Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
Arts & Entertainment
PS1's Summer Art Installation Will Use Nanoparticles To Clean The Air
By
John Del Signore
Published Feb 9, 2012
Modified Feb 9, 2012
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
View all 3
By
John Del Signore
Published Feb 9, 2012
Modified Feb 9, 2012
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Today MoMA PS1 announced the winner of their 13th annual Young Architects Program (YAP), in which an up-and-coming design company is picked to transform the museum's courtyard during the summer. This year's winner is HWKN (Matthias Hollwich and Marc Kushner); their installation is called Wendy and will double as a sort of air filter to cancel out motor vehicle pollution. If you're a fan of PS1's popular Saturday dance parties, here's a look at where you'll be partying this summer.
PS1 describes Wendy as "an experiment that tests how far the boundaries of architecture can expand to create ecological and social effect. Wendy is composed of nylon fabric treated with a ground breaking titania nanoparticle spray to neutralize airborne pollutants. During the summer of 2012, Wendy will clean the air to an equivalent of taking 260 cars off the road." The structure features "spiky arms made of the nylon fabric" and "will reach out with micro-programs like blasts of cool air, music, water cannons and mists to create social zones throughout the courtyard."
Curator Pedro Gadanho calls the design "iconic, but with a twist. By combining off-the-shelf materials and scaffolding systems with the latest cry in nanotechnology it is able to produce both an out-of-the-box ecological statement and a bold architectural gesture." And as long as the nanoparticles don't multiply into a mutant, flesh-eating swarm of nanorobots, it should be a fun summer! Here's a look back at some of the previous Warm Up installations.
Tagged
art
long island city
moma
ps 1
warm up
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE arts-entertainment
The hottest way to show you're an authentic New Yorker is… riding a Citi Bike?
Thanks to Dua Lipa, Kim Kardashian, Timothée Chalamet and more, the rideshare program is having a moment.
By
Lindsay Lee Wallace
Published Oct 8, 2026
Is NYC’s hottest attraction the free observation deck at 1 Centre Street?
If you're playing tourist in your own town, this is an in-demand option.
By
James Ramsay
Arts & Entertainment
Is NYC’s hottest attraction the free observation deck at 1 Centre Street?
If you're playing tourist in your own town, this is an in-demand option.
By
James Ramsay
What happens when NYC kids take lessons in rock music? Really good bands.
By
Jayson Greene
Inside a photographer's journey to visit every neighborhood in New York City
By
Sonia Rao
Banned books and Winnie the Pooh: October in NYC libraries
By
Alec Hamilton
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .