"Ich bin als Betrachter gefordert, den Sinn in das Werk hinzulegen."

In 1999, The Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1 started the Young Architects Program (YAP) to provide emerging architects and designers with the opportunity to design and build a commission in New York City. Now in its eighteenth year, YAP has grown into an international program, with partners in Rome, Santiago de Chile, Istanbul, and Seoul. The Department of Architecture and Design considers YAP our most important engagement with contemporary architects.

The Beastie transforms solar heat into ice. It is a thermally interactive structure with its own energy input and self-regulating mechanism, in constant reaction to outdoor temperatures, including the heat emitted from visitors’ bodies and breath. The Beastie is composed of a forest of radiant pipes covered with accumulated ice, thermal thresholds and grottos conditioned by insulating curtains and movable PVC strips. Gradients of cold offer delight and thrill visitors during the hot summer days. The Beastie creates an uncanny summertime chill while enabling the sensing of cooling, soothing and comforting spaces. In times of greater inhabitation and interaction with the Beastie, the temperatures flow and the ice melts, reminding us that we impact the world we live within; and also, like the ice, of our bodies’ vulnerabilities, pleasures and constraints.