Part Ship, Part House: Cladding Helps Contemporary Art Installation Project Win Top Prize
Philadelphia architectural firm Austin+Mergold won top honors for its part ship, part house large-scale art installation, which prominently features CertainTeed Encore™ vinyl siding. The winning installation rose above 171 submissions from 17 countries in the annual Architectural League of New York’s Folly 2014, a competition among emerging architects to design and build a large-scale project for public display at Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City, N.Y.
The sculpture, named Sural™ Ark, in reference to Noah’s Ark, takes the form of an overturned ship and a typical suburban house. It spans more than 50 feet with an elevation of 16 feet and is comprised entirely of 2-by-6 lumber and a patchwork of vinyl siding — a material often used on nearby Queens residences. Austin+Mergold chose the materials after extensive abstract and hands-on research, in addition to representing the increasingly blurred lines between city, suburban environments and rural living in America today.