The BMW Guggenheim Lab Berlin that will open in May 2012 announced its international team. The Lab, which will combine a think tank, public discussions and community center, will be located in the Pfefferberg complex in the Prenzlauer Berg neighborhood. 

Photo: BMW Guggenheim Lab Berlin Team, from blog.bmwguggenheimlab.org

The Berlin Lab Team has four members. Jose Gomez-Márquez is program director for the Innovations in International Health Initiative at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston. Carlo Ratti is architect and engineer, who practices in Italy and directs the SENSEable City Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston. Berlin-based artist Corinne Rose works with photography and video and teaches at the Bern University of the Arts, Switzerland. Rachel Smith is principal transport planner with AECOM, based in Brisbane, Australia.

The Lab Team will develop the programming together with Guggenheim curator Maria Nicanor and be present for the run of the Berlin Lab. The Lab collaborates with ANCB-Metropolitan Laboratory and will offer a range of free programs exploring issues confronting urban life.

The Lab Team has chosen the following topics to focus on: Empowerment Technologies (Jose Gomez-Márquez); Dynamic Connections (Rachel Smith); Urban Micro-Lens (Corinne Rose); and the Senseable (SENSEable) City (Carlo Ratti). All of the programs touch the theme of the first three-city cycle, Confronting Comfort, which explores ways of making urban environments more responsive to people’s needs, striking a balance between individual and collective comfort, and promoting environmental and social responsibility.

«Each of us has very different educational and professional backgrounds that we are eager to share,» said the Berlin Lab Team in a joint statement. «We are looking forward to making the BMW Guggenheim Lab Berlin a ‘lab’ of the interdisciplinary, multifaceted approach that will be needed to address tomorrow’s major urban challenges.»

The BMW Guggenheim Lab Berlin will be housed in an innovative mobile structure designed by Tokyo-based architects Atelier Bow-Wow that constructed the temporary facility for BMW Guggenheim Lab New York. Approximately 2,200 square feet in size, the structure can easily be transported from city to city.

In 2012—2013 the BMW Guggenheim Lab will travel to Mumbai.