Event: Experiments in Motion

Experiments in Motion Exhibition 

Photographed by Michael Moran

The exhibition is the culmination of a partnership between  the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture and Audi of America intended to develop and test new paradigms in the relationship between motion, mobility, and design. The exhibition will be held at the Essex Street Warehouse in New York City September 15 - 27.

As part of the Audi Urban Future Research, Experiments in Motion represents the U.S. pilot of a series of locally driven, interdisciplinary research and student programs with the world's leading institutions and schools, tapping into the vast potential of academic intelligence and emerging talent.

Experiment In Motion Launch Dinner

The Modular Table was used to facilitate the Experiments In Motion launch dinner. The launch dinner was a think tank event meant to accommodate seating 60 people on the exterior with 12 people seated in the interior. Designed through a collaboration between Fab Lab, C-Lab and Studio X of GSAPP Columbia University.

Experiments in Motion

"Experiments in Motion aims to imagine new forms of urban motion, new spaces for mobility and new visions for the future of New York City. Audi of America and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP), have come together for a research think tank and a series of architectural design studios with the goal of challenging both partners to rethink motion, think differently about mobility, and work together to imagine future cities. As part of the Audi Urban Future Initiative, Experiments in Motion is a research component in a world wide network that seeks to bring together experts from within Audi with architects, planners, and visionaries with the purpose of generating innovative solutions for mobility in cities.

Partnering with the LowLine, Audi of America and Columbia are excited to connect their research on mobility to one of the most innovative proposals for a new kind of public space in New York City . As part of the partnership, students from the program have spent the summer researching all transportation systems in New York City, with special attention on exposing the potential of underground spaces. The research and designs generated by Experiments in Motion represent the future visions for how transportation spaces and infrastructures can be reimagined as sites for invention. The nine design proposals range from new architectural solutions for mobility today to provocative visions for the future.

The fifty foot floating model of Manhattan was researched with the help of the MTA, the DOT, and the Center for Urban Real Estate (CURE). The suspended aluminum street grid is a 1:1500 scale replica of Manhattan’s road infrastructure while the plexiglass below presents a never before seen view of the architectural volumes of every subway station on the island. Projected onto the floor below is an animated shadow that reveals the flows of motion through the city. Subways, buses, bike lanes, ferries, tunnels and bridges are described as flows of motion which come together to expose the city as a interconnected system for mobility - a city of motion."