The BMW Guggenheim Lab opened on June 15 in Berlin, the second stop on the project’s six-year global tour. Offering free programs, the BMW Guggenheim Lab Berlin is a temporary public space and online forum encouraging open dialogue about issues related to urban life.
A local think tank with a global perspective, the BMW Guggenheim Lab Berlin focuses on practical making and doing, with programs designed to empower residents with tools and ideas to actively engage in city change. The Lab is located in Prenzlauer Berg at Schönhauser Allee 176 in the Pfefferberg complex, a converted nineteenth-century brewery. The Lab, presented in cooperation with ANCB The Metropolitan Laboratory, is open Wednesday through Friday, 2–10 pm, and Saturday and Sunday, 12–10 pm. All programs, running from June 15 to July 29, are free of charge and will be offered in German or in English with German translation.
Photo: BMW Guggenheim Lab
Under the umbrella of Confronting Comfort, the theme of the Lab’s first two-year cycle, programming for the Berlin Lab focuses on the importance of ‘doing and making’ to bring about city change. The Lab explores issues of contemporary urban life, from infrastructure to technology to sustainability, through programs that encourage visitors to participate and share questions, answers, thoughts, and dialogue.
Programs have been developed by the Berlin Lab Team (José Gómez-Márquez, Carlo Ratti, Corinne Rose, and Rachel Smith), an international, multidisciplinary group of innovators and experts led by Guggenheim curator Maria Nicanor, with contributions from local organizations. The schedule, which can be found on the BMW Guggenheim Lab website, will include more than one hundred events at the Pfefferberg site and throughout the city.
Programs concentrate on four main topics, which are Empowerment Technologies (June 15–24), Dynamic Connections (June 27–July 6), Urban Micro-Lens (July 7–18), and SENSEable City (July 19–29). In addition to programs, the Berlin Lab offers a variety of citywide explorations, such as guided tours, field trips, and walking workshops. Details can be found on the BMW Guggenheim Lab website.
In collaboration with GOOD, a collaboration of individuals, businesses, and nonprofits pushing the world forward, the BMW Guggenheim Lab has launched a worldwide, online call for ideas to ‘make’ urban comfort, asking: “How would you transform a public space in your city to make it more comfortable?” The public is invited to submit forward-thinking, innovative, imaginative, surprising, or unconventional ideas that would enhance people’s experience in a public space. Entries may be submitted to good.is/cityforward beginning June 19, 2012. Selected entries will be highlighted on the BMW Guggenheim Lab and GOOD websites and social media channels.