'Interwoven' by Atelier Cho Thompson is this year's winner of the Flatiron Public Plaza Holiday Design Competition

New York’s Van Alen Institute and The Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership have announced the winner of the 8th annual Flatiron Public Plaza Holiday Design Competition. 

Atelier Cho Thompson won for Interwoven, an interactive installation centered around the “I dream of a world where together we can…” prompt selected by Youth Fellow from the People’s Bus NYC.

Public parks have been a lifeline to city dwellers during the pandemic. Visitors to the installation can share their responses to the prompt amidst archways activated by color-coded sensors that respond to their presence with colorful light and music compositions created by local artists. A story wall made of backlit paper will serve as a container for visitor replies that will “become a patchwork of voices documenting this challenging yet hopeful moment.”

“One of our key tenets as a firm is that we can build community around design,” Atelier Cho Thompson co-founders Ming Thompson and Christina Cho Yoo said in a joint statement. “Interwoven highlights our fundamental desires to connect with each other through shared experiences and to celebrate our differences. Interwoven offers a platform for stories and dreams of our future.”

The design features sustainable materials including recycled steel framing, netting, resin panels, and rapidly renewable, high-density cork. The intervention will eventually be dismantled and reinstalled in New Haven, where the firm was founded. 

The installation is presented in partnership with the New York City Department of Transportation’s Temporary Art Program (DOT Art) and will be open daily from November 22nd to January 2nd.