Grid is a proposal for the New York City AIDS Memorial Park Design Competition. The competition called for a new museum space to commemorate the impacts of AIDS upon New York.

The defining feature of the design is a grid of crosses that covers the entire site. The crosses are aligned with Manhattan’s street grid, at once extending this grid into the site and amplifying it through a change in scale. The hit-and-miss arrangement of the crosses and their sheer number are intended to defy our comprehension.

Within the memorial the motif of the cross carries several meanings. The crosses can be seen as markers for graves, symbolising those who have died of AIDS. The crosses can also be read as addition signs (+), symbolising those who are HIV positive and living with the virus.

The crosses are also the source of illumination within the park. During the day, they function as skylights, allowing light into the museum that is beneath the park. At night, light from the museum will spill out through these skylights into the park.

The movement of the sun animates the play of light within the museum, creating patterns across the walls and floor. By varying the angle at which the skylights cut through the roof of the museum, it is possible to create patterns that change from positive (+) to negative (-) and back again. The subtlety of this shift conveys the insidious and dynamic nature of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Year: 2012.