The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and Museum and BMW AG announced a six-year collaboration that will engage people in major cities around the globe, and inspire the creation of forward-looking concepts and designs for urban life. The initiative will feature a new generation of leaders in architecture, art, science, design, technology, and education, who will address the challenges of the cities of tomorrow by examining the realities of the cities of today.
An innovative movable structure that travels from city to city, the BMW Guggenheim Lab will bring together ambitious thinkers from around the globe and will be a public place for sharing ideas and practical solutions to major issues affecting urban life. There will be three different BMW Guggenheim Labs, each with its own architect, graphic designer, and theme and each traveling to three major cities worldwide in separate, consecutive two-year cycles. Site-specific events and educational programs related to the cycle’s theme will include workshops, public discussions, performances, and formal and informal gatherings, which will tie the BMW Guggenheim Lab into the everyday fabric of the city.
The first BMW Guggenheim Lab will be installed in North America in late summer 2011 and will present programming into the fall of 2011, before moving on to the next two cities on its global tour, in Europe and Asia, respectively. At the conclusion of each three-city cycle, a special exhibition will be presented at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, exploring important issues that were raised, addressed, and presented at the BMW Guggenheim Lab’s different venues.
The theme for the inaugural BMW Guggenheim Lab will be Confronting Comfort: The City and You—how urban environments can be made more responsive to people’s needs, how people can feel at ease in an urban environment, and how to find a balance between notions of modern comfort and the urgent need for environmental responsibility and sustainability.
The pioneering Tokyo-based architecture firm Atelier Bow-Wow has been commissioned to design the first BMW Guggenheim Lab, and the Seoul-based firm of Sulki & Min has been announced as the designer of its graphic identity. The 5,000-square-foot structure will open with a rich roster of public programming developed by the Lab Team together with Guggenheim staff through the fall of 2011.
In each city, the programs, events, and ideas for the BMW Guggenheim Lab will be developed collaboratively by a different four-member, multidisciplinary BMW Guggenheim Lab Team of early- to mid-career professionals who have been identified as emerging leaders in their fields. The BMW Guggenheim Lab Team members will be nominated by a distinguished Advisory Committee, composed of internationally renowned experts from the creative, academic, and scientific fields, and will work closely with Guggenheim curators to develop the program.
Further details about the project, including the unveiling of the BMW Guggenheim Lab design, the announcement of the cities on the tour, the identification of Advisory Committee and BMW Guggenheim Lab Team members and programming information will be revealed over the next several months.