Collaborators: Artur Dabrowski (Graphics), Andrew Swingler (Energy Consultant)
“On the long peninsula that separates New York Bay from Newark Bay, there is, among other things, a red house by an open field, in which lives the king of kite-flyers. Everyone in Bayonne, the town which covers this peninsula, knows the red house by the open field; for scarcely a day passes, winter or summer, that kites are not seen sailing above this spot—sometimes a solitary “hurricane flyer,” when the wind is sweeping in strong from the ocean; sometimes a tandem string of seven or eight six-footers, each one fastened to the main line by its separate cord.”
This project draws its inspiration from the formless fabric of the “wind sock” that indexes the direction of a weather condition that is otherwise invisible to aviators. The idea of the wind sock shaped up and billowing is coupled with an age old obsession of humankind, to fly, to be air-borne and lately, to harvest the potent energy of the wind using high altitude kites. Given the fragile nature of the site, we decided to focus on the air as well as create ground structures that could float in-between the network of engineered systems and highlight the dramatic topography of the landfill/estuary.