MODU + Eric Forman Studio win 2020 Times Square Valentine Heart Competition with “Heart Squared”

MODU + Eric Forman Studio's “Heart Squared” was recently revealed as the winning proposal for the Times Square Valentine Heart Competition. Now in its 12th year, the competition invites a selection of New York-based architects and designers to submit a playful interpretation of a Valentine's Day-themed heart installation that celebrates love in NYC. For the 2020 edition, MODU + Eric Forman Studio were part of a competitive group of finalists, which included Agency Agency / Tei Carpenter, HOU DE SOUSA, Isometric Studio, Office III, and Other Means.

“Heart Squared” will be a glimmering installation comprising 125 reflective mirrors that will be tilted in various directions within a steel frame shaped in the outline of a heart. Each mirror will create kaleidoscopic images of the people, buildings, the changing sky, and the bright billboards of its bustling city location. The design team developed a technique to calculate the specific angles of each mirror so that when viewers move around the installation toward a special marked location, the mirrors will suddenly coalesce to reveal “a pixel heart of urban life surrounded by a field of mirrored sky”.

“Heart Squared represents the collective heart of the city and as such, is an engaging civic statement about celebrating our differences and bringing people together in a fundamentally inclusive way,” MODU said in a statement.

“We are using the magic of mirrors and light to remix the urban spectacle into something unexpected, to give people a new way to see the city — and each other,” Eric Forman Studio adds.

The installation will be officially unveiled at Father Duffy Square, between 46th and 47th Streets, on January 30. It'll be on display for the month of February.

Previous winners over the last few years include Reddymade, Aranda\Lasch + Marcelo Coelho, The Office for Creative Research, Collective-LOK, Young Projects, Situ Studio, and BIG, just to name a few.

You can check out the other 2020 finalist proposals here.