Artist Molly Dilworth’s paintings serve the general public, even if the general public can’t easily see her work. Her ongoing series Paintings for Satellites turns buildings’ fifth elevation into dazzling murals that mitigate urban heat island effect. Some of the most environmentally aware cities in the world encourage building owners to paint their rooftops lighter, more reflective colors to reduce heat gain and cut energy use and greenhouse emissions. New York City’s CoolRoofs program and climate change advocacy group 350.org recently invited Dilworth to paint the roof of a Brooklyn high school (pictured). For the most part, however, her work remains self-generated, relying on discarded house paint and easy (not always) access to rooftops.
- Projects
- 61st Street Farmers Market
- 78th Street Play Street
- 596 Acres
- 1415
- ACTIVATE!
- Air Quality Egg
- AirCasting
- Amphibious Architecture
- Aquaponics Container System
- Art in Odd Places
- ARTfarm
- Astoria Scum River Bridge
- Bartering and Sharing Networks
- Bat Cloud
- Bench Press
- Better Block
- BK Farmyards
- Brooklyn Night Bazaar
- Bubbleware
- Building Projections
- Bunchy Carter Park for the People
- By the City/For the City
- Campito
- Cart Coop
- chainlinkGREEN
- Chair-bombing
- Chicago Rarities Orchard Project
- City Farm
- The City from the Valley
- City Sensing: Signal Spaces
- Cleveland Bridge Project
- Come Out & Play Festival
- Community Living Room
- Crown Heights Participatory Urbanism
- Cut.Join.Play.
- Day Labor Station
- Depave
- Dérive App
- Detroit, Demolition, Disneyland
- Dream It. Grow It.
- Eco-Playground
- Edible Estates
- Edible Schoolyard
- Edible Wall
- Faubourg St. Roch Project
- Field Guide to Phytoremediation
- Flint Public Art Project
- For Squat / Reuben Kincaid Realty
- Fresh Moves Mobile Market
- Ghost Bikes
- GOOD Ideas for Cities
- Grassroots Mapping
- Greenaid Seedbomb Vending Machine
- Guerrilla Bike Lanes
- Guerrilla Drive-Ins
- Guerrilla Gardening
- Guerrilla Grafters
- Harvest Dome
- Holding Pattern
- Hypothetical Development Organization
- I Wish This Was
- ICE-POPS
- Iluminacción
- Imagination Playground
- Imaging Detroit
- Insert____Here
- Intersection Repair
- Islands of LA
- Kingshighway Skatepark
- KISS Popup Chapel
- LA Green Grounds
- Legal Waiting Zone
- LentSpace
- LightLane
- Linden Living Alley
- Local Code: Real Estates
- Local Previews
- Making Policy Public
- Marcus Prize Pavilion
- Mobile Dumpster Pools
- Moving Design: Civic Intervention
- Museum of the Phantom City
- MyBlockNYC
- Neighborland
- New Public Sites
- NY Street Advertising Takeover
- No Longer Empty
- Notes for Anyone
- Occupy Wall Street
- OpenPlans
- Paintings for Satellites
- Parking Plot
- Parklets
- Parkman Triangle Park
- Parkmobiles
- Participation Park
- People Make Parks
- Periscope Project
- Phone Booth Book Share
- PHS Pops-Up Garden
- Piazza Gratissima
- Pixelator
- Place It!
- Place Pulse
- Placemaking in Bronzeville
- Pop Up City
- Pop Up Lunch
- Pop-Up Art Loop
- Popularise: Build Your City
- popuphood
- Post Furniture
- Power Cart
- Power House
- proxy
- PUPstop Project
- QR_Hobo_Codes
- Queens Boulevard Intervention
- re:NEWS
- Red Swing Project
- San Francisco Garden Registry
- SeeClickFix
- Serendipitor
- Skipping Only Zones
- Soil Kitchen
- Spatial ConTXTs
- Stairway Stories
- Streetfilms
- Syracuse Downtown
- Tactical Urbanism Handbook
- TrafficCOM
- Ten New Historical Markers
- TERRITORY
- TreeKIT
- Trees, Cabs and Crime in San Francisco
- The Uni
- Version Festival 12
- Visionary Chicago
- Walk Raleigh: Guerrilla Wayfinding
- War Gastronomy: Recipes of Relocation
- #whOWNSpace
- Yarnbombing
- Teams
Molly Dilworth Studio
Paintings for Satellites
New York City
2009 to present
Community, Economy, Information, Pleasure, Sustainability
Varies
8 days on average
3
Problem - urban heat island and climate change
Solution - reflective painting on rooftops