Again, again, a new frenzy of consumption. Candy and flowers can be purchased in quantities unimaginable, reserves to go to neo-romantic restaurants (if you're lucky because the reserves and take time charge) and architects have their hand at the daft populist messages that make the cold mid-February air will be much more cold. Sponsored by the Times Square Alliance, the annual “heart sculpture” project asks architects to re-envision the ubiquitous heart graphic as a interactive urban emoticon. This year it’s BIG, and the gooey statement for 2012: “More people = more love.”
Now in its 4th year, the Times Square Alliance has hosted an annual heart sculpture to celebrate Valentine’s Day, selecting a "special" architect to design a public art installation in Times Square durign the month of February. To see previous years' public art installations by Gage / Clemenceau (2009), Moorhead & Moorhead (2010), and Freecell (2011), please click here.
CONCEPT BY BIG
We we asked by the Times Square Alliance to propose a design for a Valentine to be placed in teh bustling center of Times Square.
Times Square is a dynamic ephemeral urban space defined by a multitude of lights and movement of the masses. We propose to create the 2010 Valentine out of the very materials that constitute Times Square: movement, lights, the masses. A grove of 10´ tall transparent acrylic tubes form a cube of 10´x10´x10´. The tubes are partially sandblasted turning them into mikado sticks of transparency and translucency. LED lights shine up through the length of the tubes from the base, passing unnoticed through the clear acrylic, while creating an intense glow in the translucent parts. The collective cloud of translucent tubular segments constitutes a hovering heart in the field of acrylic straws.
The transparent parts refract the lights of Times Square creating a cluster of condensed city lights around the heart. The elasticity of the tubes make them wiggle in the wind causing the heart to pulsate along with the life of the city. More people = more love. As more people gather in the square their footsteps are collected as energy and converted into light. The huddled crowd makes the heart burn brighter. This flux in movement and energy can also be seen in real time from the project website. The 2010 Times Square Valentine: A heart created from a collective cluster of individual constituents. A heart materialized in light. A heart animated to life by the flow of people, air, and traffic around it.
Architects: BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group)
Fabrication: Flatcut
Interactive Design: Local Projects
Structural Engineer: Silman Associates
Lighting: Zumtobel Lighting
