Good Reading: Above The Pavement – The Farm!

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Have you read – Above The Pavement – The Farm! : Architecture and Agriculture at P.F.1? It is definitely the perfect subway read for any art, architecture, or urban agriculture enthusiasts, and a great addition any sustainable design library.

Back in 2008, MoMA P.S.1 in Long Island City announced New York City based WORK Architecture Company (WORK AC) the winner of their annual Young Architects Program. The competition pits innovate design proposals of emerging architectural firms against each other, resulting in a public installation that transforms P.S. 1’s concrete courtyard into an interactive environment for the museums summer music series.

WORK AC designed and created P.F. 1. (Public Farm One) an urban farm meets public architectural intervention, a truly unique concept. The installation was composed of enormous cardboard tubes and included, a lush variety of produce, a working farmers market (and farmer,) seating, shade, and fun accouterments such as periscopes.

WORK Architecture Company founders, Amale Andraos and Dan Wood, describe the experience of their installation: “P.F.1 is an architectural and urban manifesto to engage play and reinvent our cities, and our world, once again.”

Although the project has been long over for nearly four years now, you can re-live the project through the book Above The Pavement – The Farm! : Architecture and Agriculture at P.F.1, which was released in 2010 by Princeton Architectural Press. Above The Pavement – The Farm!  demystifies the process of the project, from the ideation, proposal, to design, construction, and use of Public Farm One – from the perspectives of WORK AC and their team, MoMA, volunteers and everyone else who helped execute the project.

With today’s prevalence of sustainable art and architectural interventions and projects, It’s hard not to notice how much influence Work Architecture Company’s P.F.1 installation must have had on contemporary artists and designers who work within an ecological and sustainable framework. Public Farm One surly has inspired, and will continue to inspire sustainable creativity in NYC and beyond.

Check out WORK Architecture Company. The book was designed by Project Projects.

Check out other green art and design projects post – Public Farm One:

Land Art Generator Initiative, and Sewing Seeds by Textile Arts Center