Bittertang "Burble Bup"
Governors Island
This event has ended.
The City of Dreams Pavilion Competition 2011 has a winner! For the second year of this design competition, the competition jury has selected the sustainable design of Bittertang’s Burble Bup to be installed on Governors Island for the summer 2011 season as a temporary central gathering and assembly point for arts and cultural activity on the island.
The competition sponsors (FIGMENT, The Emerging New York Architects Committee of the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter (ENYA), and the Structural Engineers Association of New York (SEAoNY)) are working with the winning team to have Burble Bup on Governors Island for the summer season. The project’s realization is pending approval from Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation and other regulatory authorities, and fundraising to make the project happen.
Design farm Bittertang envisioned strangers lounging and mingling within Burble Bup’s earthen walls, laying down and feeling comfortable underneath constantly shifting colored light. Burble Bup is a secret hideout that lures people into its soft and magical interior through the use of a colorfully inflatable roof. Here they are enticed to stay, mingling among new friends and upon plush soil tubes. The pavilion isn’t a space of circulation but of rest and social interaction.
Unlike most pavilions, soil berms produce a private interior with whorls of smaller spaces knotted around its periphery. These soil mounds, constructed of soil and bark-filled fabric tubes provide sitting and climbing surfaces. The exterior gradually mounds up in a series of grassy benches rising to form a visual and acoustical boundary for the pavilion’s interior where public performances as well as private small talk can be enjoyed.
Erected in the courtyard of Liggett Hall during Governors Island’s summer festivities, Burble Bup is a pavilion of two parts. The first part, a dome, is made from individual custom-designed components (Bups) with a unique morphology that allows them to be connected together in a variety of ways. Their articulated, bloated and textured limbs provide a sticky connection to join neighboring Bups. The other portion of the pavilion is a landscape zone that gently rises to provide privacy and structural support for the dome.
Burble Bup is sustainable in many ways: some materials are to be recycled; others will be reused. Bittertang anticipates that the non-toxic inflatables will be reused as floating toys at various NYC pools after the summer season ends. The fabric used for the soil tubes will be composted. The Pampas Grass and soil filling the tubes will be distributed to other landscape projects on the island. All of the materials were chosen for their ability to enhance our surroundings after their deployment in the pavilion.
ABOUT THE DESIGNERS:
Antonio Torres and Michael Loverich started Bittertang at first glance in the halls of Perloff, UCLA, in 2005. Since then, they have been working together to create anamorphic and neotenous projects ranging from living aquaculture orbs, stuffed animals, piñatas, and sukkahs. In 2010, Ubaldo Arenas began to collaborate with Bittertang to further create humorous and pleasurable spaces. Currently, Bittertang operates out of New York City and Guadalajara.
In 2010, Bittertang received the League Prize for Young Architects and Designers by the Architectural League and was also selected as 1 of 12 finalists to build a sukkah for Sukkah City in Union Square. A duplicate sukkah was also built in Tel Aviv. Their work has also been published in various magazines and books.
The Burble Bup Design Team includes: Antonio Torres, Michael Loverich, Ubaldo Arenas, Claire Vitto, Adriana Del Muro, Fabien Rondeau, Cesar Ruiz, and Diego Ascencio.
Engineers: Martin Stroble and Thang Le, Severud Associates.
Project Mentor: Rob Rogers, FAIA.
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Schedule
from May 27, 2011 to September 25, 2011