This year’s winning installation,
Window to the Heart, was created by two collaborators, the design studio
Aranda\Lasch and Brazilian artist
Marcelo Coelho, curated by the
Design Trust for Public Space. The project team collaborated with 3D-printing manufacturer
Formlabs, held up by a structure engineered by
Laufs Engineering Design, to design a 12-foot-wide 3D-printed Fresnel lens to collect and morph Times Square’s lights through a central, heart-shaped aperture.
This marks the 10th anniversary of the Times Square Valentine Heart Design Competition, an annual event where Times Square Arts invites architecture and design firms to submit proposals for a public art installation celebrating Love in Times Square in February.
Ben Aranda.- We live in a culture experienced through screens and cameras. Times Square is a temple to this media culture. But in this culture only the image is celebrated. In Times Square, only the screens are big. The unspoken hero in this media culture is the lens–behind every image is a lens that captured it.