Audi and Columbia University GSAPP Present ‘Experiments in Motion’ Exhibition in New York City

New York, NY – The results of Experiments in Motion – a cutting-edge research project conducted in partnership between Audi of America and Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) – were revealed last night during a reception in New York City. The unveiling took place at a special preview of the Lowline Park – the proposed world’s first underground park on the Lower East Side. The evening culminated the year-long project commissioned as part of the Audi Urban Future Initiative – a long-term, multi-level program that brings together different visions on how mobility, urban living and the role of the transportation will change in the coming years.

Conceived as a series of experiments to identify new paradigms of motion, mobility and design, Experiments in Motion was led by Mark Wigley, Dean of Columbia University GSAPP, and drew from global thought leaders from around the university, architecture and design professionals, and a network of urban mobility experts from New York City and Audi.

“Experiments in Motion concludes a year-long dialogue on mobility and represents a radical new way of collaboration between a corporation and a research institution,” said Loren Angelo, General Manager of Brand Marketing, Audi of America. “Partnering with Mark Wigley and Columbia University GSAPP, one of the world’s most visionary schools, has been both thrilling and fruitful. Experiments in Motion was designed to foster emerging talent and empower young, bright minds that will both shape the future, and live in it. The results are eye opening.”

As part of the Experiments in Motion program in partnership with Audi of America, nine Columbia University GSAPP student visions are on display with the aid of a 50-foot-long suspended model of Manhattan’s subway grid that contextualizes 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.

“The Experiments in Motion project challenges us all to think differently about our cities, and it is a great moment to celebrate an exciting year of collaborative research by returning to the restless streets of New York that inspire us,” said Mark Wigley, Dean, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University, New York.

The exhibition, curated by Therrien-Barley, was installed in partnership with the Imagining the Lowline exhibition, which showcases a proposal for the world’s first underground park on the Lower East Side of New York City. It will be on display and open to the public through September 27 from Noon to 6 p.m. at Essex Street Warehouse (80 Essex Street at Broome Street).

“Visitors will be able to walk under the model of Manhattan and look up through the subway tunnels and street grid to see Manhattan from an entirely new vantage point,” says Christopher Barley, co-curator of Experiments in Motion. “Architects have always provided the public with ways of seeing the city differently, here the installation design multiplies this effect,” added co-curator Troy Conrad Therrien.