In only a month and a half, Governor’s Island re-opens to the throngs of New Yorkers looking to escape the lawless, sweat-stained hellscape that is New York In The Summer.

As the date approaches, FIGMENT, ENYA, SEAoNY have announced the winner of their annual City of Dreams Pavilion competition, which will be constructed on the Island for an early-June opening date.

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The winner of of the two-round contest, which asks entrants to imagine a socially and ecologically-sustainable public meeting space?

New Yorkers/Guadalajarans Bittertang, who seem to be having a breakout year. Their office (made up of duo Antonio Torres and Michael Loverich) description is so smart: Bittertang “strives to bring happiness and pleasure into the built world by referencing that pleasurable world which surrounds us. Our work explores multiple themes including pleasure, frothiness, biological matter, animal posturing, babies, sculpture and coloration all unified through bel composto.”

Yes! Anyways, as you might expect, their competition-winning entry is frothy, biological, and pleasure-colored. And hilariously named! Burble Bup is pictured below:

So, what exactly are we looking at in the section of those phosphorescent inflatable appendages? According to Figment:

Burble Bup is a secret hideout that lures people into its soft and magical interior through the use of a colorfully inflatable roof…

Unlike most pavilions the massive weight of soil is used to produce a private interior with whorls of smaller spaces knotted around its periphery. These soil mounds, constructed of soil and bark filled fabric tubes provide sitting and climbing surfaces for people. The exterior gradually mounds up in a series of grassy benches rising to form a visual and acoustical boundary for the pavilions interior where public performances as well as private small talk can be enjoyed.

Erected in the courtyard of Liggett Hall during Governors Island’s summer festivities, Burble Bup is a pavilion of two parts. The first part, a dome, is made from individual custom designed components (Bups) with a unique morphology that allows them to be connected together in a variety of ways. Their articulated, bloated and textured limbs provide a sticky connection point to join with a neighboring Bup. The other portion of the pavilion is a landscape zone that mounds to provide privacy and structural support to the dome.

Bittertang anticipates that after this summer the inflatables will be able to be recycled as pool toys within various NYC pools. The fabric used for the soil tubes will be a biodegradable material and can be composted. The soil filling the tubes and the pampas grass can be used in other landscape projects on the island, enhancing the beauty of the island in the coming seasons. The recyclability of the project occurs at various levels, some materials are recycled into other projects or reused, while others are toys to be enjoyed by children. None the less, all materials chosen will enhance our surroundings after their deployment in our pavilion.

The jury clearly branched out (so to speak) from the familiar “sustainability that looks like sustainability” paradigm, which we saw in last year’s winning “Living Pavilion,” so we’re curious to see the rest of the shortlisted entries.

We’ve got a the following images from finalists (and friends!) Naomi Ocko and Christina Ciardullo, below. Their entry, Pulled Reclamation, proposed the reclamation of wood from all over New York for use in the pavilion. Look for a follow-up with more information in the next few days.

Image (c) Naomi Ocko and Christina Ciardullo.