First Look: Andrés Jaque’s Wild, Water-Purifying ‘COSMO’ Now Open at MoMA PS1!
Photo © Miguel de Guzman
“COSMO” has officially brought the party to MoMA PS1.
The winning project of MoMA PS1’s 16th Young Architects Program (YAP) is now open for public viewing in the museum affiliate’s courtyard. “COSMO: Give me a pipe and I will move/celebrate the Earth,” which was designed by Andrés Jaque/Office for Political Innovation, is a moveable artifact made from customized irrigation components that puts out an effort to make visible–and enjoyable–the hidden urbanism of the water pipes we live by. We stopped by the courtyard earlier today as “COSMO” got its finishing touches, and we must say, this installation looks as incredible as its renderings.
Photo © 6sqft
Following the YAP guidelines, “COSMO” provides shade, seating, water and also addresses environmental issues such as sustainability and recycling. Andrés Jaque choose to focus in on water for the construction, and his design draws inspiration from a recent statistic put out by the UN that states that by 2025, around two-thirds of the global population will live in countries that lack sufficient water.
Photo © Miguel de Guzman
“COSMO” not only brings awareness to this issue, but, according to MoMA PS1, it is completely functional and “engineered to filter and purify 3,000 gallons of water, eliminating suspended particles and nitrates, balancing the PH, and increasing the level of dissolved oxygen.” It will take four days for the 3,000 gallons of water to become purified, and with each cycle those same 3,000 gallons are filtered further.
With “COSMO”‘s ability to be an online and offline prototype, Andrés Jaque aims for his installation to be reproduced all over the world as a way to provide those in need with access to clean drinking water.
However, “COSMO”‘s life-saving abilities aren’t the only thing about the structure worth celebrating. The stretched-out plastic mesh at the core of the prototype will automatically glow whenever its water has been purified, causing MoMA PS1’s stone courtyard to be illuminated—an effect that pairs perfectly with their annual Warm Up concert series kicking off this Saturday.
“COSMO” will be on display in MoMA PS1’s courtyard until September 7.
The designs of the other finalists of the 16th annual Young Architects Program will also be exhibited at MoMA this summer.
RELATED:
