A new BMW Guggenheim Lab has been launched in New York. The think tank/art installation is part of a six-year enterprise that aims to better urban living through arts collaboration. Architects will design mobile structures to reflect given themes, which will then travel to cities worldwide.
For the first outing, Tokyo-based architect Atelier Bow-Wow has designed a space that will transform a gravel lot at the border of Manhattan's Lower East side and the East Village. The 2500 square-foot carbon-fibre Lab will host programmes focusing on the problems associated with art and urban planning.
The New York Lab team was nominated by an advisory committee including designer Elizabeth Diller, artist Rikrit Tiravanija and Zimbabe's mayor of Harare, Muchadeyi Ashton Masunda. It is comprised of Bronx environmental justice activist Omar Freilla, Canadian journalist and urban experimentalist Montgomery, Nigerian microbiologist Olatunbosum Obayomi, and Dutch architects Elma van Boxel and Kristian Koreman who planned the events for the Manhattan Lab including the screening of Blank City, a documentary that explores the underground arts scene of New York in the 70s.
Image: the BMW Guggenheim Lab showing the interactive installation Urbanology
