Tumble comprises six small buildings, first configured in the PS1 courtyard and later used as artists’ studios by residency programs throughout the United States. Standing upright, they cast long shadows and are stabilized by water containers that create cool places to sit and get information about the buildings’ future locations, where they will be tipped on their sides—tumbled—in order to become studios for the production of ecologically themed work to be exhibited back in the city.

Through strategies of figuration and configuration, Tumble facilitates new forms of collectivity and a lasting discourse on the city’s dependence on outside resources. In the courtyard, small partitioned spaces engender an intimate network of exchange in lieu of the singular spectacle of the crowd. Dispersed as studios, the structures inject a typically introspective residency experience with a larger collective interest. This is made legible by an architectural identity that, in turn, lends visibility to a collaborative effort among arts institutions across the country.