Times Square Arts has announced that collaborators ArandaLasch + Marcelo Coelho are the winners of this year’s annual Times Square Valentine Heart Design curated by the Design Trust for Public Space. This year’s winning design, Window to the Heart, will be unveiled on February 1 at 11am at Father Duffy Square, between 46th and 47th Streets. The installation will remain on view for the month of February.

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.

In one of the world’s most Instagrammed places, filled with cameras of all shapes and sizes, Window to the Heart places the world’s largest lens in the center of Times Square. The 12 foot in diameter Fresnel lens was designed with 3D-printing manufacturer Formlabs to distort and capture the image of Times Square, optically bending light – and attention – to the heart-shaped window at its center. Visitors can look through the window or photograph themselves within it, completing the loop between the lens of the eye and the lens of the camera.

Rather than using the traditional lens-making methods of casting, cutting, and repeatedly polishing glass, Window to the Heart will leverage the latest advances in design, materials, and fabrication to craft something that was previously unattainable. Each lens segment is 3D-printed at a high resolution by Formlabs using clear resin, a material capable of the unique surface quality and clarity required by optical elements. With the lens made entirely from a 3D-printed material instead of glass, Window to the Heart upends the centuries-old methods of lens-making to invite individuals to reimagine how they see and photograph the world.

Design Team:
ArandaLasch + Marcelo Coelho with Formlabs
Structural Engineer: Laufs Engineering Design – LED

Click the thumbnails below to view one-page proposals from the invited finalists of this year's competition.

Jaklitsch / Gardner Architects

office iii

Studio Cadena

StudioKCA

studioSUMO

Taller KEN

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