ETH Meets You at the IDEAS CITY Festival in New York City
Using waste products as construction materials, ETH Zurich will build a pavilion, curate an exhibition, and host events in New York City as part of the IDEAS CITY Festival, May 28 - 30th, 2015.
The IDEAS CITY Festival explores the future of cities with culture as a driving force. A collaborative, civic, and creative enterprise, it builds on the New Museum’s mission of “New Art, New Ideas” by expanding the Museum beyond its walls into the civic realm. Through talks, panels, workshops, projects, performances, and exhibitions, IDEAS CITY investigates key issues, proposes solutions, and seeds concrete actions. Founded by the New Museum in 2011, it is a major collaborative initiative between hundreds of arts, education, and civic organizations. A biennial IDEAS CITY Festival takes place every other May in New York City. The theme for 2015 is "The Invisible City." Read more at external page IDEAS CITY Festival.
ETH Zurich Future Garden and Pavilion
May 28 - 30th, 2015, all day, 11:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
external page First Street Garden, Houston Street and 2nd Avenue
ETH Zurich brings a cutting-edge artifact of the future to the East Village: A pavilion created from waste materials. Recasting “trash” as a valuable asset, the ETH Zurich Future Garden and Pavilion will redefine the notion of waste, acknowledging its value as a resource from which new cities can rise. Over the course of three days, the ETH Zurich Future Garden and Pavilion will host events, workshops, and an exhibition outlining the future metropolis. Food and drinks will be provided by Café Select. Read more...
Pop-Up Workshop + Gallery
May 5 - 27th, 2015, all day
external page 34 East 1st Street, New York City
During the month of May, ETH Zurich’s Assistant Professorship of Architecture and Construction Dirk E. Hebel and the Block Research Group together with external page miLES will transform the storefront at 34 East 1st Street into a pop-up workshop and gallery for the prefabrication of the ETH Zurich Pavilion across the street at First Street Green Park. Peek into it, you may find surprises!
The Invisible Feedback Loop: Architects, Infrastructure, and Public Space
May 28th, 6:30 - 8:30 p.m.
external page First Street Garden, Houston Street and 2nd Avenue
Architects and urban planners are in a constant dialog with the evolving needs and expectations of public space. The speakers briefly describe their contribution to the civic realm, investigations, ideas, as well as, their results and/or proposed solutions. Hosted by the ETH Zurich Alumni - New York Chapter.
Wasted Food x Wasted Space: A Morning Dialog over Breakfast
May 29th, 9:00 - 10:00 a.m.
external page First Street Garden, Houston Street and 2nd Avenue
ETH Zurich, external page miLES and external page Pareup in roundtable discussions led by thought-leaders on the causes, challenges, and solutions to waste – from food to space and anything in between. “Rescued” breakfast served. Download Detailed program (PDF, 3 MB)
Social Innovation in the Data Age: Inventing a Truly Smart City
May 29th, 12:00 - 8:00 p.m.
external page First Street Garden, Houston Street and 2nd Avenue
ETH Zurich and Swiss think tank external page W.I.R.E. will help you formulate your own ideas on how to design a "truly smart city" – developing, building, and testing ideas in a interdisciplinary and fast-paced prototyping process.
Asian American Arts Centre and the Cultural Equity Group of New York City Hinterland Arts
May 30th, 12:00 – 12:40 p.m.
external page First Street Garden, Houston Street and 2nd Avenue
Artists and Cultural Equity Group members will come together to speak about New York City’s cultural plan and the increasingly important role of the art and culture of the city’s diverse neighborhoods and communities. The Asian American Arts Centre will bring artists and members of the Cultural Equity Group (CEG) together to speak about the need for a greater role for the art and culture of this city’s diverse neighborhoods and communities. This conversation will illuminate what has been kept invisible, languishing in the underbelly of the inner city and its forgotten neighborhoods.
Founded in 2007, CEG is a network of art organizations for people of color whose cultures represent a significant population, if not the majority, of New York City residents. CEG was formed to address, at all levels of society, the inequity in funding and policies that negatively impact the preservation, continuity, and growth of our cultures, art, and communities. At this time, Int. No 419, a bill for developing a comprehensive cultural plan for New York City, has been written and is expected to be passed into law by the City Council shortly. Equity is finally on the agenda of New York City. Now is the time for open public dialogue and to begin a process to understand what “equity” will mean for our city and our nation. One of the featured artworks, SHAN SHUI, UNTITLED by Zhang Hongtu, is from the underbelly—a critique of our society’s direction.
Y Gallery - Maurício Ianês: Expansion
May 30th, 12:00 – 6:00 p.m.
external page First Street Garden, Houston Street and 2nd Avenue
During the performance “Expansion,” artist Maurício Ianês will invite the public to develop a communal practice of cultural, artistic, and knowledge exchange. During the performance “Expansion,” specially conceived for the streets of New York City, artist Maurício Ianês will invite the local public and passersby to develop a communal practice of poetic exchanges of knowledge. Through dialogues, readings of books and texts, the sharing of personal objects, stories, food, etc.—both proposed by the participants and the artist—Ianês will attempt to create a common knowledge base that is poetic, but also political, by deconstructing the hierarchies and power games at play between artist and public, as well as between local and foreign persons.
Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts - Bookstore Project BLACKNUSS: Books + Other Relics
May 30th, 12:00 – 6:00 p.m.
external page First Street Garden, Houston Street and 2nd Avenue
Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts and Publication Studio Hudson will set up an on-demand printing station showcasing the hand-bound pamphlet series “On the Blackness of BLACKNUSS.” Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts will set up an on-demand printing station, which will show the pamphlet series “On the Blackness of BLACKNUSS” as they are printed and hand-bound by her collaborator, Publication Studio Hudson. Patrick Kiley of Publication Studio Hudson will bring his setup to the street, and Rhodes-Pitts will be on hand to talk with passersby about the project, which seeks to establish a canon of disruptive essays in black political thought and will be distributed in the tradition of street pamphleteering.
TYTHEdesign: Hear the Unheard
May 30th, 1:00 – 1:40 p.m.
external page First Street Garden, Houston Street and 2nd Avenue
This interactive workshop will introduce community engagement techniques to the public and offer tips on how to uncover the voices in your community. The best way to understand who lives in a city, what challenges they face, and how their day-to-day environment could be improved is by hearing directly from them. This workshop will introduce the concept of co-creation and highlight activities that are successful in eliciting different individuals’ and groups’ insights. As city agencies, nonprofits, and community-based organizations become more focused on understanding the impact of the services they provide, running community engagement workshops becomes more essential. This workshop will help individuals interested in connecting better with their community learn how to run an effective and productive community engagement session.
Y Gallery - Invisible Cities: On the Work of Raquel Rabinovich and Monika Bravo
May 30th, 2:00 – 2:30 p.m.
external page First Street Garden, Houston Street and 2nd Avenue
In this conversation with critic Ann McCoy and professor Carla Stellweg, artists Monika Bravo and Raquel Rabinovich will discuss their work and its relation to “invisible cities.” Raquel Rabinovich and Monika Bravo have created works incorporating transparency, layers, and viewer perspective, inspired by Italo Calvino's novel Invisible Cities. Rabinovich's Invisible City (2000) is an installation comprised of white metal frames and white gauze forming seven translucent gates. Likewise, Bravo's Landscape of Belief (2012) features the gradual emergence of a city from nothing. Bravo achieved this by projecting animations of a cityscape onto panes of glass. In this conversation, the artists will discuss their work and their respective interpretations of “invisible cities” in a panel with art critic Ann McCoy and professor Carla Stellweg.
Meet the Future
May 30th, 2:45 - 3:15 p.m.
external page First Street Garden, Houston Street and 2nd Avenue
Take a guided tour of the ETH Zurich Pavilion, meet its creators and walk through an exhibit of 25 building materials produced from waste.
Art in Odd Places: RECALL/11 Years
May 30th, 3:30 – 4:15 p.m.
external page First Street Garden, Houston Street and 2nd Avenue
Art in Odd Places was conceived in New York City in 2005 to assert and exercise civil liberties and engagement through art in public space—without seeking permission. In response to the constrictions of the Homeland Security paradigm after 9/11, Art in Odd Places (AiOP) was conceived in New York City in 2005 to assert and exercise civil liberties and engagement through art in public space—without seeking permission or approval. Since 2012, the festival has exported its mode of creative civic occupation, intervention, and transformation to other cities. This panel will be moderated by AiOP 2015: RECALL curators Kendal Henry and Sara Reisman and include past AiOP curators Juliana Driever, Dylan Gauthier, Christine Licata, and Radhika Subramaniam. Panelists will share stories about their experiences both producing the festival and of artists’ projects on 14th Street and will discuss difficulties encountered, successes, and missed opportunities.
Photosynthesis Projects/Karla Stingerstein with Mary Mattingly - Biotope
May 30th, 4:30 – 4:45 p.m.
external page First Street Garden, Houston Street and 2nd Avenue
Biotope is an eco-specific sculpture of flora for fauna that supports wildlife habitats in Philadelphia by stewarding damaged riparian zones. Biotope supports civic empowerment through the making and sharing of ideas and information in service of stewardship. An extension of Mary Mattingly’s “WetLand,” Biotope is an eco-specific sculpture of flora for fauna and environmental art wiki from Photosynthesis Projects. Its purpose is to support wildlife habitats and improve damaged riparian zones in Philadelphia while providing the public access to environmental art projects and research. Ideas and installations exhibited at the Festival will include work from both “WetLand” and Biotope.
"In the Future, There Will Be No Waste..."
May 30th, 5:30 - 7:30 p.m.
ETH Zurich and external page AIANew York Chapter
external page First Street Garden, Houston Street and 2nd Avenue
Dirk Hebel and Philippe Block of ETH Zurich will join external page David Benjamin and Mark Wasiuta of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation in conversation. Together, they will consider how we can navigate design methodologies and ethical practice in the quest for the future smart city. Read more...
Media Information
Media Coverage
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Media Kit
Want to set up an interview with one of our star architects? Contact ETH Zurich's International Communication Officer. Media information can be found here. Further details and images may be downloaded from the Media Kit.
Image Gallery
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The ETH Zurich Pavilion is constructed out of beverage cartons, a common U.S. waste material -
The design allows a weak material to be structural -
Beverage cartons, an upcycled waste material, was used to construct the ETH Zurich Pavilion
Design
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