NINA FREEDMAN’S INSTALLATION
‘SPACES FOR SPONTANEOUS SINGING’
IS A FINALIST FOR THE ARCHITIZER + AWARDS in the category of ‘ARCHITECTURE PLUS JOY

OPEN FOR PUBLIC VOTING THROUGH FRIDAY, MAY 27

“Back before the pandemic, I designed and built an installation in Los Angeles called
SPACES FOR SPONTANEOUS SINGING. 

This year Architizer + Awards for 2022 created a new category, ARCHITECTURE PLUS JOY.
I have been selected as a finalist in this category.

It now goes for the popular vote. If you feel inclined to vote for the project and share it, that would be great.
Public voting is open through Friday, May 27.

Vote Here: Search for the category Architecture Plus Joy.
Select ‘Spaces for Spontaneous Singing’,
under Dreamland Creative Projects.

SPACES FOR SPONTANEOUS SINGING’, a temporary installation, built for the 2019 LA Design Festival, invokes the ‘Purpose of Joy’, as a reframed response to the festival theme, ‘Design with Purpose’.‘

It brings the activity of uninhibited singing from the privacy of one’s shower, to a public street parking lot, in a dedicated urban, mini ‘singing shower park’. In play and joy, vulnerable boundaries between private and public behaviors dissolve. Using an ‘authorized’ play setting for all ages, it additionally explores ideas about belonging – where and how we feel comfortable to express joy, where we hide, and where we test our private face in public.

Inspired by the context of Los Angeles, the home of performance, the installation is designed as an intergenerational experience, for individual singing, or for couples, families or friends to sing together. Intermingled seating encourages an audience. Sited on a 20’x40’ area of a parking lot, the design includes 12 circular, micro ‘stage’ shower bases, stanchions of varying heights for adults and children, semi-enclosed privacy screens and custom seating. Each waterless shower has a handheld shower ‘microphone’. The circular language of perforated shower head holes, at varying scales, is a pattern motif for the showers, stages and seating. Privacy screen components transform into light fixtures at night. Post installation, the seating was delivered to a homeless encampment.