recasting the courtyard in a bright colored web.

All images © Pablo Enriquez

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