Hybrid Space @ Disobedience

Playgrounds, gardens, sports areas. The roofs of apartment buildings can become a true above-ground city, with multiple benefits for the environment and our socializing.

Interview, Elizabeth Sikiaridi @ SHEDIA magazine 111, Athens, May 2023

A sort of staircase enveloped in jungle thickets, a waterfall and food offerings on the way up to the roof of Berlin’s city castle.

Publication @ RBB, Berlin, 5 February 2023

As adventurous as Humboldt himself: The design by the architecture firm Hybrid Space Lab for the Berlin Palace.

Publication by Julia Weiss @ Tagesspiegel, Berlin, 31 January 2023

Publication Post COVID-19 City, Elizabeth Sikiaridi & Frans Vogelaar for Magazine #0 of the Academy of Media Arts, 27 July 2022

Publication Post COVID-19 City @ Magazine #0, Academy of Media Arts, Cologne, 27 July 2022

Baunetz showcases ReWild Autobahn as part of the Berlin Atlas.

Publication ReWild Autobahn @ BauNetz,  Berlin, Germany, 19 November 2021

Our whole sense of reality is shaped by our hybrid existence.Hybridity is a multifaceted notion, as we are experiencing a proliferation of hybridization in all dimensions of our contemporary life.This is discussed in an article on Hybrid Space, published by the Lithuanian Union of Architects.

Publication Hybrid Space @ Regeneration [and its Discontents], Lithuanian Union of Architects, Vilnius, Lithuania, 4 June 2021

We need a fresh, radically innovative and solutions-oriented approach to address the various forms of contested heritage sites in a way that is fit for the 21st century: Article on Hybrid Space Lab’s work on contested monuments, is published in Italy.

Re-Charting Places  @ Contested Spaces – Concerted Projects: Designs for Vulnerable Memories, LetteraVentidue Edizioni, Italy, April 2021

Hjärnstorm, the Swedish independent journal of art, literature, philosophy published an article on Deep Space.

Deep Space @ Art Journal Hjärnstorm, Stockholm, Sweden, 5 January 2021

Hybrid Space Lab contributes to the international conference »Practices of Inheritance – Metaphors, Materializations, Power Constellations« of the »IDENTITY AND HERITAGE« research cluster of the Bauhaus University Weimar and Technical University Berlin.

Hybrid Identity @ Bauhaus University, 19 November 2020

Berlin’s contribution to the debate on monuments: What to do with Franco’s mausoleum?
Do not destroy it, says the Berlin office Hybrid Space Lab as it lays out ideas for a new way of dealing with the controversial Franco memorial in the “Valley of the Fallen” near Madrid.

Article @ Der Tagesspiegel, Berlin, Germany 16 July 2020

Monuments are Vehicles of Meaning. Elizabeth Sikiaridi and Frans Vogelaar research how to negotiate monuments’ narratives and how to bring criticism.

Interview @ TAZ, Berlin, Germany 14 Juli 2020

As the use of digital instruments is rapidly increasing during the current COVID-19 pandemic, new options for spatial organization and the possible consequences of digitization are more sharply outlined. This creates the necessity to rethink the digitalization model we want to follow and to address issues such as who should benefit from digitization and what our city visions are.

Publication @ Magazine for Architecture and City marlowes, Germany, 19 May 2020

Hybrid Space Lab plan is in line with the undoubtedly most important question for contemporary cultural identity: the relationship between tradition and innovation. Their idea of ​​a growing green world around the castle is the portrayal of the idea of ​​tradition as a dynamic phenomenon.

Publication @ A small history of the biggest German struggle, Merlijn Schoonenboom, 11 November 2019

The Valley of the Fallen without Franco: the fate of the other 33,847 dead”
This is the title of the article by journalist Sílvia Marimom Molas in the Catalan Newspaper ARA on the future of the Valle de los Caídos with an interview on Deep Space.

In the article “Without Franco, what to do with the colossal Valle de los Caídos?” for HuffPost, Anthony Berthelier describes the project “Deep Space: re-signifying Valle de los Caídos” with its creative approach for addressing controversial history and contested heritage.

Publication”Without Franco, what to do with the colossal Valle de los Caídos?” @ Huffington Post, France, 24 October 2019

The main Berlin newspaper Der Tagesspiegel, published an article on the Green party questions on the implementation of the Humboldt Jungle raised in the Bundestag, the German parliament.
“And in order to honor their name, the Greens asked for the “state of the considerations (…), a greenery, a so-called Humboldt Jungle, to be installed”. The brief reply: “Further measures on the facades are not provided.”

Publication @ Tagesspiegel, Germany, 19 July 2019

The Valley of the Fallen is a large memorial erected near Madrid in the mountain range of the Sierra de Guadarrama on the initiative of the dictator Francisco Franco. It is dedicated to the fallen of the Spanish Civil War. Within the scope of the project “Deep Space” it is proposed to transform the monument by digital means.

Publication @ Magazine for Architecture and City Marlowes, Germany, 16 July 2019

One of the “questions” concerning the Humboldt Forum that the German Green Party (Fraktion BÜNDNIS 90/DIE GRÜNEN) put before the German Parliament, the “Deutscher Bundestag” on 2 July 2019 was:
Question 22: “What is the current state of the considerations on the part of the Federal Government for the greening of the facades, to install a so-called Humboldt Jungle?”

Publication Answer 19/11306, @ Deutscher Bundestag, Germany, 19 July 2019

Article “We come for the place, not for Franco “: El Valle de los Caídos, a tourist site almost like the others” by journalist Juliette Campion, France Televisions.

Publication @ France TV, Paris, 10 June 2019

Article “Creative Crossovers: Negotiating Past and Future” in the University of Southern California Public Diplomacy Magazine issue summer 2019.

Article @ Public Diplomacy Magazine, University of California, 7 June 2019

Deep Space is an international project to re-think the burial site of former dictator Franco.Deep Space, presented at the Goethe Institut in Madrid, uses augmented reality to change the totalitarian nature of the Spanish Civil War monument the Valley of the Fallen.

Publication @ El País, Madrid,  6 June 2019

Hybrid Space Lab unleashed and subsequently curated a heated discourse around this utopian proposition. The combination of tabloid-friendly imagery with international expertise on greening cities and climate change proved to be a highly effective strategy.

Working on places of conflict can be extremely challenging. As soon as a polarised discussion is addressed with a proposal, it is bound to cause some sort of backlash by at least one of the affected parties. There is no clear way out of it. Or is there? Architecture practice Hybrid Space Lab takes a rather unique approach for the re-signification of the controversial site of Valle de los Caídos in Madrid, the burial ground of Spain’s dictator Francisco Franco and 33,000 victims of the country’s brutal civil war.

Article by Elena Rossoni @ Bnieuws TU Delft, The Netherlands, 5 February 2019

An initiative of the Hybrid Space Lab, in cooperation with the Neonyt Fair and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Berlin.

Publication @ Fraulein Magazine, Deutschland, 15 January 2019

Frans Vogelaar wants to give the Valley of the Fallen in Spain, one of the most controversial places in the world, new meaning.
How does the founder of the Berlin design lab and think tank Hybrid Space Lab think to do that with use of digital technology?

The Valley of the Fallen, the shrine of Franco’s dictatorship, is still dividing Spain. A workshop wants to crossfade it with new projections.

Article by Paul Ingendaay @ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Germany, 1 November 2018

Catalan journalist Sílvia Marimon Molas describes in her article “The Gaze of European Experts” in the Catalan newspaper ARA on 31st October 2018 the workshop “Deep Space: Re-signifying Valle de los Caídos” participants’ visit to the site and the necessity of a change of the monument’s narrative.

Article by Sílvia Marimon @ ARA, Spain, 31 October 2018

In the chapter “International Developments; The Schlossplatz and the Museum Island in Berlin” Humboldt Volcano is mentioned as the example of the rethinking of the Humboldt Forum.

Publication, The Vienna Hofburg since 1918,  @ Institut für kunst- und musikhistorische Forschungen, Austrian Academy of Sciences , 2018

How is Berlin becoming a socially just smart city?
The Make City Festival discussed ideas like a Volcano at the Humboldt Forum designed by Hybrid Space Lab.

Publication @ Garten + Landschaft, Germany, 15 August 2018

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

Article @ YEAST, Germany 15 June 2018

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

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 @ Berliner Kurier, Berlin, 14 June 2018

Berlin urgently needs new ideas, impulses and visions.

Publication by Iris Braun @ TIP, Berlin, 14 June 2018

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 @ TAZ, Berlin, 11 June 2018

BPD Magazine will publish in June 2018 a double interview with Prof. Frans Vogelaar, Partner at Hybrid Space Lab in Berlin and Prof. Dr. Elphi Nelissen, Dean of the Faculty of Architecture at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) on how digitization is changing mobility and the city. They explore the possibilities of digital technologies for citizens and cities and the design of future cities.

Double Interview with Prof. Dr. Elphi Nelissen & Prof. Frans Vogelaar @ BPD Magazine, The Netherlands, 1 June 2018

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.

Reading, Presentation & Discussion, biography on Alexander von Humboldt and GRÜNtopia, Studio Talk, @ Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Klosterstraße 50, Berlin, 19.30-21.00, 15 June 2018

Like Space kick’s off project for the Affect Space 2 year long project initiated and organised by Eric Kluitenberg at the Transmediale Festival “Face Value” on 4 February 2018 at the HKW in Berlin.

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, 15 Januari 2018, Archithese, Swiss architectural magazine  Humboldt Dschungel” as part of “Ruines”

The documentary “Fabric” which we made for the documenta 14 is now part of the archive of the Foundation of the Hellenic World and of the collection of the Hellenic Cosmos Cultural Centre.

Archive, Foundation of the Hellenic World, Athens, 14 December 2017

Adam Szymczyk, director of documenta 14, refers to the documentary Fabric in the documenta 14 magazine South.
17 September 2017

Publication @ documenta 14 #4 South, issue #9, documenta 14, Kassel, Germany/Athens, Greece, 17 September-28 October 2017

Only a few construction projects in Germany are more controversial than the rebuilding of the city palace in Berlin. With this daring plan, the Dutch professor Frans Vogelaar manages to break open the jammed discussion.

Publication @ duitslandnieuws.nl, 15 September 2017

Only a few construction projects in Germany are more controversial than the rebuilding of the City Palace in Berlin. With a bold plan, the Dutch professor Frans Vogelaar knows how to break the stuck debate.In the heart of Berlin one of the most controversial buildings of the moment stands out: the rebuilding of the Berliner Stadtschloss.

Publication @ Duitslandnieuws, Berlin, 17 September 2017

Rüdiger Schaper, head of the cultural section of the German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel presents the Humboldt Volcano in an article entitled “Welcome to the Jungle – rescheduling is not forbidden, there is still time. The article, which gives an overview of the current discussion about the Humboldt Forum, is illustrated with a large-scale image of Humboldt Volcano. Humboldt Volcano acts as a symbol and icon for a better Humboldt Forum.

Humboldt Volcano @ Der Tagesspiegel, 1 September 2017

In Deutsche Bauzeitung the author Bernhard Schulz, who is editor in the culture edition of Tagesspiegel Berlin publishes an article on the reconstruction of the Berlin City Palace. The article also refers to Humboldt Volcano.

Article Fake Architecture, Bernhard Schulz @ DB Deutsche Bauzeitung, Germany, 1 September-1 October 2017

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.

Greek daily newspaper “Kathimerini” published article on the city greening project Poly Garden City.
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. “Poly Garden City sees the whole city as a canvas for greening producing a pool of ideas for the renewal of urban centers”.

Publication of the research on the Athens “Rex” theater and cinema complex in the Greek daily “Kathimerini”. The research on “Rex” was done in preparation of the documentary “Fabric” that is screened at the Athens School of Fine Arts in the framework of documenta 14 from April to July 2017.

“Fabric” features the life cycle of “Greek Spinning and Weaving Mills”, but at the same time it is the narration of the greater framework in which the bourgeois citizens of the Ottoman Empire acted.

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

24 January 2017, @ Kathimerini, Greek Newspaper

Contemporary theory on architecture and the mind.

The special art edition of DER TAGESSPIEGEL, the German newspaper, publishes interview on the changing role of design in times of crisis.

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

open! the platform for Art, Culture & the Public Domain published an essay by Eric Kluitenberg on Hybrid Space titled “Affect Space”.

Affect Space by Eric Kluitenberg @ open! Platform for Art, Culture & the Public Domain, Amsterdam, 10 March 2015

At the edges of the cities: landscape development strategies.

Publication @ Brandenburg Technical University Cottbus-Senftenberg, Cottbus, Germany, 13 March 2016

Humboldt Jungle press, radio and WEB publications.

Awareness Campaign Humboldt Dschungel @ Press, Germany, International, 2015-2016

Berliner Kurier, the Berlin newspaper, publishes an article by Stefanie Hildebrandt on Humboldt Dschungel.
A new green proposal for the design of the facade of the Berlin city Palace causes a lot of rustling in the urban jungle and the forest of the press.

Humboldt Dschungel @ Berliner Kurier, 20 February 2016

DIE ZEIT, the German weekly newspaper publishes an article by Dr. Werner Bloch on Humboldt Dschungel.
Berlin discusses a big idea: the Humboldt Dschungel.
It is the idea to elicit from the bold cultural monster, the Humboldt Forum, something more playful, rampant, outlandish…Is Humboldt Dschungel the better Humboldt Forum?

Humboldt Dschungel @ DIE ZEIT, 16 February 2016

German radio presents interviews and discussions on Hybrid Space Lab’s Humboldt Jungle proposal for the future of the Humboldt Forum in Berlin.

Humboldt Dschungel @ MDR Figaro & WDR3 & Deutschlandfunk & Ö1 ORF1 & SWR2 & SR2, Deutschland, 11-19 Februar 2016

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.

Humboldt Dschungel @ TAZ, Berlin, 8 July 2015

On Wednesday 9 April 2014 in the evening the walls of the Opera House became a canvas for a light installation. The approximately 15 minute animation runs in a continuous loop on the facade of the opera house.

Hybrid Space Lab’s article Notations is published in the book “Architect’s Notebook” by DAMDI Publishing, Seoul, October 2013.

Publication Notations @ Architect’s Notebook, DAMDI Publishing Co, Seoul, South Korea, October 2013

For the Design Journal, an international, refereed journal covering all aspects of design, we wrote the article Rebooting (Dutch) Design on hybrid design for the special issue on Dutch Open design.

Publication Dutch Open @ Design Journal Volume 15, United Kingdom, December 2012

Max Urai interviews Professor Frans Vogelaar, who is a professor for Hybrid Space at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne.Interview by Max Urai @ BLIK #5.0, University Utrecht, Media and

Interview by Max Urai @ BLIK #5.0, University Utrecht, Media and Cultural Sciences, Utrecht, The Netherlands, March 2012

Hybrid Design initiated by Prof. Frans Vogelaar, Academy of Media Arts Cologne, approaches technological developments from the perspective of the designer, by “inhabiting technology”, by transforming these technological developments to meet the way we want to live. It introduces the design fields that are emerging through the combination and fusion of environments, objects and services in the information-communication age.

Publication Re: Thinking Innovation @ Forbes, USA, 16 October 2011

Playing the game City Kit, you adapt a digital version of your local surroundings according to your desires. In a switch from changes in the neighbourhood that are beyond your control, City Kit makes you the architect, urban planner, environmental expert or designer. City Kit is currently shown with a presentation and demo version and soon you will be able to play and experience the game at Platform 21 during Checking Reality.

Exhibition City Kit @ Platform 21, Checking Reality, Dutch Design Foundation, Amsterdam, 18 May-27 August 2008

Interview in the German architectural magazine Deutsche Bauzeitung by Christian Holl.

Scenarios for an interplay of the urban space and the media domain. New interdisciplinary fields of planning and design are introduced: Soft Urbanism, exploring the interaction of urbanism and the space of mass media and communication networks, and Hybrid Space Design, developing fused analog-digital / architectural-media spaces. Within this framework, “Idensity®” is proposed as a conceptual tool for developing space in the information-communication age.

Democracy can be understood in two notably distinct ways. In the institutional view democracy is understood as the interplay of institutional actors that represent ‘the people’ and are held accountable through the plebiscite; public votes, polls and occasionally referenda. The second view on democracy is radically different in that it sees the extent to which people can freely assemble, discuss and share ideas about vital social issues, organise themselves around these issues, and can freely voice their opinions in public fora, as a measure for just how democratic a given society is.

Essay Constructing the Digital Commons by Eric Kluitenberg @ tactical media files, Amsterdam, 1 March 2003

The conference A2B is an initiative of architect Jacques Herzog. This year’s exhibition “We are building the future for you” was presented by the prominent lecturers as designers of the future. International luminaries of architecture in real space like Toyo Ito were placed alongside pioneers of virtual architecture: Elizabeth Sikiaridi explained the term ‘idensity’, which has already been protected by her, which describes the density of media and urban networks and the fusion of virtual and real spaces.

Publication Information Technology and Architecture by Villö Huszai @ Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Switzerland, 1 February 2002

On the subject of “mobility: immobility”, a number of international architects and representatives from the political and business sectors were invited to attend the conference at Swissbau. The symposium was intended to expand the traditionally rich architectural lectures in Basel through a new thematic focus: the links between architecture and urban development with information and communication technologies.

Publication Mobility : Immobility by Susanne Schumacher @ ETH Zurich, Switzerland, 29 January 2002

The world is changing and with it the cities. The new possibilities of physical mobility in the industrial age have decisively influenced architecture and city planning. The question now arises as to how much the present revolution of information and communication will have.

Lecture Technology & the City @ A2B International Architecture Symposium 02, Basel, Switserland, 24-25 January 2002

The conference A2B is an initiative of architect Jacques Herzog. This year’s exhibition “We are building the future for you” was presented by the prominent lecturers as designers of the future. International luminaries of architecture in real space like Toyo Ito were placed alongside pioneers of virtual architecture: Elizabeth Sikiaridi explained the term ‘idensity’, which has already been protected by her, which describes the density of media and urban networks and the fusion of virtual and real spaces.

Publication Architecture in the Information Age by Francesca Ferguson @ entourage, Switzerland, January 2002

Article “Politics of Space” for the Lab publication of the Academy of Media Arts.
The segregation processes in media environments are nothing but the enhancement of tendencies manifesting themselves in the “real” space with the creation of the urban ghettos and their counterparts, the (suburban) protected social reservoirs for the upper classes.
These access-controlled residential areas can be found today all over the world, in Third World and in western democracies as well as in the east neo-capitalist countries.
They range from heavily protected impenetrable fortresses to retirement towns for well-off pensioners or projects like Walt Disney’s Celebration – an entire residential town (not a theme park).

Doors of Perception is an annual conference, and a programme of workshops, seminars and pilot projects, organised by the Netherlands Design Institute in Amsterdam. Doors of Perception seeks answers to the question: what are multimedia and global networks actually for? Doors of Perception generates scenarios about future applications of new technology and enhance the development of multimedia and online environments by bringing together previously unconnected knowledge and skills.

Lecture Hybrid Space @ Dutch Design Institute, Doors of Perception Conference, Amsterdam, 4-6 November 1994

Exhibition and publication at the Architectural Association School of Architecture on Networked Architecture.