Xtra Moenia serves as the North Gate to the annual San Gennaro Festival, spanning the street in the Nolita neighborhood of New York City.. Drawing from the oculus—one of the most elemental devices in classical architecture—the installation uses it as a lens rather than a void. Two distinct oculi anchor the form: one oriented upward toward the sky, the other inverted toward the street, establishing a dialogue between above and below.

A suspended threshold stretches across the street, framing arrival through color, light, and geometry. Rather than functioning as a conventional gateway, the installation defines a zone—one that gathers pedestrians beneath it and marks a moment of transition within the dense urban fabric.

The two openings are blended through a minimal surface that continuously transitions between them, deliberately blurring distinctions of orientation and direction. The resulting geometry reads differently depending on how it is encountered—overhead, from a distance, or while moving beneath it. The gateway becomes less an object to pass through and more an environment to briefly inhabit.

The structure is entirely tension-based, held aloft by a network of cables anchored to surrounding buildings. Its form is fully site-specific, emerging only through the precise calibration of attachment points and cable lengths. Stability is achieved not through mass, but through equilibrium and relationship.

Xtra Moenia is composed of 4,224 laser-cut panels, each uniquely shaped and printed with a custom color. More than 6,000 aluminum grommets connect the panels into a continuous surface, distributing forces evenly across the installation. Because no two panels are alike, custom software tools were developed to manage fabrication and assembly, allowing variation to function as both a visual and structural strategy.

Through tension, color, and form, Xtra Moenia reimagines the idea of a festival gate. Celebration is framed not as a singular object or moment, but as a spatial condition—one that temporarily reshapes the street and invites the public to gather beneath a shared architectural gesture.

Collaborators: ARUP

More about the process:
Engineering and surface tilinng