Cosmo Pavilion

In the MoMA PS1 courtyard, Spanish architect Andrés Jaque designed a project that focuses on one of today’s pressing problems, the growing scarcity of water on our planet.

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Cosmo, the winning project in the MoMA YAP 2015 competition, is an original and complex tubular-steel structure that adopts elaborate water filtering and purification systems to provide a comfortable surrounding environment, reducing the temperature by an estimated six degrees.

Every year, the Young Architect Program competition held by MoMA PS1 offers emerging young architects an opportunity to put forward an innovative project for the creation of a temporary support structure for summer music events in the museum’s courtyard. As well as providing a backdrop for the open-air performances, the architects are asked to develop architectural solutions that respond to environmental issues and address sustainability.

Andrés Jaque/Office for Political Innovation COSMO — Installation view of Andrés Jaque/Office for Political Innovation’s COSMO, winning design of the 2015 Young Architects Program, at MoMA PS1. Photo Miguel de Guzman

Spanish architect Andrés Jaque designed the structure opened in the last week in June, a project that focuses on one of today’s pressing problems, the growing scarcity of water on our planet. At the official presentation, the team reflected on statistical data from the United Nations by which two thirds of the global population will live in conditions of water shortage by 2025. This prompted the Cosmo concept: architecture that celebrates water but also provides a technological system for its filtering and reuse. Soaring upwards, the metal structure dominates the MoMA PS1 courtyard and is a reminder of New York’s complex underground water system, which sees 7.5 billion litres of water flowing across the city, from one side to the other, every day.

Every design feature centres on the principal theme, as does the sinuous mesh network of transparent plastic pipes connecting the steel rings. At the bottom, numerous aquatic plants emerge both from flasks suspended amidst the mesh of pipes and from eight cylindrical cisterns at the base of the structure. They play a key role in guaranteeing the presence of certain ecosystems which filter the water – supplied by the New York Department of Environmental Protection. The process is spread across numerous phases and different parts of the structure as the water flows through the system.

It starts from the bottom, inside the cisterns, where special microorganisms begin the process of aerobic/anaerobic digestion and the nitrification and denitrification of the polluted water introduced into the system. Once the first filtering phase is terminated, the water is driven upwards to flow through transparent plastic pipes where it is exposed to UV rays to guarantee biological stability. Once it has reached the top level of the structure, the passage is reversed and the water returns downwards, interacting with several algae to reduce the nitrate and phosphate content. The flow then cascades down another three levels, following the curvilinear form of the steel rings in the central structure, in a movement that increases the level of dissolved oxygen. Finally, the various plant species in the acrylic flasks complete the filtering process. At the end of each purification cycle, microorganisms are introduced into the water to make it glow, highlighting the moment it reaches optimum purity.

Approximately 11,000 litres of polluted water are pumped into Cosmo and purified every four days. The phenomena of evaporation and air depression coupled with the generated shade also reduce the surrounding temperature by six degrees, guaranteeing a certain environmental comfort. This architecture was designed to actively interact with its context and the main structure, resting on a mobile frame, further stresses this feature as the structure can be moved to wherever it may be needed. In the specific case of the MoMA PS1 garden, it can be shifted in response to spatial and climatic needs dictated by the summer performances.

Andrés Jaque saw this as an excellent opportunity to create a dialogue on the issue of water, firmly convinced that architecture has a fundamental power to focus attention on social issues. The structure was not designed only and exclusively as a hedonistic celebration of the significance of water as a resource; it also prompts reflection on how we use it every day. Cosmo lends visibility to the long and complex process required to purify water before it can be recycled and the choice of materials draws attention to the complex system through which it flows every day, hidden beneath the city streets. Sustainability is addressed not only in terms of necessity but also as a common aspiration that is celebrated by architecture.

until 7 September 2015
Young Architects Program (YAP) 2015
MoMA PS1, Long Island City, New York

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