Case Study #2: Public Farm 1

Architect: WORK Architecture Company
Location: New York City, NY
Year: 2008
Status: Completed
Client: Museum of Modern Art / P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, Young Architect Program
Size: 1,000 m²

Built in the P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center’s courtyards as a backdrop to its Warm Up! Music series, the temporary installation introduced a quarter acre fully functioning urban farm in the form of a folded plane made of structural cardboard tubes. At once intimate, playful and monumental, PF1 combines infrastructure with public space, engaging the visitor to re-imagine the city’s infinite possibilities.

Built entirely of biodegradable and recyclable materials, PF1 was powered by solar energy and irrigated by a rooftop rainwater collection system that kept the project off the city’s grid. Throughout the summer, the farm produced over 50 varieties of organic fruit, vegetables and herbs that were used by the museum’s café, served at special events, and harvested directly by visitors.

As a live urban farm, PF1 was a testament to the possibilities of rural engagement in urban environments and proposed that cities be reinvented to become a more complete and integrated system capable of producing their own food, producing their own power and re-using their own water while creating new shared spaces for social interaction and public pleasure.