Newsletter September 2019

In our globalized world the accelerating speed of socio-political and cultural change collides with the longue-durée of heritage sites and territories. As social and political contexts around places with a public meaning change, controversies often arise.

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

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.

A jungle for the façade of the Berlin Humboldt Forum!

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

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

Humboldt Jungle and Humboldt Volcano are mentioned by author and historian Merlijn Schoonenboom in the book on identity “Een kleine geschiedenis van de grootse Duitse worsteling”.

Book “A small history of the great German struggle” @ Publisher Querido, Amsterdam, 5 December 2019

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 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

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

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

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

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”

Hybrid Space Lab developed Humboldt Volcano the utopia of an extension to the Humboldt Forum: a vertical jungle consisting of terraces, a roof garden and a winter garden, referring to the explorer Alexander von Humboldt.

Social Design Award @ Spiegel, Germany, 29 September-26 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

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

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

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