#Sustainability Lab

In our time of the Anthropocene, the juxtaposition between nature versus artifact and designed environment is becoming obsolete.
In the dissolution of this polarity lays a great chance: architecture (which in the allegorical depiction of the Vitruvian Primitive Hut by Marc-Antoine Laugier and Charles Eisen of 1753 had emerged from nature) merges with nature once again.

projects

festCITY

The Berlin Government is establishing a creative and tech festival in Berlin in order to increase the city’s international appeal.

Lecture @ Berlin Worx, betahause, Rudi-Dutschke-Strasse 23, Berlin, 22 March 2023

 

 

Co-Creating Hybrid Culture

For the German Federal Cultural Foundation we developed Co-Creating Hybrid Culture that addresses the augmenting of physical cultural sites and practices through digital spaces via transdisciplinary co-creating events.

Research & Concept  @ German Federal Cultural Foundation, Halle an der Saale, Germany, 1 April 2021

Concept Development @ German Federal Cultural Foundation, Halle an der Saale, Germany, 1 April 2021

circulariCITY

The notion of a circular city has taken to occupy center stage as a main concept for sustainable zero-waste urban futures. And yet, as one takes a closer look, the circle expands in multiple ripples and loops, revealing the sheer complexity that envisioning – let alone developing – circular cities entail.

Lectures, Workshops, Symposium, FieldLab @ Hybrid Space Lab, 2022 – 2024

Convers@ions

Convers(at)ions engages creatively with exchanges over border phenomenology and performativity, it transforms negative spaces such as military demarcations and borders by adopting a ‘more-than-human’ perspective and taps into the potential of nature and environmental conservation activities.

ReWild Autobahn

ReWild Autobahn proposes a hybrid (natural and artificial) landscape on a dismantled urban highway in Berlin as a green corridor for humans and non-humans.

[Out]growing Smart Cities

Grow Your Green City is an international campaign creating awareness of the fundamental role played by urban green. Grow Your Green City is committed to the idea that a Smart City should be a climate-conscious city, exploring how digital and media technologies can contribute to address urban climate adaptation and water-conscious urban development, strengthening and promoting sustainability cultures.

Concept Architecture @ Floriade Almere, The Netherlands, 25 February 2021

Green Artificial Intelligent Architecture

In the Anthropocene, the juxtaposition between nature versus artifact and designed environment is becoming obsolete. In the dissolution of this polarity lays a great chance: architecture (which in the allegorical depiction of the Vitruvian Primitive Hut by Marc-Antoine Laugier and Charles Eisen of 1753 had emerged from nature) merges with nature once again.

Water Conscious Fashion

Water is the necessary resource for life. Human settlements have always been dependent upon access to clean water and its relative scarcity – freshwater makes up only 2.5% of water available on the earth – has awarded it the name ‘blue gold’. If world population increases as expected, hitting the 9 billions threshold by 2050, will water resources be sufficient?

Embassay Lab Water Conscious Fashion, @ Neonyt, Kraftwerk Berlin, 16 January 2019

GRÜNtopia

We are very honored that Renate Künast, politician for the Bündnis 90/Die Grünen and Member of German Parliament is opening Embassy Lab GRÜNtopia.
Green spaces are essential for the quality of life, wellbeing, and health of urban populations. Today, the focus on and interest in green urban spaces is increasing thanks to initiatives working toward Healthy Cities, environmental justice, food security, and strengthening local communities.

NatureTecture

Recent developments such as Internet of Things, Big Data, and Machine Intelligence have ambition and the potential to algorithmically manage life, including urban nature. These developments in technology and media are supporting the development of a new hybrid architecture where Architecture and Nature fuse: NatureTecture!

GRÜNMANIA

GRÜNMANIA decorates the front of the pavilion, transcoding and transcoding the GERMANIA characters. The small “shifts” bring about a transformation of meaning and open up a wide range of ideas: the pavilion is no longer just Germany’s shop window, but a container in which the joint global challenges can be tackled together.

GREENfrastucture

Recent developments such as Internet of Things, Big Data and Machine Intelligence will algorithmically organize life, including urban nature. These developments in technology and media are supporting the development of a new hybrid architecture where architecture and nature fuse.

Landscape BOTOX

In the Sisyphus work of the day-to-day struggle for survival of the offices, in the traineeship of the next generation, the crisis of architecture is now directly experienced. Even in the architectural discourse there is a perplexity. Excesses from the crisis are sought through escapades into atmospheres or through bonds from post-bicentenary courses, such as the communication for “architecture pop” or the urbanist in the shrinkage discussion.

Publication Landscape BOTOX @ Stadt+Grün, Germany, September 2006

Design Zone

Transforming the facade of the Humboldt Forum into a living organism.
The special art edition of Der Tagesspiegel, the German newspaper, publishes interview on the changing role of design in times of crisis.

Humboldt Volcano

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.

Urban Incubators

A workshop focusing is the revitalization of the generic Greek modern apartment buildings “polykatoikies”

Poly Garden City

Poly Garden City is a participative project integrating green into Athens built environment, fusing building and gardens into new hybrid urban typologies, and reinterpreting modernist urban heritage and a strategy for participative climate adaptation for cities in semi-arid climates.

TRUST 2 design

Rethinking design in order to address the changes of our future needs in our increasingly service and knowledge based society and economy.

Research @ Dutch Design Foundation, Premsela Stichting, Amsterdam, 15 June 2015

news

Poly Garden City @ SHEDIA Magazine

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

 

 

 

HYBRIDfest @ Berlin

The Berlin Government is establishing a creative and tech festival in Berlin in order to increase the city’s international appeal.

Lecture, Prof. Elizabeth Sikiaridi @ betahaus, Berlin, 19.00-22.00, 22 March 2023
Panel, Steve Austen & Paul Spies @ Holzmarkt, Berlin, 19.00-22.00, 11 April 2023

 

 

Startup Energy Transition Festival 2023 @ Berlin

Startup Energy Transition Festival 2023 brings together a global network of innovators shaping the future of energy by start-ups, innovation-driven corporates, investors, & public organisations.

Moderation Panel & Lecture: Building a Sustainable Future: Offsetting Emissions in Smart Cities @ Startup Energy Transition Festival 2023, Berlin, 9:50-10:20, 28 March 2023

 

 

circulariCITY @ Bits & Bäume

Workshop and presentation of circulariCITY at the Bits & Bäume 2022 Conference.
Bits & Bäume connect communities and stand up for political change in the interaction of digitalisation and sustainability.

Workshop & Presentation @ Bits & Bäume 2022 Conference, Technical University Berlin, 30 September – 2 October 2022

ReWild Autobahn @ BDA Berlin

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

Exhibition,  BDA Galerie 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 Space @ Regeneration [and its Discontents], Lithuanian Union of Architects, Vilnius, Lithuania, 4 June 2021

Master Class @ Film University Babelsberg

Hybrid Space Lab contributes to the International Master Class Artistic Research, pioneering developments of immersive 360° concepts and narratives.

Masterclass @ Film University Babelsberg, Potsdam, Germany, 7-18 September 2020

Lecture @ AMPS University of Kent

As in the 21st Century the world develops a deeper understanding of heritage, digital technology is ever more present in our reading of the past. Hybrid Space Lab’s lecture Hybrid Heritage addresses how to best unlock the unique potentialities of this interdisciplinary and technological moment.

Lecture @ AMPS, University of Kent, 29-30 June 2020

The Cross @ Humboldt Forum

Professor Sharon Macdonald, Alexander von Humboldt Professor of Social Anthropology at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, refers to our Humboldt Jungle project as an example and an inspiration for the creative appropriation and transformation of the Humboldt Forum.

Publication @ Humboldt Forum website, Germany, 15 June 2020

Climate City @ Berlin City

A lecture and a workshop at Köpenick Town Hall in Berlin explored concepts and instruments to consider the spatial and social dimensions of the climate city with an integrated approach. Accounting for both the spatial and the social, the workshop contributed to the strategic development of a concept for Köpenick’s public spaces.

Climate City @ Köpenick Town Hall, Council Chamber, Berlin, 27 February 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.

Humbolt Jungle & Humboldt Volcano @ Publisher Querido

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

Make Space @ Mart Stam Stiftung

The Mart Stam Stiftung frequently organizes symposia in cooperation with the Royal Dutch Embassy of Berlin. The aim is to create a dialog on interdisciplinary themes in the field of art and design in the Netherlands and Germany by juxtaposing cultural differences.

Poster @ Berlin, 15 November 2019

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.

Humboldt Volcano @ Querido Publishers

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

Humboldt Jungle @ Make City

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.

Humboldt Volcano @ The Vienna Hofburg

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

Humboldt Volcano @ Garten + Landschaft

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

GREENtopia @ Art Museum of China

The museum space (1600 sqm) will be transformed into a creative laboratory, an interdisciplinary platform co-developed by international artists, creative thinkers, independent scholars, urban planners and stakeholders, a mini co-op city inside a skyscraper.

Exhibition @ Art Museum of China, Greater Bay Area, Shenzhen, China, 15 March-15 April 2019

Humboldt Volcano @ YEAST

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

Humboldt Volcano @ Baunetz

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

Humboldt Volcano @ Berliner Kurier

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

Humboldt Volcano @ TIP

Berlin urgently needs new ideas, impulses and visions.

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

 

Humboldt Volcano @ Detail

The architecture festival MakeCity will take place in 2018 under the motto Berlin Remixing | City New Mixed.

Article by Elena Markus @ Detail, Deutschland, 14 June 2018

Humboldt Volcano @ TAZ

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

Embassy Lab @ Tagesspiegel

The “Gardens of the Diaspora” in the W. Michael Blumenthal Academy are a possible answer to this question: When the natural spaces in the city go back, nature gets into the rooms. The Diaspora gardens are one of many examples the book “Garden City: Supergreen Buildings, Urban Skyscapes, and the New Planted Space”. It was edited by Anna Yudina, member of the cooperative A 10 New European Architecture.
Among other international experts, she was invited to attend the “Embassy Lab GREEN TOPIA” at the Dutch Embassy, where Elizabeth Sikiaridi and Frans Vogelaar of Hybrid Space Lab invited to the event, which is part of the international festival “MakeCity”.

Publication @ Der Tagesspiegel, Berlin, 23 June 2018

playVOID @ Pop-Up Park

A two week program explores how the VOID in the center of the Embassy’s premises can function as a pleasurable communication space by playing, dancing, lounging, exchanging, enjoying.

Public Pop-Up Park @ the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, 16 June-1 July 2018

Renate Künast @ Embassy Lab GRÜNtopia

We are very honored that Renate Künast, politician for the Bündnis 90/Die Grünen and Member of the German Parliament is opening Embassy Lab GRÜNtopia.
Green spaces are essential for the quality of life, wellbeing, and health of urban populations. Today, the focus on and interest in green urban spaces is increasing thanks to initiatives working toward Healthy Cities, environmental justice, food security, and strengthening local communities.


Lectures & Discussions @ Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Berlin, 22 June 2018

Alexander von Humboldt and Humboldt Volcano @ Tagesspiegel

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

GRÜNtopia @ MakeCity

We are honored to join Sir Peter Cook, architect and writer, founder of Archigram, we will present GRÜNtopia.
“MakeCity the Festival for Architecture and Urban Alternatives in Berlin brings together architect, planners, civic groups and developers in a citywide conversation on thinking and making city differently.

Humboldt Jungle @ archithese

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”

NatureTecture @ MediaLab CAFA Beijing

Lecture “Naturetecture” at the Media Lab, Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing.

Lecture NatureTecture @ Media Lab, Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), Beijing, P.R. China, 27 November 2017

Humboldt Volcano Erupts @ Berlijnse Avonden

The Dutch and Flemish cultural association “Berlijnse Avonden e.V” presents Humboldt Jungle and Humboldt Volcano and invites you on January 6 to the studio of Elizabeth Sikiaridi and Frans Vogelaar, the architects for the new Berlin city palace – the Humboldt Forum – the Humboldt Volcano and the Humboldt Jungle have been designed.

Lecture + Discussion @ Hybrid Space Lab, Berlin, Germany, 6 January 2016

BioTecture @ Communication University of China

BioTecture proposes how architecture will merge with green structures.
The accelerating developments in nature, bio-technology, technology and architecture are creating a new hybrid architecture.

lecture BioTecture @ Communication University of China (CUC), Dingfuzhuang, Chaoyang District, Beijing, P.R. China, 24 November 2017

Jungle Magic @ Duitslandnieuws

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

Urbanism Architecture Bi-City Biennial

The Urban Garden Kit at the Urbanism and Architecture Bi-City Biennial (UABB) brings together urban planners, architects and landscapers, artists and curators, game developers and communication experts and other creative professionals.
16-22 December 2017

Biotecture @ Central Academy of Fine Arts Art Museum Beijing

Today’s agriculture is pioneering ‘smart’ developments such as robotics and autonomous driving on farms, drones and satellite monitoring or transponder-implants. With the help of green infrastructures, precision farming methods are informing Smart City development and enabling NatureTecture, a hybrid architecture integrating nature in built environment.
25-26 November 2017

Avant Garden

Humboldt Volcano is exhibited at the Crossing Border | Border Crossing, International Festival of Intermedia in Hong Kong. Humboldt Volcano, a hybrid building and vertical garden, is such an ‘inter-media’, as it opens up and enables the appropriation of the Berlin Humboldt Forum by an international multicultural public.

Co-Creating Athens @ Lifo

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.

Poly Garden City @ Kathimerini

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”.

Redesigning the Berlin Palace @ Kathimerini

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

Internet of Things & Nature @ V2

NatureTecture proposes how Internet of Things will merge with green structures in the city.
With the Internet of Things, Big Data and Machine Intelligence algorithmically organizing life, society, work and industry, the only question that remains is what will happen with nature. The accelerating developments in nature, bio-technology, technology and architecture are creating a new hybrid architecture.

Design Zone @ Der Tagesspiegel

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

Ethics of Technology @ Beijing Media Art Biennale

Our current geological age is being described as “anthropocene”, as the epoch during which human activity is the dominant influence on climate and the environment. But we do not need to consider a “longue durée” historical approach, giving priority to long-term historical structures over events. Todays’ world is witnessing an unforeseen acceleration of environmental changes with a growing human influence on biodiversity and ecosystems with species extinction and climate change.

Lecture & Exhibition NatureTecture @ Beijing Media Art Biennale, China Millennium Monument, Beijing, 24 September-30 October 2016

Refugees Futures @ DMY Festival 2016

Given the masses of uprooted people worldwide the question for solutions from the global design community arises to help refugees feel at home and support those that want or have to stay make their lives liveable.

Discussion Think Local, Act Local! @ DMY Festival 2016, Kraftwerk, Berlin, 2 June 2016

Climate Adaptation @ Deutsches Architekturzentrum DAZ

How to rebuild a city in the 21st century as global temperatures are rising? Poly Garden City for the rebuilding of cities in Syria.

Discussion Strategies to Rebuild Aleppo @ Deutsches Architekturzentrum DAZ, Berlin, 22 April 2016

Humboldt Jungle @ Berliner Kurier

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

Humboldt Jungle Dinner @ Alte Tankstelle

How do we save the Humboldt Forum? Experts involved in culture and politics discuss Humboldt Dschungel.

Lectures, Discussion & Dinner @ Alte Tankstelle, Berlin, 29 January 2016

Hybrid Space Lab @ Berlin Climate Protection Conference

Berlin is growing. With an increasing demand for mobility, infrastructure and communal services the challenge is climate protection.

Prof. Frans Vogelaar @ Climate Protection Urban Growth Conference, EUREF Campus, Berlin, 11.00-18.30, 24 November 2015

Humboldt Jungle @ TAZ

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

Greek Slow Food @ Markthalle Neun

Panel discussion on the Greek Slow Food movement curated by Hybrid Space Lab and Markthalle Neun in Berlin on July 17 2015.

Discussion Greek Food Culture Today @ Markthalle Neun, Berlin, 17 July 2015