#Sustainability Lab

In our time of the Anthropocene, the juxtaposition between nature versus artifact and designed environment is becoming obsolete.

In the dissolution of this polarity lays a great chance: architecture (which in the allegorical depiction of the Vitruvian Primitive Hut by Marc-Antoine Laugier and Charles Eisen of 1753 had emerged from nature) merges with nature once again.

news

Humboldt Volcano @ Baunetz

With the increasing urbanization and the virulent climate crisis, interest in nature is also growing. In various formats, such as talks, discussions, guided tours, exhibitions, workshops, open-house events and more, the public is invited to think of green and gray infrastructure in the city. Something like this: what if we were to look at urban space from the perspective of animals and plants?

Publication @ Baunetz, Germany, 15 June 2018

playVOID @ Pop-Up Park

A two week program explores how the VOID in the center of the Embassy’s premises can function as a pleasurable communication space by playing, dancing, lounging, exchanging, enjoying.

Opening & Press Conference Public Pop-Up Park @ Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Berlin, 15 June 2018
Reading, Presentation & Discussion Alexander von Humboldt and Humboldt Volcano @ Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, MakeCity Festival, Berlin, 15 June 2018

Humboldt Volcano @ Berliner Kurier

The “MakeCity 2018” architecture festival with 250 events in 18 days aims to make architecture in the capital more transparent and invites people to join in the conversation and help develop it.

Publication Rethinking Berlin @ Berliner Kurier, Berlin, 14 June 2018

Humboldt Volcano @ Detail

The architecture festival MakeCity will take place in 2018 under the motto Berlin Remixing | City New Mixed.

Publication, Elena Markus @ Detail, Germany, 14 juni 2018

Humboldt Volcano @ TAZ

It must be a very special event when Ada Colau, former city activist and since 2015 Mayor of Barcelona, and Sadiq Aman Khan, London’s first Muslim city head, travel to Berlin without being invited by the Governing Mayor.
Nevertheless, both will be in town on Thursday – and will open the second Make City Festival with building senator Katrin Lompscher and other guests.
The theme of the 18-day event is “City Remixed”.

Publication, Uwe Rada @ TAZ, Berlin, 11 juni 2018

Alexander von Humboldt and Humboldt Volcano @ Tagesspiegel

Rüdiger Schaper, author and head of the cultural department of the Berlin “Tagesspiegel” presents his biography on Alexander von Humboldt and discusses Hybrid Space Lab’s  Humboldt Volcano project during our Studio Talk @ MakeCity Festival. Moderation is by Merlijn Schoonenboom, historian and journalist.

Studio Talk, Reading, Presentation & Discussion @ MakeCity Festival, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Berlin, 5 June 2018

Humboldt Jungle @ archithese

The Swiss architectural magazine Archithese published “Humboldt-Dschungel” as part of the issue on “Ruines”.
How would it be if the Berlin City Palace grew huge trees, sprouted up exotic plants and toppled a waterfall?
The Think Tank Hybrid Space Lab presents a refreshingly ruinous idea in the discussion about the controversial reconstruction.

Publication Humboldt Jungle @ archithese, Architecture Magazine, Switzerland, 15 January 2018

Humboldt Volcano Erupts @ Berlijnse Avonden

The Dutch and Flemish cultural association “Berlijnse Avonden e.V” presents Humboldt Jungle and Humboldt Volcano and invites you on January 6 to the studio of Elizabeth Sikiaridi and Frans Vogelaar, the architects for the new Berlin city palace – the Humboldt Forum – the Humboldt Volcano and the Humboldt Jungle have been designed.

Lecture & Discussion @ Berlijnse Avonden e.V., Berlin, 6 January 2018

Urban Garden Kit @ Urbanism Architecture Bi-City Biennial

The Urban Garden Kit at the Urbanism and Architecture Bi-City Biennial (UABB) brings together urban planners, architects and landscapers, artists and curators, game developers and communication experts and other creative professionals.

Lecture, Workshop & Exhibition @ UABB 2017, Hong Kong & Shenzhen, P.R. China, 16-22 December 2017

NatureTecture @ MediaLab CAFA Beijing

Lecture “Naturetecture” at the Media Lab, Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing.

Lecture NatureTecture @ Media Lab, Central Academy of Fine Arts, No.8 Hua Jia Di Nan Street, Chao Yang District, Beijing, P.R. China, 27 November 2017

BioTecture @ Central Academy of Fine Arts Art Museum Beijing

Recent developments such as Internet of Things, Big Data, Machine Intelligence and Precision Farming will algorithmically organize life, including urban nature.
These developments in technology and media are supporting the emergence of a new hybrid architecture, a BioTecture, where Nature and Architecture fuse.

Lectures & Discussions @ CAFA Art Museum, Central Academy of Fine Arts Art Museum (CAFA) & Beijing Visual Art Innovation Institute, no 8. Hua Jia Di Nan Jie, Chaoyang District, Beijing, P.R. China, 25-26 November 2017

BioTecture @ Communication University of China

BioTecture proposes how architecture will merge with green structures.
The accelerating developments in nature, bio-technology, technology and architecture are creating a new hybrid architecture.

Lecture BioTecture @ Communication University of China (CUC), Dingfuzhuang, Chaoyang District, Beijing, P.R. China, 24 November 2017

Avant Garden @ Festival of Intermedia Hong Kong

Humboldt Volcano is exhibited at the Crossing Border | Border Crossing, International Festival of Intermedia in Hong Kong. Humboldt Volcano, a hybrid building and vertical garden, is such an ‘inter-media’, as it opens up and enables the appropriation of the Berlin Humboldt Forum by an international multicultural public.

Exhibition International Festival of Intermedia @ Hong Kong Jockey Club, Hong Kong, 9-22 October 2017

Poly Garden City @ Kathimerini

Improving life in Athens requires thoughtful investment and realistic proposals. Poly Garden City is a project for Athens, which incorporates green on a wide variety of hard surfaces of buildings, creating gardens and helping to change the microclimate.

Article Poly Garden City, Nikos Vatopoulos @ Kathimerini Newspaper, Greece, 29 June 2017

Internet of Things & Nature @ V2

NatureTecture proposes how Internet of Things will merge with green structures in the city.
With the Internet of Things, Big Data and Machine Intelligence algorithmically organizing life, society, work and industry, the only question that remains is what will happen with nature. The accelerating developments in nature, bio-technology, technology and architecture are creating a new hybrid architecture.

Lecture & Discussion NatureTecture @ V2 Institute for Unstable Media, Rotterdam, 9 April 2017

Redesigning the Berlin Palace @ Kathimerini

Reconciling supporters and opponents of “Humboldt Forum”, the Humboldt Jungle and Humboldt Volcano received a strong positive reception in the Berlin cultural world.

Publication Green Emperor made in Greece, Nikos Vatopulos @ Kathimerini Greek Newspaper, 24 January 2017

Humboldt Volcano @ Humboldt Forum Future

Humboldt Volcano and Humboldt Jungle are part of the exhibition “Palace.City.Berlin.” in Ephraim Palais in Berlin.
The exhibition is devoted to the Berlin Palace and its significance for the city and its inhabitants.

Exhibition Humboldt Forum Future Palace.City.Berlin. @ Ephraim Palace, Berlin, 25 November 2016-23 April 2017

Ethics of Technology @ Beijing Media Art Biennale

Our current geological age is being described as “anthropocene”, as the epoch during which human activity is the dominant influence on climate and the environment.
But we do not need to consider a “longue durée” historical approach, giving priority to long-term historical structures over events.

Exhibition NatureTecture @ Beijing Media Art Biennale, China Millennium Monument, Beijing, 24 September – 30 October 2016
Lecture & Workshop NatureTecture @ Beijing Design Week 2016,  Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, 30 September 2016

Design Zone @ Der Tagesspiegel

The special art edition of the German newspaper DER TAGESSPIEGEL Kunst 2016, which appears during the 9th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, publishes an article by Bettina Homann, an interview on the projects Humboldt Volcano and Humboldt Jungle.

Publication Design Zone by Bettina Homann @ DER TAGESSPIEGEL Kunst 2016, Berlin, 2 September 2016

Refugees Futures @ DMY Festival 2016

Given the masses of uprooted people worldwide the question for solutions from the global design community arises to help refugees feel at home and support those that want or have to stay make their lives liveable.

Discussion Think Local Act Local! @ DMY Festival 2016,  Kraftwerk, Berlin, 2 June 2016

Climate Adaptation @ Deutsches Architektur Zentrum DAZ

How to rebuild a city in the 21st century as global temperatures are rising?
Poly Garden City offers a sustainable green approach for the rebuilding of cities in Syria.

Discussion Strategies to Rebuild Aleppo @ Deutsches Architekturzentrum DAZ, Berlin, 22 April 2016

Landscape Urbanism @ Brandenburg Technical University

Today, with ecological aspects gaining in importance and the Circular Economy becoming central to the EU strategy, the focus of architecture and urban planning is shifting from the completion of new objects to dealing with cycles. Landscape architecture has always had such an orientation towards cycles and processes, since it dealt with growing and decaying matter. At the edges, these disciplines come together; it is here that the interrelationships and metabolisms of the different fields are most effective.

Publication Foundation of the Brandenburg Technical University Cottbus @ Brandenburg Technical University Cottbus-Senftenberg, Chair of Landscape Architecture and Planning, ISBN 978-3-940471-24-6, IKMZ University Library, Cottbus, Germany, 13 March 2016

Humboldt Jungle @ Berliner Kurier

Berliners, do you want this fairy tale castle?
Berliner Kurier, the Berlin newspaper, publishes an article by Stefanie Hildebrandt on Humboldt Jungle.

Publication Berliners, do you want this fairy tale castle? Stefanie Hildebrandt @ Berliner Kurier, 20 February 2016

Humboldt Jungle Dinner @ Alte Tankstelle

How do we save the Humboldt Forum? Experts involved in culture and politics discuss Humboldt Dschungel.

Lectures, Discussion & Dinner @ Alte Tankstelle, Bülowstraße 18, Berlin, 29 January 2016

Hybrid Space Lab @ Berlin Climate Protection Conference

Berlin is growing.
With an increasing demand for mobility, infrastructure and communal services the challenge is climate protection.

Prof. Frans Vogelaar @ Climate Protection Urban Growth Conference, EUREF Campus, Berlin, 24 November 2015

Urban Shrinkage @ Brandenburg University of Technology

Urban shrinkage as a chance for the cityscape?
The “Transformation Landscape” concept spotlights the left over spaces, and the landscapes in transition and in waiting.

Lecture Transformation Landscape @ Brandenburg University of Technology, Cottbus, Germany, 5 November 2015

Humboldt Jungle @ Press

Humboldt Jungle press, radio and WEB publications.

Awareness Campaign Humboldt Jungle @ Press, Germany & International, 2015-2016

Humboldt Jungle @ TAZ

At the Berlin Castle, where the baroque façade is still missing, “Humboldt Jungle” is to grow.
On Tuesday evening, the project initiators spoke to experts and representatives of the various castle initiatives about possible implementations.

Publication Seductive Image, Brigitte Werneburg, Journalist @ TAZ, Berlin, 8 July 2015

Greek Slow Food @ Markthalle Neun

Panel discussion on the Greek Slow Food movement curated by Hybrid Space Lab and Markthalle Neun in Berlin on July 17 2015.

Discussion Greek Food Culture Today @ Markthalle Neun, Berlin, 17 July 2015

Co-Creating Athens @ Lifo

The workshop on the revision of the “hated” Athenian apartment buildings is mentioned in the article by the Greek lifestyle magazine Lifo.
Greek Lifo magazine published article on the workshop on the revision of the “hated” Athenian apartment buildings is mentioned in the article by the Greek lifestyle magazine Lifo.

Article @ Lifo, Athens, 14 January 2015

projects

coSPECIESlab

Ecological transition implies and demands a conceptual mutation, a paradigm shift.
This global transistion has to integrate also other systems of knowledge and ways of conceiving the world, some of which are still organizing the daily lives of the inhabitants of cities in the Global South, and are often shunned and disregarded in the Global North.

Labs & Fests @ Glocal, 2023~2026

circulariCITY

The notion of a circular city has taken to occupy center stage as a main concept for sustainable zero-waste urban futures. And yet, as one takes a closer look, the circle expands in multiple ripples and loops, revealing the sheer complexity that envisioning – let alone developing – circular cities entail.

Presentation & Workshop Cities in the Loop: Re-coding the Circular City @ Hybrid Space Lab, Berlin, 1 July 2022
Presentation & Workshop zirkularKIEZ @ Bits & Bäume 2022 Conference for Digitization and Sustainability, Technical University Berlin, 2 October 2022

Convers@ions

Convers(at)ions engages creatively with exchanges over border phenomenology and performativity, it transforms negative spaces such as military demarcations and borders by adopting a ‘more-than-human’ perspective and taps into the potential of nature and environmental conservation activities.

Research @ Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) &  European Green Belt (EGB), Berlin & Seoul, October 2019~2023

reWild Autobahn

ReWild Autobahn proposes a hybrid (natural and artificial) landscape on a dismantled urban highway in Berlin as a green corridor for humans and non-humans.

Exhibition ReWild Autobahn @ BDA Gallery, Association of German Architects Berlin, Berlin, 6 October – 26 November 2021
Publication Berlin Atlas @ BauNetz, Berlin, 19 November 2021

Co-Creating Hybrid Culture

For the German Federal Cultural Foundation Hybrid Space Lab developed Co-Creating Hybrid Culture that addresses the augmenting of physical cultural sites and practices through digital spaces via transdisciplinary co-creating events.

Keynote Future Cultural Space @ Kulturstiftung des Bundes, HoloLab – dive in Program for Digital Interaction, Halle an der Saale, Germany, 16.00 – 17.00, 22 September 2021
Research & Concept @ German Federal Cultural Foundation, Halle an der Saale, Germany, 2021

Grow Your Green City

Grow Your Green City is an international campaign creating awareness of the fundamental role played by urban green. Grow Your Green City is committed to the idea that a Smart City should be a climate-conscious city, exploring how digital and media technologies can contribute to address urban climate adaptation and water-conscious urban development, strengthening and promoting sustainability cultures.

Workshop Grow Your Green City @ Floriade Expo 2022, Almere, The Netherlands, 25 February 2021

Green Artificial Intelligent Architecture

In the Anthropocene, the juxtaposition between nature versus artifact and designed environment is becoming obsolete. In the dissolution of this polarity lays a great chance: architecture (which in the allegorical depiction of the Vitruvian Primitive Hut by Marc-Antoine Laugier and Charles Eisen of 1753 had emerged from nature) merges with nature once again.

Architecture G AI A @ de Waag Technology & Society, Amsterdam, 2019-2020

Water Conscious Fashion

Water is the necessary resource for life. Human settlements have always been dependent upon access to clean water and its relative scarcity – freshwater makes up only 2.5% of water available on the earth – has awarded it the name ‘blue gold’. If world population increases as expected, hitting the 9 billions threshold by 2050, will water resources be sufficient?

Embassy Lab Water Conscious Fashion, @ Neonyt, Kraftwerk Berlin, 16 January 2019

GRÜNtopia

We are very honored that Renate Künast, politician for the Bündnis 90/Die Grünen and Member of German Parliament is opening Embassy Lab GRÜNtopia on 22 June 2018.
Green spaces are essential for the quality of life, wellbeing, and health of urban populations. Today, the focus on and interest in green urban spaces is increasing thanks to initiatives working toward Healthy Cities, environmental justice, food security, and strengthening local communities.

Lectures & Discussions Embassy Lab GRÜNtopia @ Embassy of Kingdom of the Netherlands , Berlin, 22 June 2018
Keynote Renate Künast, Bündnis 90/Die Grünen @ Embassy of Kingdom of the Netherlands , Berlin, 22 June 2018

NatureTecture

Recent developments such as Internet of Things, Big Data, and Machine Intelligence have ambition and the potential to algorithmically manage life, including urban nature. These developments in technology and media are supporting the development of a new hybrid architecture where Architecture and Nature fuse: NatureTecture!

Article NatureTecture © Hybrid Space Lab, Berlin, 20 March 2018

GRÜNMANIA

GRÜNMANIA decorates the front of the pavilion, transcoding the GERMANIA letter characters. These small “shifts” bring about a transformation and inversion of meaning and open up a wide range of ideas: the pavilion is no longer just Germany’s shop window, but a container in which the global challenges can be tackled together.

Concept German Pavilion @ Venice Architecture Biennial 2018, Italy, 1 May 2017

GREEN Infrastucture

Recent developments such as Internet of Things, Big Data and Machine Intelligence will algorithmically organize life, including urban nature. These developments in technology and media are supporting the development of a new hybrid architecture where architecture and nature fuse.

Lecture NatureTecture @ V2 Institute for Unstable Media, Rotterdam, 9 April 2017


Ethics of Technology

Our current geological age is being described as “anthropocene”, as the epoch during which human activity is the dominant influence on climate and the environment.
But we do not need to consider a “longue durée” historical approach, giving priority to long-term historical structures over events.
Todays’ world is witnessing an unforeseen acceleration of environmental changes with a growing human influence on biodiversity and ecosystems with species extinction and climate change.

Exhibition NatureTecture @ Beijing Media Art Biennale, China Millennium Monument, Beijing, 24 September – 30 October 2016
Lecture & Workshop NatureTecture @ Beijing Design Week 2016,  Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, 30 September 2016

Design Zone

Transforming the facade of the Humboldt Forum into a living organism.
The newspaper Der Tagesspiegel, which appears during the 9th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, publishes in Der Tagespiegel Kunst 2016 magazine an interview with Hybrid Space Lab.
The interview on the projects Humboldt Volcano and Humboldt Jungle addresses the changing role of design in times of crisis.

Interview Expanding the Design Zone, Der Tagesspiegel Kunst 2016, Bettina Homann @ Der Tagesspiegel, Berlin, 20 September 2016

Humboldt Volcano

A vertical jungle in a greenhouse pavilion clings to the Berlin Humboldt Forum. A trail leads from the underground to the roof of the Humboldt Forum, opening up stacked gardens and pop-up restaurants dedicated respectively to world flora and world cuisines.

Circular Economy

Circular Economy encompasses technical as well as biological cycles and has as a goal to keep materials and products at their highest utility and value during the whole up-cycling process.

Research Embassy Lab Circular Economy @ Kingdom of The Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Hague, 18 March 2016

Landscape Urbanism

At the edges of the cities: landscape development strategies.

Publication Foundation of the Brandenburg Technical University Cottbus @ Brandenburg Technical University Cottbus-Senftenberg, Chair of Landscape Architecture and Planning, ISBN 978-3-940471-24-6, IKMZ University Library, Cottbus, Germany, 13 March 2016

Poly Garden City

Poly Garden City is a participative project integrating green into Athens built environment, fusing building and gardens into new hybrid urban typologies, and reinterpreting modernist urban heritage and a strategy for participative climate adaptation for cities in semi-arid climates.

Research & Urban Design @ City of Athens, 5 April 2015

TRUST 2 design

Rethinking design in order to address the changes of our future needs in our increasingly service and knowledge based society and economy.
TRUST2design develops a process-oriented design approach taking into account a multiplicity of cycles such as energy cycles (energy needed for production and transportation, objects as energy converters), the multiple-shift usage but also lifecycles, recycling, etc..

Research @ Dutch Design Foundation, Premsela Stichting, Amsterdam, 15 June 2015

Urban Incubators

A workshop focusing on the revitalization of the generic Greek modern apartment buildings “polykatoikies” was organized by the Athens Municipality and curated by Hybrid Space Lab within the framework of the Co-Creating Athens project.
The workshop was opened by Athens Mayor Yiorgos Kaminis and the Dutch Ambassador Jan Versteeg.

Lectures & Workshop Rebooting Athens @ Co-Creating the City, City of Athens, 14 December 2014

Co Creating Athens

Co-Creating Athens is a field trip for international city-makers to visit and exchange with Athens urban initiatives.

Lectures & Workshop Incubator City @ City of Athens, 13 December 2014
Lectures & Workshop Workshop Co-Creating the City @ City of Athens & Pakhuis de Zwijger, Athens, 10-13 December 2014

Landscape BOTOX

In the Sisyphus work of the day-to-day struggle for survival of the offices, in the traineeship of the next generation, the crisis of architecture is now directly experienced. Even in the architectural discourse there is a perplexity. Excesses from the crisis are sought through escapades into atmospheres or through bonds from post-bicentenary courses, such as the communication for “architecture pop” or the urbanist in the shrinkage discussion.

Publication Landscape BOTOX @ Stadt+Grün, Germany, September 2006