Ideas From BMW Guggenheim Lab on Display at Guggenheim
The BMW Guggenheim Lab announced the opening of “Participatory City,” an exhibit culled from many of the experiences and concepts produced during the Lab’s two year run, at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.
The exhibit will serve as a culmination of the 100 (narrowed down from 300) most talked about urban and city-living ideas from the Lab’s public think tank locations in New York, Berlin, and Mumbai. Tens of thousands of people contributed to the exhibit by interacting with the Lab’s programs and projects, many of which were free.
Some of the trends discussed and on display include Participatory Urbanism, Collaborative Urban Mapping, Suburban Sprawl, the Ostrich Effect, and the notion of a Happy City. All concepts involve thoughts about the operations and sustainability of a modern city.
The BMW Guggenheim Lab first opened in New York in August 2011, and explored the theme of “Confronting Comfort” throughout the city. It then moved to Berlin the following June 15, with the theme “Making,” emphasizing the role citizens play in shaping cities. In its third iteration, the Lab opened in Mumbai in December 2012, where it explored “Privacy” and issues of the public space.
Each of the three labs was designed to serve as a combination think tank, community center, and public gathering space and occupied three 5,000-square-foot (464-square-meter) pop-up structures.
The “Participatory City” exhibit will be on display from October 11, 2013 to January 5, 2014.
(Photo: Jean-Christophe Benoist)