Less talking, more making as the Lab takes its next step

Posted to General, People on November 14th, 2011 by Christine McLaren

One of the most exciting parts about this project will be to watch the different faces that the Lab takes on as it moves from city to city. Though the physical structure will remain the same for the first three cities, its relatively naked, unassuming aesthetic is no accident: the personality of the Lab will ultimately be defined by what happens inside and around it.

The context—the culture of the respective cities, the variety of visitors each will spur—will play a huge role in this metamorphosis. Equally significant will be the Lab Team directing the programming, and the synthesis of the individual members’ unique interests, skills, and visions.

Last week the Berlin Lab Team was announced, and team members are already deep into the planning for the Lab’s run there in the spring.

BMW Guggenheim Lab cocurator Maria Nicanor is heading up the curatorial role for the Berlin Lab, and said it is very clear that the Lab will look and behave much differently than it did in New York.

“The team in Berlin is very much about doing and making things. As much as they appreciate urban theory and general discussion around the topics of cities, they feel a lot like it comes down to doing things with your hands, and that people need to feel empowered to do something with their hands,” Maria told me over Skype from Berlin.

“They see the lab in New York as more of a theoretical hub, where a lot of thinking and discussion happened. That’s definitely going to carry on into the Berlin Lab… but, because they see the Berlin lab as the ‘doer lab,’ they see it as a nice progression. It’s almost the process that you would go through when you do anything—first you think about it, and then you do it, right? So they like to see themselves as that second step fitting conceptually into the cycle of three cities,” she said.

Unlike in New York, where Lab Team members parachuted in from their respective corners of the world and had just two and a half weeks to pack in their programming, the entire team will be present in Berlin for the entirety of the Lab’s ten-week run.

That means that their programming will be integrated and will complement each other’s based on daily themes. The structure of the schedule will comprise a lecture, workshop, and then a fun event, all based around a single topic each day.

Perhaps most exciting than the differences, however, are the accidental similarities that are appearing between the Berlin and New York labs.

“It’s interesting for me to see the continuation of certain topics,” said Maria.

Though the curators have given no directive as to which topics the team should cover, she said, there are undeniable similarities between the issues the New York and Berlin Lab teams have gauged as important.

“The idea of the open-source participatory urbanism is very much part of the discussions in Berlin and will be very present throughout the programs. I think it proves in a way that this was one of the most important points in New York, as we see it pop up again here. There’s a lot of interest in the whole sharing culture, very much what Juliet Schor’s whole talk was about,” she said.

“There’s also the interest in the psychological component that we saw in New York, and how it’s important to react to this emotional side of cities and how you feel emotionally—not only to be rational about it, about infrastructure, but also about how it makes you feel and how it effects your social interactions.”

And perhaps most importantly, she said: “I think the Lab Team is exceptional at balancing each other… they’re very supportive of each other. They really are truly collaborating.”

Over the coming weeks we will feature interviews with each of the Lab Team members to get a sneak peek of what we can expect from their programming during the Lab’s run in Berlin. Stay tuned!

Tagged with: Berlin, Berlin Lab Team, Lab Team

Rhysmartin

Dear Ms Maclaren,
last week i attended a meeting of local residents designed by the lab to allay concerns about the coming Berlin 10 week project.Despite the predicable and to some extent expected hostility by activists with a long history of campaigning for social justice in the neighbourhood, some of us were there to hear just what this lab might mean for the local area.Suspicion that our current trendy offbeat and hip image was being instrumental for the usual highflying theoretical bubbles with promises of urban and social reform by the well meaning and the the well bred was far from offset.No concrete offers or evidence of awareness that this lab could directly undermine the very principles they would be exploring ;that its presence in this Kreuzberg neighbourhood with all of its social and demographic tensions will exacerbate already unresolved and mounting conflict in regard to gentrification and dispossession.
Where is the leadership or mentorship of this initiative.Its purpose and plan are opaque?
Disregarding a limited and unconvincing self aggrandising powerpoint presentation praising the laurels of the New York mother ship,kiez citizens prepared to participate do not know what to participate in!
Other ask understandably why should they contribute their unpaid intellectual labour to foster the market interests of BMW.
None of this appears on the website!
And!
Not only will the building of the temporary centre eliminate the current popular ‘commons’ established at the site question.Lowering the current and democratic ‘comfort’ of the neighbourhoods topos is already provoking talk of hostility and direct action against this perceived appropriation of civil rights albeit them being contrary to the legal realities proprietary and ownership.
And!
Now in addition local residents have suddenly found out that the lab will eliminate 70% of all parking in the street,already a contentious issue.And this for 6 months.
You couldnt better plan to make enemies of those, for whom you claim to philanthropically represent, in the cause for urban co operation and development.

Where are the real ideas?Who are your official representatives?Where is the dialogue taking place?
You will need to a hell of a lot more work if you want to convince the community it really something to do with them beyond bread and circuses.

Rhys Martin
Adjacent Resident
Anonymous

Hi Rhys Martin,

Thank you for your comments and for your interest in the BMW Guggenheim Lab. The program for the BMW Guggenheim Lab Berlin is still in development and is being created by the Berlin Lab Team under the direction of Guggenheim curator Maria Nicanor and in cooperation with local community groups and organizations. As it did in New York, the program for the Berlin Lab will address a wide range of issues facing cities today including livability, affordability, and sustainability. The program also will address topics of specific interest to Berlin and is being designed to engage residents from throughout the city.

Our plans do not require the displacement of street parking in the neighborhood for any prolonged length of time.

Should you have further questions, please do not hesitate to email us at bmwguggenheimlab@guggenheim.org.
Rhysmartin

dear whoever you are,
i was obliged to enter my name on your website to be able to publish my comments.i feel that this should be a two way deal!
thankyou for you prompt reply.
can you be more specific about which groups you are working with?And can you inform us how much time you will in fact be needing parking facilities?
RM
Anonymous

We’ll be announcing details about the programming and the groups we’re working with over the next several weeks. Please stay tuned to the website for the latest information. There will be some minor inconveniences that will result in disruptions to parking during peak times of construction. We are working to carefully stage those activities to minimize disruption to people and businesses, and we appreciate the patience and cooperation of everyone who may be temporarily inconvenienced.
ber

The preliminary BMW-Lab presentation in Kreuzberg obviously became a disaster:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzxMbRx6XN8
Kosmopolit

Come to Mitte! There is an empty lot right at Nordbahnhof (Gartenstr. between Invaliden and Bernauer) that is crying for more interesting usage instead of just being a concrete jungle with some trees trying to take back the area!!!!!!!
ber

Yeah, let’s cut down trees for a marketing gig of a car manufacturer!
Kosmopolit

Cutting down the trees would not be necessary and heavens knows Berlin with its broken Liegenschaftsfondspolitik could use a “lab” to generate new and better ideas about urban space and development planning. If the private sector is willing to sponsor that, and provide a forum for that, all the better. Wowereit and his CDU pals need all the help they can get.
Anonymous

Hi Kosmopolit and ber,
Thank you for your interest in the Lab. Stay tuned to our website for the latest updates.
Level Five

I think the free space behind the Arthouse Tacheles in Berlin Mitte could be an exciting space. It’s the perfect spot devolop urban ideas for future living.
Lohryx

The more directors and curators ignore the real politics involved with corporate sponsorship and the complexities of ‘social engagement’, the faster this project becomes irrelevant, even laughable.
Anonymous

Thanks for your suggestion. Please stay tuned for more news soon.
ber

Dear Kosmopolit, it does not need BMW/Guggenheim to start a discussion about urban development in Berlin. That discussion is going on since ages.

In my opinion the private sector in cooperation with the Berlin senat often enough gave a **** about public property and public spaces and the needs of citizens in Berlin.
Teddy

Could you please not come to Berlin. You are boring.
Wittulsky

Dear ber,

I believe it needs fare more companies and private people who are willing and paying to get artists and politics together, to discuss on the future of urban cities and life in them, is very important, but more important is the realizing.

I know here in Berlin artists need money, and support first, but this is a chance to get your ideas to the people who have the money to (maybe) realize the creative ideas. We need to try and take every chance we get.

Give the Artists a real platform and stop discussing but give them space, money and time. Then the artists here, will give the city and there citizens something unique, something that attracts, something emotional.

So let’s be thankful to BMW and the Guggenheim for now. See what the can move here in Berlin, and then we can start critizising or maybe even praise them.
ber

Dear Wittulsky,

urban planning is the domain of urban planners and architects not artists.

Artists may come up with projects that draw crowds – fine. But that’s spectacle not longterm development.

If BMW wants to pay artists to show up at their lab – good for the few chosen souls. But it will not change a bit of the problems citizens in Berlin (incl. artists) are facing.

Again, the lab is a marketing event. It is the luxury equivalent of somebody handing out flyers. I don’t think Berliners need to be thankful for that.
http://twitter.com/csgmclaren Christine McLaren

Hi Ber, Wittulsky, Kosmopolit, etc…

It’s a shame that affordability and gentrification are issues that need to be addressed at all – let alone that they are issues that are pervasive in nearly every large, “desirable” city. Coming from Vancouver, one of the top three “most desirable” cities according to any number of rankings, where a tiny, ramshackle house on the city’s edge can be worth over $1 million, they are issues that I myself am far better acquainted with than I would like.

But every city’s (un)affordability story is different, and Berlin is an especially unique case, insofar as it has traditionally been much more affordable than many other European cities. Thus the effects of rising costs are felt even more strongly, I think.

So I’m hoping to dig into the actual roots and context of these affordability questions in Berlin specifically over the next several weeks on the blog before the Lab opens. It’s important, I think, to understand not only how people are being affected, but also why.

I appreciate that you’ve taken the time to engage with each other here. We might all see this issue from different perspectives, but in the end I think we all see it as that: an issue that needs to be addressed in some way. I think understanding the history and context a bit better is, at the very least, a necessary first step.

The first piece, just as introduction, is here: http://blog.bmwguggenheimlab.org/2012/04/making-controversy-constructive-a-look-at-the-past-present-and-future-of-affordability-in-berlin/

The best thing that can come out of this are some real answers about how Berlin can potentially stave off gentrification and keep the city an affordable place to live for everyone who wants a future here.

I don’t pretend I’m going to find those answers here and now, but we’ve all got to start somewhere… so I really hope you will keep following along as part of the conversation. Who knows, maybe you even want to meet me for a coffee and tell me your own story. I’d like that, if you’d be willing (wir koennen auch auf Deutsch reden…).

Either way, I hope that through debate and conversation together we can try to make something constructive come out at the end of all of this.

Christine (the blogger)
http://twitter.com/csgmclaren Christine McLaren

Hey Rhysmartin, please see my comment above. I’d be really happy if you’d also join in the conversation over the next few weeks, and maybe even be willing to chat with me about how your neighborhood specifically is effected by rising costs. Please be in touch any time.

Theaudacityofboats “Hi Christine I've really enjoyed reading your posts about the boat journey. I undertook a similar journey in 2008 -...”

Christine McLaren “Hey Ronn - I posted the bibliography on the blog this week. Check it out here: http://blog.bmwguggenheimlab.o... Thanks for following...”

mattr “That's a nice project! ...”

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