Grow NYC

Shiftspace teamed up with the branding agency Interbrand, TD Bank, and GrowNYC, the non-profit responsible for New York City’s greenmarkets, to create a temporary installation showcasing GrowNYC’s new education and outreach initiative in Union Square.

The initiative, Project Farmhouse, is an education center in the heart of Manhattan. GrowNYC sees the farmhouse as the symbolic urban home for the farmer as well as the country escape for the city dweller. Furthermore, Project Farmhouse is about creating a sense of place for the organization that has been largely mobile, operating at many different locales within the five burroughs of New York.

The design for the pavilion was informed by the symbol that Interbrand created for Project Farmhouse, the archetypal farmer’s market tent. In keeping with GrowNYC’s sustainable practices, up-cycled materials in the form of paper tubes played an integral part in the design.

The structure’s presence is at once unexpected and entwined with the market vernacular. From a distance it appears as simple representation of the Project Farmhouse mark, but it reveals itself as an occupiable structure at closer distances. At close inspection, tube components allowed portal views of the green market that surround the site.

As planned, the structure gets a second life on Governors Island, the location of Grow NYC’s farms in NY. It will be a living entry portal to the garden and continued symbol of the organization and their message that farms are the staple to healthy urban living.

Project Credits

Year: 2015
Location: Union Square, NYC, USA
Design Lead: Tim Barnes
Design Team: Mario Gentile, Michael Cucinotta
Collaborators: Interbrand, Larsen and Landis Engineers
Photography: Interbrand, Grow NYC