P.S.1 is known for showing cutting-edge contemporary art, but this summer it also might receive accolades for its homegrown veggies. Rising from the Queens museum’s decidedly urban, concrete courtyard will be a mini-farm, complete with a crop. Dubbed PF1 (Public Farm One), the innovative installation, which the museum describes as having “the look of a flying carpet,” will also feature a long list of whimsical surprises, including two columns that play farm sounds, a juice bar (with juice made from fruits and vegetables grown onsite), and a refreshing pool in the center of it all.

PF1 is the brainchild of husband-and-wife team Amale Andraos and Dan Wood of the New York–based WORK Architecture Company. WORK won the Museum of Modern Art and P.S.1’s ninth annual Young Architects Program, designed to give emerging young talent in architecture a forum to present architectural solutions for a specific site. PF1, which goes up June 20 in the P.S.1 courtyard, is unlike anything the program has ever presented before.

ARTINFO caught up with Andraos to discuss the inspiration behind the project.

How did you come up with the idea for the courtyard farm?

We’ve been teaching a seminar on the relationship between ecology and urbanism for the past four years at Princeton, and one of our favorite encounters has been the urban farm. People have been experimenting with the urban farm for decades. We wanted to revamp it and introduce it as symbol of potential aspirations for our generation, equivalent to sous les pavés, la plage in the ’60s. We also liked the idea of the farm grid meeting the grid of the city.

Why did you decide to deviate so much from what has been done at P.S.1 in the past?

We felt it was time for a change. Pure formal explorations and investigations in fabrication were starting to repeat themselves. Between the winning schemes and the losing ones — and there were some great losing ones — pretty much everything had been tried since the competition’s inception. We wanted to reintroduce investigations in program rather than just in form and to really push ideas beyond the installation itself.

How would you describe the project, and what kinds of issues does it confront?

The entire project is generated by a program — the idea of an urban farm — as well as by its site — the desire to bridge the two courtyards and use only a single gesture to organize varied triangular zones of activity. The rest, including the grid, the cardboard tubes, the structural programmatic columns, the solar power, the pool, the fold where the bridge falls to touch the ground at the pool, the daisy patterns for the planting, and the water system, is all a result of structural, functional, and programmatic requirements. As a result, it confronts issues within the discipline of architecture — what is form? how is it generated? — as well as without: How to create a fun summer structure that also raises awareness about our cities and opens people’s imaginations to what is possible.

Beyond the garden aspects, your plans incorporate several special features, including a fabric tube where people can hide, two sound columns, and a cell phone-charging column. Can you tell me more about those?

The columns are not only structural; they also organize zones of activity. We emphasize difference in our projects, so the columns are different in scale as well as in material and function. The project also tries to provide a broad range of experiences that play with our notions of “farm” and “party.” The sounds relate to rural experiences in a fun way, and the phone charging station and hiding column play with the party aspect of the event. Phones are hypersocial, while the soft column provides escape. We’re trying to create overlapping narratives.

It sounds very complicated.

It is complicated. The exciting part is that the project has generated so much enthusiasm, bringing together organizations interested in farming, food, architecture, solar power, sustainability, and technology. We hope it will become a channel for all these groups to meet and work together. The process — organizing the help; finding green houses, material, expertise, and volunteers; and building the installation — is very much the project, probably even more than the final installation.

What kinds of vegetables will you grow, and what will you do with the harvest?

Everything from scallions to pumpkins, tomatoes, and herbs. We are trying to have them bloom in sequence, creating enough excitement for the opening but also providing constant change and growth throughout the summer. We will sell them in our farmer’s market area and make organic juice for cocktails at the bars.

I read that you also plan to create a P.S.1 beer. Will you really do that?

Yes, if we can and if the farm is still up in October.

How long have you both been interested in gardening?

Dan grew up on a farm, and we’ve been looking at land in Rhode Island for a while. But we always joke that the closest we ever get to soil in our daily lives is the dust in our apartment. Neither Dan nor I has a particularly green thumb; the project stems more from our interest in cities and understanding how they can transform. There were many radical visionary projects in the ’60s and ’70s that rethought cities. We want to channel that energy again, playfully.

What do you hope people who visit PF1 over the summer will take away from the experience?

First, a great time. Second, an expanded and excited feeling about potential and possibilities.