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Artist interviews
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Andrés Jaque: COSMO | Young Architects Program 2015
Video transcript
When we see Queens
and Long Island City from above, we don't see a big part of it. It’s pipes. Pipes are something
that we tend to hide. Therefore, it becomes
kind of the realm of experts, and something
that is never criticized, understood
or even discussed by people. At this moment
that we are defining and re-defining the way we relate to water,
in a scenario of water scarcity, there’s a great opportunity
to re-think infrastructures to transform
the way we relate to water. We found, through our research, that there were people out there
testing new ways of treating water, and didn't rely
on methods like chemicals and energy intensive processes
like heating the water or using mechanical
UV filtration. So we decided
to incorporate plants into the system as a means of purifying
the water in a sustainable way. Plants are really part
of architecture, like humans are. They are basically performing
many of the things that we need to create an environment
in which we feel comfortable, and we are thinking
that architecture can do a lot by redefining
the way it relates with nature. Look at this one. Can you lift it higher? I can. The higher I lift it,
the faster the explanation goes. That’s good? So basically, this is the hose that’s being used
in the upper part of Cosmo. On a very basic level,
it’s an ad hoc assemblage of parts that all are able
to host and provide a place for different
ecosystems to exist. This is a perspective
from the ground... The water starts
in the system here at the base, and then it’s pumped up in the transparent hoses
all the way to the top, and then it comes down
by gravity to the algae bags, the turf scrubber
and then back into the tank, and the hanging gardens are fed
by the purified water from the base. For a long time, people thought
that architecture was kind of neutral but when we look in detail,
architecture is never like that. Architecture is playing
key political roles. The way we design
locks or windows or doors, all these material decisions
are decisions that are shaping society. To see the way
that space and technology... when they come together
through design they produce a curiosity for people
to want to come inside.