#DESIGN LAB

is an interdisciplinary platform where architects, urbanists, landscape architects, designers and artists collaborate with soft- and hardware engineers in the development of projects for combined physical and digital, urban, architectural, design, and media spaces.

projects

Digital Simulation

Technological concept and realization of the digital simulation “HOUSE” for the artist Jan van der Pavert.
The digital simulation was exhibited amongst others in Centraal Museum in Utrecht, 1995 , at the “XIX Triennale di Milano” in 1996, Italy, and at the Dutch Architectural Institute (NAi) in Rotterdam, 1997, and won the Dr A.H. Heineken Prize for Art in 1998.

Concept & Realisation @ Montevideo, Amsterdam 1991-1992
Exhibition @ Centraal Museum, Utrecht, 1995
Exhibition Realspace in Quicktimes @ XIX Triennale di Milano, Milan, 1996
Publication Realspace in Quicktimes, Ole Bouman @ Nai Publishers, Rotterdam, 1996
Exhibition Realspace in Quicktimes @ Netherlands Architectural Institute Nai, Rotterdam, 1997
Dr A.H. Heineken Prize for Art @ Amsterdam, 1998

Hybrid Space

Hybrid Space is the fusion of digital and physical space.
Hybrid Spaces are the products of the alliances between physical objects and digital information-communication networks, of architectural-urban and media space.
Hybrid Space is the ambivalent space that is at the same time analog and digital, virtual and material, biological and technical, local and global, tactile and abstract.

Concept Hybrid Space © Hybrid Space Lab, Berlin, 1988~2024

Chair Sabrina @ Alessandro Mendini & Studio Alchimia

Frans Vogelaar is responsible within the framework of the architectural and design office “Studio Alchymia” in Milan, Italy, for the design and development of the prototype and supervision of the industrial production of the chair Sabrina by Alessandro Mendini in close collaboration with the Italian renowned furniture manufacturer Driade.

Design & Prototype Development, Supervision Industrial Production Chair Sabrina by Alessandro Mendini @ Driade, Alzaia Trieste 49, Corsico, Italia, 1982

Frans Vogelaar @ Studio Alchimia

From 1981 till 1982 Frans Vogelaar was a member of the architectural and design office “Studio Alchimia” in Milan, Italy.

Design & Architecture @ Studio Alchimia, Milan, Italy, 1981-1982

news

weCARElab @ FUTUROMONDO

If urbanization continues to increase worldwide and cities play a decisive role in the climate transformation, business models and industries will have to evolve accordingly: Away from individual products or services towards new urban solutions in the life cycle.

Keynote & Panel weCARElab @ FUTUROMONDO Foresight, Future Urban Economies Forum, Stuttgart, Germany, 3 July 2025

Wonderful Green Facade @ Tagesspiegel

Museum Director Paul Spies takes stock: “The streams of tourists are bypassing the Humboldt Forum”
There were wonderful proposals for the palace, such as a green façade.

Interview Paul Spies by Birgit Rieger @ Tagesspiegel, Berlin, 29 June 2024

Conflict Space @ ISEA 2022

The lecture and workshop Conflict Space takes place at the International Symposium on Electronic Art ISEA 2022 “Possibilities – Heritage and Futures” at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona.

Lecture & Workshop Conflict Space @ ISEA 2022 Symposium “Possibilities”, Heritage and Futures @ Museum of Contemporary Art, Barcelona, 12 June 2022 &  14 June 2022

Hybrid Heritage @ Practices of Heritage

How to re-signify heritage and physical monuments with the help of creative visions and hybrid (combined physical and digital) tools? Hybrid Heritage engages with this challenge presenting a series of projects researching and designing contemporary interpretations and further development of heritage from a multicultural perspective. Including the integration of digital technology and media networks in heritage projects, Hybrid Heritage also focuses on cultural hybridity in today’s globalized world.

Publication Hybrid Heritage @ Identity and Heritage, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Stuttgart, Germany, 1 Februari 2022

reWild Autobahn @ BauNetz

Baunetz showcases ReWild Autobahn as part of the Berlin Atlas.

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

ReWild Autobahn @ BDA Berlin

ReWild Autobahn is presented at the gallery of the Association of German Architects.

Exhibition ReWild Autobahn @ BDA Gallery, Mommsenstrasse 64, Berlin, 6 October-26 November 2021

Hybrid Spaces @ Lithuanian Union of Architects

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 Spaces @ Regeneration [and its Discontents], Lithuanian Architectural Foundation, Vilnius, Lithuania, 4 June 2021

Deep Space @ Art Journal Hjärnstorm

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

Publication Valle de los Caídos: the Digital Architecture Embraces a Painful Heritage, Cecilia Nyman @ Hjärnstorm Stockholm, 5 January 2021

Deep Space @ archithese

Hybrid Space Lab analyzed “Valley of the Fallen” near Madrid – the pompous tomb for the fascist dictator Francisco Franco. They suggest leaving it unchanged but covering it with a new critical layer. Using augmented reality, they want to make hidden layers visible and write history from the victims’ perspective.

Publication Informing instead of glorifying, Jørg Himmelreich, @ archithese, Switserland, 28 November 2020

DMZpace @ Korean Cultural Center Paris

The Paris exhibition “Negotiating Borders – Real DMZ Project” features Hybrid Space Lab’s DMZpace, a project deploying the potential of the border area as a site of both historical wounds and flourishing nature.

Exhibition DMZpace @ Korean Cultural Center, Paris, 10 September-6 November 2020

 

Deep Space @ Deutschlandfunk Kultur

The Valle de los Caídos is highly controversial as a memorial of the fallen of the Spanish Civil War: for a long time, it mainly served the glorification of the dictator Franco. The “Deep Space” project wants to show visitors also the site’s dark side.

Interview, Eckhard Roelcke, journalist @ Deutschlandfunk Kultur, Germany, 8 August 2020

DMZpace @ Yeonnamjang Gallery Seoul

Featured in the “DMZ Landscape: Cheorwon” exhibition in Seoul, Hybrid Space Lab’s DMZpace project unfolds the potential of the no-man’s-land border area to overcome the tension between its historical wounds and the thriving nature. Opening up scenarios for reconciliation and dialogue through the mediation of a now lush natural biotope, the project unveils the contradictions hidden behind the visible landscape at the Korean Demilitarized Zone.

Exhibition DMZpace @ Yeonnamjang Underground Gallery, Seoul, 2 May-17 May 2020

Hybrid Space @ National Gallery of Art Vilnius

The lecture describes the development of Hybrid Space Lab’s approach to urban and spatial phenomena, coining Hybrid Space as a new set of conceptual tools and a new qualitative space from the encounter of the physical and the digital.

Lecture
 Hybrid Space @ Architecture Fund, Lithuanian Council for Culture, 
National Gallery of Art 
Vilnius, Lithuania, 
5 March 2020

Humboldt Jungle @ German Parliament

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 19/11306 Answer @ Deutscher Bundestag, German Federal Government, Germany, 2 July 2019

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

Social Design Award @ Der Spiegel

Humboldt Volcano is shortlisted as a candidate for Social Design Award by DER SPIEGEL. The Social Design Award honours special urban development projects.

Social Design Award @ DER SPIEGEL, Germany, 29 September-26 October 2017

INbetweenSTITUTE @ Urban China Magazine

798 and the Creative Cluster Conundrum is a highly ambitious and innovative project in order to plan the next step of Beijing’s renowned 798 Art District and is presented during Beijing Design Week.

Workshop & Presentation INbetweenSTITUTE @ Urban China Magazine, Beijing, 26 – 27 September 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

Smart & the City @ Hannoversche Allgemeine

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.

Winter Herb Summer Worm @ Stylepark

Simple elements that make planning and construction much easier – architects have been looking into the possibilities afforded by modular construction for quite some time now.
What do these modules require in order to fulfill the basic functions of a living and working space and simultaneously remain adaptable in their implementation?
The exhibition, “Architekturteilchen”, at Cologne’s MAKK museum takes a closer look at this question.

Publication by Jorg Zimmermann @ Stylepark, Germany, 1 May 2012

Hybrid Design @ Beijing Design Week

The Department of Hybrid Space / Academy of Media Arts Cologne Germany (KHM) and its founder, Prof. Frans Vogelaar, presents “Hybrid Design”, consisting of lectures, screenings and a workshop on self replicating 3D printers (Fab Lab).

Lectures, Exhibition & Workshop Hybrid Design @ Beijing Design Week, Beijing, China, 27 September-3 October 2011

NatureTecture @ Deutsches Architektenblatt 2011

The exhibition “ NatureTecture ” by the Chamber of Architects of North Rhine-Westphalia on the development of landscape architecture in Europe was on display in Istanbul until mid-December 2010.
On November 26, 2010, AKNW Vice President Dr. Christian Schramm and the President of the Istanbul Chamber of Architects, Prof. Deniz lncedayi, opened the exhibition in the European Capital of Culture 2010 in front of around 200 Turkish architects, landscape architects, interior designers and urban planners.

Publication NatureTecture @ Deutsches Architektenblatt, Germany, 1 February 2010

DIY CITY KIT @ Architectural Digest

Hybrid Space Lab developed a series of projects for the radical appropriation of the controversial Humboldt Forum in Berlin:
Whereas Humboldt Jungle formulated a strong vision for the re-wilding of the Forum and Humboldt Volcano developed a concrete architectural design solution that addresses many of the foreseeable problems in the Humboldt Forum and that could be realized in the (near) future, Humboldt Kosmos is a fictional universe based on Humboldt Forum that opens up a multiplicity of possible futures.

Publication Humboldt Futures @ Atlas der Datenkörper 2, Transcript Verlag, Germany, 27 May 2024

NatureTecture @ Deutsches Architektenblatt 2010

The current processes of change in the environment, economy and society are also fundamentally changing the way we look at the landscape and how we deal with it in planning.
The new exhibition “NatureTecture” by the Chamber of Architects of North Rhine-Westphalia shows how our landscape has developed over the past centuries and what challenges landscape architects are currently facing.

Publication NatureTecture@ Deutsches Architektenblatt, Germany, 1 March 2010

Hybrid Space @ Hong Kong & Shenzhen Bienniale for Urbanism & Architecture

Winter Worm Summer Herb pavilion is designed by Hybrid Space Lab for the 2009 Hong Kong & Shenzhen Bi-City Bienniale of Urbanism & Architecture.
Winter Worm Summer Herb contains 9 video art works by Yang Yong, Jiang Zhe, Xu Tan, Leung Meeping, Kwan Ng, Urbanus, and Hybrid Space Lab.
The mobile and collapsible pavilion will travel to 4 locations in Hong Kong and Shenzen.

Publication & Exhibition Winter Worm Summer Herb @ 2009 Hong Kong & Shenzhen Bi-City Bienniale of Urbanism & Architecture, Hong Kong & Shenzhen, 1 December 2009-15 February 2010

Idensity @ Aminima

To reinforce the significance of public space we have to deal with at least two “public”, the global and the local public, by creating spheres where local and global public space can fuse and interchange.
“The new city presupposes that the cables of the interhuman relations are switched reversibly, not in bundles as with television, but in real networks, respons(e)ibly, as in the telephone network. These are technical questions; and they are to be solved by urbanists and architects.“
Vilém Flusser 1990

Publication Idensity® @ Aminima, Spain, 1 May 2004

Idensity @ RICX Media Architecture

To reinforce the significance of public space we have to deal with at least two “public”, the global and the local public, by creating spheres where local and global public space can fuse and interchange.
“The new city presupposes that the cables of the interhuman relations are switched reversibly, not in bundles as with television, but in real networks, respons(e)ibly, as in the telephone network. These are technical questions; and they are to be solved by urbanists and architects.“
Vilém Flusser 1990

Publication Idensity® @ Media Architecture Conference, RICX, Riga, Latvia, 15 March 2004

Spatial Models @ International Colloquium University Stuttgart

The lecture and publication addresses urban/architectural space in the emerging information-communication age and introduces and presents spatial models embedded in a “communicational paradigm” in urbanism.

Lecture & Publication Spatial Models @ International Colloquium Perspectives on Urban Space, Urban Planning Institute, International Centre for Culture and Technology Research, University Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany, 28.-29.11.2002

Idensity® @ UIA World Congress Architecture

Today, the communicational paradigm, with its “network-cities”, “nodes” and “terminal architectures” is infiltrating and transforming the architectural/urban discourse and practice.
Within this framework, ‘idensity®’ is proposed as a conceptual tool for developing space in the information/communication age.
This composite term consists of the combination/fusion of the word “density” of real/urban and “virtual”/media communication spaces (density of connections) and of the word “identity”.

Lecture & Publication Idensity® @ UIA World Congress Architecture, Berlin, 16 June 2002

Idensity® @ Technoetic Arts

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

Hybrid Space @ Doors of Perception Conference

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 @ Doors of Perception Conference, Dutch Design Institute Premsela, RAI Convention Centre, Amsterdam, 4-6 November 1994

Venda @ Museum Magazine Vitrine

A colossal De Klerk, complex dream-pictures in wood or a monkey with a transistor radio and a bright pink rear end. Rotterdam’s Museum of Ethnology is showing some 30 sculptures by South African Venda artists in a remarkable display. ‘If there is one general characteristic to be given to contemporary African art, it is an unstoppable narrative drive.’

Publication The storytelling art of the Venda, Paul Faber @ Museum magazine Vitrine, Rotterdam 1 August 1994