birdofpassage: 06.17.2012 BMW Guggenheim Lab, Aedes Berlin: FutureCityLab

BMW Guggenheim lab

Do you recognize this "building"? I wanted to go here when I was in NY, but I totally ran out of time because I spent too long trying to figure out what I wanted at uniqlo (surprise) So I'm happy that it has moved here. The BMW Guggenheim lab is a travelling lab experiment to create collaborative solutions for urban living. What's funny is that the lab originally wasn't going to make it to Berlin because the neighbourhood (Kreuzberg) it was landing in became terribly upset and protested and shouted threats and so the lab became totally intimidated and worried about their safety. One of the few things that the people of Kreuzberg hate are tourists and gentrification, and the BMW Guggenheim lab influences both those things. (exposé) In the end, they found an alternative location (an already gentrified neighbourhood), and situated themselves here. (P-berg)

yes you can. (pun)

The BMW Guggenheim lab is a neat idea. It's a travelling lab taking influence from every city they go to and providing workshops and lectures about anything contemporary and urban (art, science, tech, education etc.). The current theme is about how urban environments can be made more responsive to peoples needs. (explanation)

1. MIT kids 2. Arduino

One of the first events at the lab was a workshop for arduino and makeymakey with MIT students. (link

) I've always been curious about the arduino so this was a nice opportunity. The workshop was full but someone didn't show up, so I luckily got the spot. Unluckily, my partner was an eager beaver show off and did not follow any of the instructions. I tried to fix the breadboard to follow along with the instructions but then he'd turn around and move it back to whatever he was trying to invent and mumble something in German. I may as well just sit on my hands. But hey,we

he programmed a light!

1. testing, 2. grounding

MakeyMakey! I saw this on kickstarter, and thought it was super cool. What's even cooler is seeing it work in reality. I really like how programming is becoming more and more "simple" and accessible to not just dorks. Ok although MakeyMakey does not require any programming, it's still a simple understanding of working with a chipboard and grounding etc. (what is the word for this?) The smart thing and the downfall of the MakeyMakey is that you always have to be a part of the path in order for it to work because you ground the entire circuit. Like in the photo, one hand holds the apple (ground) while the other can tap a banana to play a note. (it works!)

Future City Lab!

Next door was the Aedes Architecture Gallery. They had a FutureCityLab exhibition. It's about solutions for a future city. This is entire exhibition was really close to what I've been thinking about/working on at work lately. So if you are wondering what I am doing here in Berlin, a part of it is like this. If you can imagine, the world in the future will be consisted of overpopulated cities with urbanised city-centers and underpopulated rural areas. In forty years or so, (say 2050), we'll be tackling issues of sustainability, diminishing resources, a need for efficient energy solutions, mobility, and others. Knowing these issues, the idea is to come up with solutions today, for the problems of tomorrow, if you can imagine what a future city might be like.

Part exhibition space, part open discussion, the tables have these books with student work that address these issues under certain themes. Consisting of mostly work from architecture / urban design students around the world (Ryerson U incl.!).

The workshops and roundtable discussions were on Wednesday nights, so I did not attend because I get off work so tired and late. But it would have been nice to go to one. Watch the first roundtable discussion here!

Across the street was this giant fish play structure! There's a traditional playground a few metres away from the fish, but if you ask me, this one takes all the glory even though there were no kids on it. It reminds me of a Japanese carp kite..