Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/272257
Family architecture has a special proclivity for boldly un- orthodox cultural and civic projects. In late 2013, they designed the epic mountain landscape Kanye West scaled and descended during his global Yeezus tour; in 2010, they took second place in Slovenia's UGM Art Gallery competition with an erratically shaped proposal of undulating glass walls; and in 2011, they captivated the Internet with their renderings of the +Pool, a collaborative project with the graphic designers at Playlab for a floating, "+"-shaped, water-purifying swim- ming hole for New York's notoriously polluted East River. Three years later, starting this March, the ball starts rolling on the miracle pool as Family begins work with various engineers and naval architects to flesh out the logistics. "For the next few months, we'll be testing out how the filtration system holds up in an actual river, spending the summer taking water samples three times a day," says Dong-Ping Wong, the Columbia ar- chitecture school grad who founded the firm in 2010. The actual realization of this far-fetched proposal seems right up the alley of the two young architects at its helm. Wong and partner Oana Stanescu, 31, who officially joined the firm last May, trace their roots back to the renegade New York firm REX. They met in 2006, at an opportune time: Wong was a full-time employee, Stanescu was an intern enrolled in architecture school in her native Romania, and the firm, formerly the New York outpost of Rem Koolhaas' Office of Met- ropolitan Architecture, had just emancipated itself and established an independent firm. That newfound freedom fostered the ideal climate for two young architects to form their own out-of-the-box-approach. "We were thrown into incredible work," says Stanescu. "There was an energy there—there wasn't a hierarchy. You could make crazy proposals, and they gave you free reign if you had an interest." She and Wong also realized that they had worked well together, collabo- rating on projects that include the highly anticipated Louisville Mu- seum Plaza, that was sadly stymied by the recession of 2008. After a year at REX, Stanescu returned to Romania in 2007 to finish her studies, later finding herself working for SANAA, Herzog & de Meuron and OMA over the next couple of years. Wong had left REX just after she did and just before the financial collapse. They stayed in touch, occasionally entering design competitions that they worked on via Skype, "more clearly than some people working across from each other," says Stanescu. After freelancing for Snøhetta's New York office and various other firms, Wong felt ready to start his own, and Stanescu soon followed suit. They decided that Family seemed like an appropriate name. "We tend to argue a lot, which we learned at REX," says Stanescu. "But you can't take it personally. With family, you're always kind of stuck to each other." 108 CULTURED THE ACTUAL REALIZATION OF THIS FAR-FETCHED PROPOSAL SEEMS RIGHT UP THE ALLEY OF THE TWO YOUNG ARCHITECTS AT ITS HELM.