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.

Transforming the facade of the Humboldt Forum into a living organism.

The interview 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

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Frans Vogelaar is sitting in front of his laptop in the large, bright studio on Köpenicker Straße and enthusiastically explains the “Humboldt Volcano”. The rendering on the screen show the latest project of the Hybrid Space Lab, that Vogelaar together with his partner Elisabeth Sikiaridi operates. It is a kind of extension, a walk-in installation of stacked platforms connecting to the facade of the Humboldt-Forum. In the construction, on which trees from all over the world will grow, various restaurants will be accommodated. The design is based on the drawing of a volcano, which Alexander von Humboldt made on his travels. “This might not be not realized”, says Vogelaar, and laughs. It does not seem to frustrate him.

The Greek woman and the Dutchman are designers, architects and professors – he teaches at the Academy for Media Arts in Cologne, she at the University of East Westphalia-Lippe. 30 years ago together they formed Hybrid Space Lab to explore the limits of the design. Today there are many “labs”, “hybrid” at that time was visionary. “Hybrid”, explains Sikiaridi stood initially for analog and digital and is now a strategy. “Design has become more complex, the two are convinced.” “Design today it is less about objects but more about processes”, according to Sikiaridi.

Designers are specialists when it comes to thinking outside the box and exploring new directions.
But with an increasingly complex world also the profession is becoming more complex.
About the role of designers in times of crisis.

In recent years, the flood of information that we have to deal with has become ever greater and decisions have to be made more quickly. Political, economic and ecological systems are unstable. The sell-out of cities to international investors is making living space scarcer. This is where designers can act as mediators. “We are specialists in creative processes,” says Sikiaridi. This is a far cry from classic industrial design. “Industrial design has to do with plannability, so we have to completely rethink things today,” says the designer, who studied architecture in Paris and Darmstadt and later worked for Günter Behnisch. “Our design task today is to build networks, to bring players on board, to open up ideas. “For example, the idea of a design and use of urban space that is not simply imposed from above, but can grow organically, so to speak.

Fighting boredom: With the “Humboldt Volcano” Elizabeth Sikiaridi and Frans Vogelaar from Hybrid Space Lab want to turn the facade of the Humboldt Forum into a living organism.

Just like the Humboldt Jungle, the first project that Sikiaridi and Vogelaar developed for the Humboldt Forum, a vertical tropical garden for the façade of the reconstructed city palace. “It’s not just about greening the façade,” explains Vogelaar. “The stone façade of the Humboldt Forum will be 97 percent made by robots, so it will look deadly boring. Berlin wants to become a cosmopolitan city, the Forum is comparable in ambition to the British Museum and the Pompidou Center. What is planned here – a space for global exchange – is actually exciting, but the housing is a disaster!”

The vertical jungle would have symbolic meaning at this historic location, it would stand for organic new beginnings, for letting grass grow over the past, and would fit in with the namesake and explorer Humboldt. It also had the very practical benefit of providing cooling in one of the hottest places in the city in summer. “The project is realistic and unrealistic at the same time,” says Vogelaar. “It’s feasible, but if the people in charge don’t want it, it won’t be done.”