Project

From East Village, Manhattan: BMW Guggenheim Lab

webmaster 23-08-2011

Space for ideas exchange, public forum and communitarian center: all of these concepts come together at BMW Guggenheim Lab, which will offer in nine cities during the next six years, free programs that will explore challenges presently faced by major cities, within the framework of a mobile and innovative structure. The experiment test looks forward to increase public awareness on important urban challenges and generate sustainable benefits, and it’s been organized by including three cycles with different topics and structures. First cycle’s structure, designed by Atelier Bow-Wow, is a two-story light and compact “traveling tool box”.

The Lab is organized by David van der Leer and Maria Nicanor, who have included Urbanology group “game” as one of the main elements, in which people can physically participate or they can do it through the network. It’s all about representing hypothetical situations in order to transform cities, defending aspects such as education, housing, healthcare system, sustainability, infrastructure and mobility. The website and blog at bmwguggenheimlab.orgoffer different ways to gain access to the Lab. Furthermore, visitors will be able to join special social communities in Twitter(@BMWGuggLab, hashtag #BGLab), Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and Foursquare.

New York is the first venue. The Lab will be sited in First Park, and the access will be for free from Wednesday to Sunday through October 16. The public will have the opportunity of attending over 100 programs on Confronting comfort, including workshops, experiments, debates, projections and tours around the city.

On the spring of 2012, BMW Guggenheim Lab will be held in Berlin, working jointly with Aedes Network Campus Berlin (ANCB) Metropolitan Lab, Pfefferberg. It’ll be displayed in Mumbai during the 2012-13 winter time. Mumbai presentation has been organized with the support of Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum. The first cycle will get to an end with the presentation of findings and results obtained from the Lab to be carried out at New York’s Guggenheim Museum in 2013.