Experiments in Motion, a partnership between Audi of America and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP), is a series of experiments to identify new paradigms of motion, mobility and design. A pilot program of the Audi Urban Future Initiative, this exhibition presents nine GSAPP student proposals for how transportation spaces and infrastructures in New York City can be reimagined as sites for invention.

A 50-foot-long suspended model of Manhattan’s subway grid contextualizes the student proposals alongside the Lowline within the city’s huge inventory of underground spaces. Researched with the help of the MTA, the DOT, and the Center for Urban Real Estate (CURE), the 1:1500-scale replica of Manhattan’s mobility infrastructure also presents a never-before-seen view of every subway station on the island, which is illuminated with animations of motion through the city.

Projected onto the floor below is an animated shadow that reveals the flows of motion through the city. Subways, buses, bike lanes, ferries, tunnels and bridges are described as flows of motion which come together to expose the city as a interconnected system for mobility, a city of motion.

Exhibition curated by Therrien–Barley
Professors: Juergen Mayer H., Mark Kushner, Geoff Manaugh, Nicola Twilley, Jeffrey Inaba
Design Team: George Dolidze, Mengyi Fan, Kelsey Lents
Exhibition Installation: Art Domantay
Media and Projections: Nuit Blanche New York, Casey Rehm, SWOON NYC
Fabrication: Flatcut, FABberz
Special Thanks: Jesse Keenan, Pedro Zevallos, Ben Porto, the DOT, the MTA, the Transit Museum, the Lowline

Rendering by Mengyi Fan courtesy of Therrien–Barley