MoMA and MoMA PS1 Name Andrés Jaque Winner of Young Architects Program

The Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1 announced Thursday that Andrés Jaque has been named the winner of the 16th annual Young Architects Program (YAP). Mr. Jaque, founder and principal of the New York- and Madrid-based architecture firm Office for Political Innovation, beat out four other finalists for the chance to design an outdoor installation at MoMA PS1 that incorporates green design principles.

The winning design, called “COSMO,” is a mobile irrigation system that will filter and purify 3,000 gallons of water every four days. It will purify the same water over and over, and plastic mesh at the center of the piece will glow when each cycle ends. “COSMO” will be placed in MoMA PS1’s outdoor courtyard, where visitors to this year’s Warm Up series will be able to gather beneath it.

“Its purpose is to trigger awareness, and to be easily reproduced all around the world, giving people access to drinking water, and to a dialogue about it,” reads the press release. “But above all, COSMO will be a party-artifact moving in whatever direction the party happens to take it.”

The other YAP finalists were Jacob Brillhart of brillhart architecture, Erin Besler, Michael Loverich of The Bittertang Farm and Benjamin Dillenburger and Michael Hansmeyer of Studio Benjamin Dillenburger. MoMA will stage an exhibition of all five finalists’ proposed projects this summer.