International Architects Series: Hollwich Kushner

New York-based practice Hollwich Kushner / HWKN put people at the centre of their projects to create innovative social experiences, through the exploration of new functional programmes and building typologies. Their projects are rich in personality and responsive to local context – in 2012 the practice gained widespread international attention with an air-cleaning blue spiky installation called Wendy, with which they won the MoMA PS1’s Young Architects Programme. They are also the founders of Architizer, one of the world’s largest online platforms for architecture and design, revolutionising the dissemination of architecture. Recent built projects include a sculptural timber leisure pavilion at Fire Island Pines in New York, the historic centre of gay vacation culture, and the transformation of a 20th-century paint factory into an innovation centre at the University of Pennsylvania.