P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center: P.S.1 Newspaper 2009 Fall: Q&A with Young Architects: Taeg Nishimoto 2000

2009 Fall

Q&A with Young Architects: Taeg Nishimoto 2000

This article refers to the P.S.1 exhibition YAP 10th Anniversary Review

In celebration of YAP’s tenth anniversary, P.S.1 newspaper reached out to the nearly fifty participating firms to share their experiences as both finalists and winners.

Taeg Nishimoto was a YAP finalist in 2000. He now lives in Japan, but continues to add the same “attitude” he expressed in his YAP competition entry to his current work.

Question 1: How did you position yourself to get nominated?

Taeg Nishimoto: After I was involved in the program, I was informed that Tom Hanrahan, the Dean of the School of Architecture at Pratt Institute, where I used to teach, had nominated me.

Question 2: Did YAP change anything for you or your firm? When did you recognize the full potential of the competition?

What the competition brief conveyed to me was to propose an “attitude” for the design of the installation rather than the finalized design. It was an interesting challenge especially in the context of the budget presented. The images I presented included a fishnet spanning the courtyard and had swimming outfits hanging from the net. I even suggested that we could ask people to donate the swimming outfits. The hanging outfits could be lit at night to create a bit of a gaudy or edgy atmosphere. I guess I enjoyed the sense of not “designing” an object at the time since the proposal was meant to be an attitude towards the place. This concept seems to have lingered in my later work, or in thoughts to describe certain aspects of my work.

Question 3: How was your design shaped by the history of YAP?

It is quite interesting to see the result of every year’s project. I have been looking at them in the published and online images rather than being there, because I have since left New York. I also enjoy looking at the finalists’ proposals that were not selected, as they convey a rather personal dimension.

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