I SAW I SAW EARTH
Drew Seskunas is an architect, inventor and director of SAW.EARTH, his creations for kinetic and responsive spaces have been commissioned by clients including MoMA PS1, The New Museum, Microsoft, Ford Motors, and the New York City Parks Department. Formed to create architecture for the wandering planet, SAW.EARTH applies movement to design and architecture as a venue to expand our understanding of the world.
The Mulberry Catcher (2021) in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn was created as part of student workshop at the NYIT Graduate School of Architecture and Design. Located in the Green Acres Garden, a public community garden administered by the New York Restoration Project (NYRP), the stage is a light-gauge lasercut tesselated aluminum shell that catches mulberrys from 2 neighboring trees, keeping a performance and meeting area clear for congregation.
The Wavy Temple (2020) was designed for Rangoon Restaurant as a sidewalk dining structure and was inspired by the ancient city of Bagan, land of 2000 temples. Gas struts drive light weight aluminum louvers on an aluminum-framed structure.
The Prism Chiminea (2020) was designed for Prism Outdoors as an outdoor fireplace that’s lightweight and portable, so you can place it anywhere in your backyard you need extra warmth. Purchase HERE
The Community Pavilion (2020) was created as part of student workshop at the NYIT Graduate School of Architecture and Design. Located in the Scholes Street Children's Garden, a public community garden administered by the New York Restoration Project (NYRP), the pavilion is solar-powered and designed with 4 wing-like louvers that open and close depending on the season or desire for sun or shade.
The Kinetic Restaurant (2019) Rangoon Restaurant was designed in collaboration with Outpost Architecture. Located in Prospect Heights, the space is formed from 2 veils between the facade and the kitchen - each defining the main cuisine influences: traditional Burmese and Victorian motifs. The visual overlap defines the dining space, and actuators control the apertures allowing for more or less visual privacy.
The Sex Blanket Store (2018) for THINX on Mercer Street in Soho, NY was conceived as a series of waveforms or frequencies vibrating through the space that would define zones of influence and activity. Curving screens carved up the space into pathways that would contract and expand - the tighter zones pushing strangers together into moments of intimacy and then releasing to a series of beds where visitors could play with the sex blanket.
The Public Sculpture (2018) for NYC Parks and The Bronx River Arts Center was designed in collaboration with Gabriela Salazar and installed in Starlight Park, The Bronx. A folded corten steel structure forms an infinity loop that references the former roller coaster that occupied the site in the 1920’s, framing views to the surrounding landscape and creating zones of private and communal congregation.
The Moving Ceiling (2019) for ELSEWHERE in Bushwick, NY is a kinetic sculpture for the Elsewhere Loft Space inspired by our society's evolving concepts of time that conflict with an outdated notion of a universal "present". A warping gold-mirrored surface expands and contracts to reflect the individual realities we each concurrently experience.
Sound Sculptures (2018) in collaboration with the musician Angel Olsen. If architecture is frozen music, as Goethe once said, what would a song look like? "Architecture of Sound" is a machine that freezes songs into form. Melted wax is released through a solenoid valve onto a plate that descends into cold water. A frequency analyzer selects two dominant frequencies that activate the plate and emitter at intervals defined by the song, soldifying into form in realtime as the sonic waves dissipate.
The Green Wall Structure (2018) for Saturdays NYC in SoHo, New York, is a modular prism planter system in which consumers can easily create unique structures and adaptive plant formations. This execution is an arching wall that bisects the rear garden space creating new zones of interaction and framing views across.