In collaboration with our long-time partners at Prada, our Environments team designed a bespoke temporary scaffolding structure and skin for the Prada building at the corner of 5th Avenue and 56th Street. The meticulously detailed design using standard commercial pipe scaffolding elements reflects Prada’s enduring interest in dualities: industrial/refined, functional/decorative, familiar/uncanny. A double-layer, semi-transparent scrim wrapper creates a moiré effect that constantly shifts with changing light, weather, and viewing angle. As the sky darkens, a lighting grid aligned with the scaffold seems to dissolve the outer layer, revealing the structural framework beneath. Rather than hiding construction and maintenance, we leverage them as an opportunity to express Prada’s unique aesthetic heritage. Through color, pattern, and moiré, the scaffold becomes an extension of the brand language rather than a screen; a branding of and in the structure of the city.
