People to Buildings: Don’t Waste Your Energy
Almost 40 percent of the energy consumed in the United States is used by buildings, a fact that inspired the Center for Architecture’s fall exhibition, “Buildings = Energy,” a walk through the various ways designers, planners, and engineers can reduce energy consumption through smart design. In that vein, the center will also present a mini-exhibition called “Smarter Living—The 2,000-Watt Society,” sponsored by ThinkSwiss, about the city of Zurich’s attempt to shrink its per-capita energy use from 6,500 watts to 2,000 by 2150. Both are on view at the Center’s La Guardia Place headquarters, so save your own energy and check them out together (536 La Guardia Pl., nr. Great Jones St.; “Buildings = Energy,” 10/1–1/21; “Smarter Living, 10/1–10/31”; M-F 9 a.m.–5 p.m., Sa 11 a.m.–5 p.m.; 212-683-0023; cfa.aiany.org).
Because You Can’t Lounge on a Pink Ribbon
SUITE New York will host the Pink Swan Project, a series of chairs by nineteen top-flight fashion and interior designers in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Karim Rashid, Margherita Missoni, Simon Doonan, Vicente Wolf, Madeline Weinrib, and many others (including the Fritz Hansen company, whose swan chair is the basis for each of the custom designs) contributed to the project, which will debut simultaneously at SUITE’s Park Avenue boutique and online at auction site Charitybuzz.com. Eighty percent of the auction proceeds (which start at $1,000) will go directly to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (419 Park Ave. S., nr. 29th St., 17th fl.; 10/1–10/31; 9 a.m.–6 p.m.; 212-421-3300).
Cheers to Archtoberfest
Next month is Architecture and Design Month and October. What else to call it, then, but Archtober? The month begins with a party at the Archtober Lounge in the Center for Architecture, but the project involves more than 30 architecture and design organizations in the city, including Cooper-Hewitt, Friends of the High Line, and the Museum of the City of New York, as well as a handful of companies (Hearst, IAC) that are opening their buildings to free tours, one each day of October (see archtober.org/calendar for the complete schedule).
Go Ahead, Touch the Art
The sixth annual NY Art Book Fair comes to MoMA’s P.S. 1 this weekend, with more than 200 exhibitors featuring catalogues, monographs, periodicals, first editions, and all manner of printed matter, hosted by—who else?—Printed Matter. Art and design overlap in Justin Bland’s participatory piece “Old News,” in which fair visitors can bring in unwanted paper (documents, photographs, etc.) to line an old birdcage. Also on tap: a film screening based on the Typographic Matchmaking in the City project, in which Dutch and Arab designers come together to design multilingual typefaces (22-25 Jackson Ave., at 46th Ave.; F-Su 11 a.m.–7 p.m.; preview Th 6-9 p.m.; 212-925-0325; nyartbookfair.com).
Six Heads Are Better Than One
In place of Jaume Plensa’s Echo, the colossal (and hugely popular) figure of a girl’s head that’s been stationed in Madison Square Park this summer, the greenspace now has six new sculptures by Los Angeles artist Alison Saar. The piece Treesoul is comprised of two figures who appear to be growing out of the earth near the park’s East 25th Street and Madison Avenue entrance. Elsewhere in the park, you’ll find Saar’s site-specific “Feallan and Fallow” series, a representation of the four seasons (23rd St. to 26th St., Fifth Ave. to Madison Ave.; madisonsquarepark.org; through 12/31).