Coney Island Crash Pad

A design competition for the van alen institute
Brooklyn, NY

The Parachute Pavilion at Coney Island is the Brooklyn Borough’s new Crash Pad; satisfying the giddiness of a summer lounge session and caffeinating the post-autumn stroll. The Crash Pad is meant to be uncluttered and un-fixed with just enough infrastructure to allow for spontaneous events.

This is the shock absorber for masses of people filtering from the parking lot to the boardwalk via a narrow 12-foot walkway. Boardwalk level benches welcome spectators and performers alike. The jazz quartet, a book club meeting, the romantic guitar lesson and Nathan’s ancillary hot dog kiosk all happen at the Parachute Pavilion.

A cluster of overhead weathervanes blossom and deflate with the gusty sea breeze. Structured by vertical wind pipes and cable-stayed tension wires, the weathervanes are made of a 12-piece skydancer fabric. This iridescent silicone-coated nylon is stitched together and looped around varying diameters of steel hoops. An inner ring, open to the air, allows the wind to flow through the structure. An upper set of weathervanes are suspended above; in high winds they demonstrate the drag imposed by the trapped wind field caused by the canopy below. In low winds they simply sway like ballroom dancers. Illuminated by night, the weathervanes are like moons.

Coney Island’s Crash Pad celebrates the accidental beauty of its dense urban lattice with layers of undesigned magic. Coney Island’s reincarnation welcomes new uses, new visitors and colorful moods.