My collaborative project Husk is presenting new work at Brooklyn Utopias: Park Space, Play Space! Opening April 5th at the Old Stone House, Brooklyn.
TUB Park by Husk is a park of public baths and innovative play equipment that can be enjoyed by Brooklynites of all ages. The adult-only hot tubs in the park are constructed from re-purposed rooftop water towers, a classic Brooklyn icon. They operate on an ingeniously sustainable system that harvests rainwater. The kinetic energy produced by gravity, water, compost and children’s play does the work of pumping, filtering and heating the baths. A water wheel aerates the compost. The compost produces heat. The children’s energy — generated on state of the art play equipment — works to pump water through the system. However, what makes this park utopian is not just its renewable energy system. This park is utopian – “an ideal place or state” – because in this place both the children and adults are in their ideal states. Children are at play and adults are relaxing. In our utopian vision these two states are mutually compatible and beneficial.
Brooklyn Utopias is an ongoing exhibit and event series, founded in 2009 by artist and curator, Katherine Gressel which artists, youth, activists, architects, designers and urban theorists consider differing visions of an ideal city through the “concrete” example of Brooklyn.