San Gennaro North Gate

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Xtra Moenia is a site specificinstallation designed and produced by SOFTlab for the San Gennaro North Gate.The piece was commissioned by Two Bridges Neighborhood Council and produced byThe They Co. The piece serves as the North Gate to the annual San GennaroFestival. We developed a form that created out of two distinct oculi as a referenceto one of the simplest and most effective classical architecture devices. Oneoculus points up while the other hangs down defining a zone on the street forpedestrians. The two forms are created using a minimal surface blending the twooculi together in a way that blurs the distinction between the two. The finalgeometry was developed closely with the structural engineering firm Arup. Thepiece is completely held in tension from cables attached to the surroundingbuildings. The shape is completely site specific and can only find its trueform when attached at these specific points and tensioned with the properlengths. Each piece is unique requiring custom software tools to be developedto fabricate the installation.

The installation ismade of 4224 laser cut panels. Each panel is a unique shape and printed with acustom color. The panels are connected using over 6,000 aluminum grommets. Theshape is held in complete tension using a complex system of cables and tubesattached to the surrounding buildings.

Materials: Mylar, AluminumGrommets, Photo Gels, Aluminum Pipe.
Size: 25'x25'x60'
Surface Area: 1683sq ft
Location: Mulberry Streetbetween Houston and Prince, NYC

Design Team: Michael Szivos,Carrie McKnelly, Sean Madigan

Installation: Elliot White, Brandt Graves, SarahHunter, Liz Kelsey, Brandon Bartle, Sonal Patel, Sally To, Simon Kristak, HenryChoi, Julia Schleppe, Katherine Salamat, Anthony Buccellato

Supported by: Barbizon Lighting company, Grafix Plastics, ARUP, CRAFT Engineering, DaVinci Artist Supply