Newsletter September 2019

Pyrocene Age @ Humboldt Forum

What would Alexander von Humboldt’s 250th birthday (14 September 2019) wish have been?
This last summer brought again burning questions to the fore: Are extreme hot temperatures established as the new norm? Is the burning of the earth’s lungs and biodiversity ark becoming daily news?

Newsletter September 2019 @ Hybrid Sapce Lab, Berlin, 15 September 2019

Climate
Emergency

As the effects of climate change are showing up faster and sooner than forecasted, what would Alexander von Humboldt, he who saw anthropogenic climate change coming more than 200 years ago, think?

Hybrid Space Lab is launching an evocative, visuals-powered campaign to envision alternative scenarios responding to and informed by current, pressing events, catastrophes and crises, in a bid to open up spaces for imagination and creative, groundbreaking ideas to re-signify the Humboldt Forum and its history-laden meaning.

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Humboldt
Jungle

14. September 2019 marks Alexander von Humboldt’s 250th birthday – and yet, the Humboldt Forum bearing the name of the Berlin-born explorer, geographer and naturalist lies unfinished.

The Humboldt Forum is being developed without any foresight of green space, apparently lacking awareness and stewardship for issues related to climate (change) and biodiversity (loss). This is paradoxical when considering that Alexander von Humboldt pioneered concepts of sustainability, developing ideas on the interconnectedness of nature and human-induced changes to the ecosystem.
 
Opening in phases of the Humboldt Forum has been once more delayed by ten months at least , starting from September 2020, prolonging the ongoing construction site. As the race against time – and budget – to deliver the controversial, multi-million Humboldt Forum project continues, Hybrid Space Lab invites you to pause and think about the possible alternatives to re-signify it.

Humboldt Jungle envisions a hanging garden with lianas covering the Prussian palace and a tropical forest on its roof. By “letting grass grow over”, Humboldt Dschungel paves the way to reconcile the site’s layered historical wounds whilst referencing the Alexander von Humboldt’s discoveries and contributions to botanical sciences.

Humboldt
Volcano

A lush, crystalline vertical garden opening up onto the city and at the same time, inviting people into the palace is the concept behind Humboldt Volcano – a self-sufficient and self-regulating ecosystem offering relief against extreme heat waves as well as shelter for visitors and its rare vegetation from Berlin’s winter.

Humboldt Vulkan, a place which, through its “parcours” immersed in nature and yet in dialogue with the urban surroundings, helps dwellers and visitors engaging with Humboldt’s legacy, biodiversity awareness and the interaction between nature and architecture. 
 
*Is there space for freedom and appropriation?
*How can we open up Humboldt Forum for engagement, moving past the impasse?
*How can re-signification reflect and make justice to Humboldt’s legacy?

To allow for imaginative and creative re-thinking and re-signifying of the Humboldt Forum, Hybrid Space Lab’s visuals-powered campaign lets alternative scenarios unfold. Evocatively and provocatively, such visionary narratives respond to the urgent matters and challenges we need to rise up to.
 
Hybrid Space Lab invites engagement and participation to a creative journey – how does an alternative future of Humboldt Forum look like? Where to from the present impasse?
 
Through visual, hybrid storytelling, the aim is to crack open the stuck and biased dialogue and dare to think creatively – and anew – about an ongoing, multi-layered urban debate. Do you dare?

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Hybrid
Space
Lab

Hybrid Space is the fusion of Physical Space and Digital Space.

Hybrid Space is the Ambivalent Space that is at the same time analog and digital, material and virtual, biological and technicological, local and global, tactile and abstract.

Hybrid Space Lab is a Think Tank and a Design Lab for Architecture, Urbanism, Design and Digital Culture.

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Frans Vogelaar was part of Studio Alchimia in 1981-1982.

Newsletter Studio Alchimia @ Hybrid Space Lab, 10 September 2025

Newsletter August 2025

On occasion of Studio Alchimia’s retrospective exhibition, Hybrid Space Lab conducted an interview with Alchimia’s founder Alessandro Guerriero at Fondazione Prada.
Frans Vogelaar was part of the transdisciplinary Studio Alchimia from 1981 to 1982, designing together with the Italian architect and designer Alessandro Mendini the chair and two-seater Sabrina for the Italian furniture firm Driade.

Newsletter Studio Alchimia @ Hybrid Space Lab, 25 August 2025

Newsletter June 2022

permaCRISIS
Contemporary societies are faced with multiple crises, including climate change, biodiversity loss, social injustice and turmoil, geopolitical conflict and war, humanitarian crises, energy emergency and food insecurity.

Newsletter Permacrisis @ Hybrid Space Lab, 10 June 2022

Newsletter September 2021

The Future is not Digital, the Future is Hybrid!

Newsletter September 2021 @ Hybrid Space Lab, Berlin, 15 September 2021

Newsletter May 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic forces us to develop visions for future hybrid (combined physical and digital) public cultural spaces.

Newsletter May 2020 @ Hybrid Space Lab, Berlin, 15 May 2020

Newsletter February 2020

Amidst increasing digitalization of cities, alternative social and urban approaches and inputs at play open up room for possibility for shaping urban-tech.

Newsletter February 2020 @ Hybrid Space Lab, Berlin, 15 February 2020

Newsletter November 2019

Ubiquitous digitalization pervades urban environments at an accelerating pace. So is climate change, with increasingly frequent threatening episodes of extreme weather conditions worldwide, urging us to rethink our cities, and rapidly.

Newsletter November 2019 @ Hybrid Space Lab, Berlin, 15 November 2019

Newsletter October 2019

Even without the remains of the dictator, the symbolic value of Valle de los Caídos retains its controversial force. What transformations are needed at Valle de los Caídos (“Valley of the Fallen”) so as not to create a cenotaph – an empty burial monument?

Newsletter July 2019

Ubiquitous digitization is increasingly transforming urban life in all its aspects and Smart City technologies promise unlimited efficiency to urban mobility solutions.
It is however worth reflecting on why digitally supported and automated negotiation concerning, amongst others, mobility does not necessarily equal objective and fair decision-making.

Newsletter July 2019 @ Hybrid Space Lab, Berlin, 15 July 2019

Newsletter June 2019

Future Narratives and Immersive Experiences symposium at the Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF on May 22 2019 brought together interdisciplinary co-creators in the audiovisual sector, companies dealing with media, VR / AR / MR, games, 3D sound, the staging of productions, communication, heritage and cultural institutions or other fields of activity with the urge of delivering high-quality storytelling in the digital era.

Newsletter June 2019 @ Hybrid Space Lab, Berlin, 15 June 2019

Newsletter April 2019

Digitalization transforms our cities, with far-reaching efforts towards technology-powered increased efficiency, sustainability and at times participation.
This raises new questions on privacy, data governance and (digital) design, historically unaddressed by city planning, architecture, civil society and governance.With cities worldwide striving to earn a “Smart City” reputation, it is however disputed who exactly benefits from these concepts.

Newsletter April 2019 @ Hybrid Space Lab, Berlin, 15 April 2019

Newsletter February 2019

As technology, the digital and the physical intersect, affecting our lives and societies in ways previously unthought-of, our thinking and approach to reality must be future-proof, too.
Here is an upshot of an increasingly digitally networked and co-created prospect, ranging from fashion to heritage, to diplomacy.

Newsletter February 2019 @ Hybrid Space Lab, Berlin, 15 February 2019

Newsletter December 2018

Valle de  los Caídos (Valley of the Fallen), the Francoist monument built between 1940 and 1959 close to Madrid, will soon be emptied of Franco’s remains.
As it risks becoming a cenotaph – an empty burial monument – and it is at the center of heated public discourses surrounding its future, Valle de los Caídos is paradigmatic of the difficult processes of re-signifying controversial monuments.

Newsletter December 2018 @ Hybrid space Lab, Berlin, 15 December 2018

Newsletter November 2018

With the words “Die heiße Asche des Diktators”, the Hot Ashes of the Dictator, in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) of November 1st 2018, journalist Paul Ingendaay captures the toxicity of the highly divisive Francoist Memorial at Valle de los Caídos, as well as the urgency of Hybrid Space Lab’s workshop “Deep Space: Re-signifying Valle de los Caídos”.

Newsletter November 2018 @ Hybrid Space Lab, Berlin, 15 November 2018

Newsletter October 2018

The past summer brought several burning questions to the fore. We hope you had a cool place to ponder over them. Are extreme hot temperatures worldwide the new norm? How fast does the ice melt at 32°? This was the alarming high temperature measured this summer above the Arctic Circle!

Newsletter October 2018 @ Hybrid Space Lab, Berlin, 15 October 2018

Newsletter September 2018

The etymology of recordar, Spanish for “to remember”, is “to go back to one’s heart”, as memory was once thought to reside there and, even today, processes of memory making are immersed within affective landscapes.
Valle de los Caídos (Valley of the Fallen), the Francoist monument built between 1940 and 1959 close to Madrid, will soon be emptied of Franco’s remains.
As it risks becoming a cenotaph – an empty burial monument – and it is at the center of heated public discourses surrounding its future, Valle de los Caídos is paradigmatic of the difficult processes of re-signifying controversial monuments.

Newsletter September 2018 @ Hybrid Space Lab, Berlin 15 September 2018

Newsletter August 2018

On August 25th 2018, the Spanish government approved a decree to exhume Franco’s remains from Valle de los Caídos.
What transformations are needed to re-signify the controversial monument of Valle de los Caídos?

Newsletter August 2018 @ Hybrid Space Lab, Berlin, 15 August 2018

Newsletter May 2018

Hybrid Space Lab is curating Embassy Lab GRÜNtopia which takes place in Berlin on 22 June 2018 and focuses on innovative solutions for integrating green in dense urban situations. Embassy Lab GRÜNtopia is part of the MakeCity Festival 2018.

Newsletter @ Hybrid Space Lab, 1 May 2018

Newsletter April 2018

Hybrid Space Lab co-organized together with the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs The Hague Digital Diplomacy Camp 2018 Un-Conference on February 2nd 2018.
Hybrid Space Lab organized Hybrid Diplomacy Lab “A Reset Button for the Debate over Migration” on January 18th 2018 at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Hague.
The Swiss architectural magazine “archithese” published Humboldt Jungle on January 16th 2018.

Newsletter @ Hybrid Space Lab, Berlin, 15 April 2018

 

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