by William Lamb

“Match-Maker” is designed to take on the iconic heart shape from some vantage points, though it appears as an abstract, zigzagging network of tubes from others. Photo courtesy of Young Projects.

A three-dimensional heart that uses the signs of the zodiac to cosmically connect strangers has been chosen as the winning entry in this year’s annual Times Square Valentine Heart Design competition.

Young Projects, a Brooklyn-based design and architecture studio, collaborated with the metal-fabrication company Kammetal on the sculpture, called “Match-Maker,” which will be unveiled in Father Duffy Square between 47th and 48th streets in early February. It will remain on view there through early March.

Bryan Young, who founded Young Projects in 2010, says the idea is to help strangers find one another at the fabled “Crossroads of the World,” and to help established lovers find novel new connections. Guided by their astrological signs, visitors will be invited to arrange themselves at one of twelve points along the sculpture’s circumference where colorful, zigzagging periscopes will offer glimpses of their four ideal astrological mates.