Hasta La Ideas

Time-lapse footage of the BMW Guggenheim Lab construction in New York City.

The highly anticipated BMW Guggenheim Lab has kicked off its six-year, nine-city world tour. First stop: New York’s East Village, inside a 2,200-square-foot mobile structure designed by Tokyo-based Atelier Bow-Wow. Envisioned as a think tank, public forum, and community center, the BMW Guggenheim Lab is offering an astounding array of free programs—including a talk this Friday by Elizabeth Diller of Diller Scofidio + Renfro (see also: High Line, The), a scavenger hunt for sounds of the city, a large-scale interactive group game called Urbanology (play online here), and the rather intimidating “South Bronx Toxicity Tour“—that explore the challenges of urban life. The inaugural Lab, located at at First Park (Houston at 2nd Avenue), is open free of charge Wednesdays to Sundays, through October 16. The Lab will leave its temporary NYC home with some permanent improvements (stabilization and paving of the site, fresh sidewalks, and new wrought-iron fencing and gates) before heading to Berlin next spring, where it will be presented in collaboration with the ANCB Metropolitan Laboratory in Pfefferberg, and then it’s onto Mumbai. “The Guggenheim is taking its commitment to education, scholarship, and design innovation one step further. We’re taking it on the road,” said Richard Armstrong, director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, in a statement issued by the museum. “From New York to Berlin to Mumbai and beyond, we will address the enormously important issues our major cities are facing today and engage others along the way.”

Photos in video, superstructure, and installation: NUSSLI Group, Switzerland/USA. Site preparation and construction management: Sciame Construction Co. Edited by Veena Rao. Inset photo by Paul Warchol. Video and photo © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation

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