BMW Guggenheim Lab in New York
With its modest appearance, this small pavilion is tucked inconspicuously into a gap between other buildings in New York’s Houston Street. Who would have associated the Guggenheim Foundation – an institution famous for its spectacular developments – with such restrained architecture? Yoshiharu Tsukamoto and Momoyo Kaijima of the Japanese Atelier Bow-Wow have designed a light, mobile structure for this new ideas workshop. The BMW Guggenheim Lab is an urban think tank and public forum for events concerning the problems and challenges of urban life. In the initial phase of its programme, the lab will convene (after New York City) at the Pfefferberg in Berlin in 2012, and finally in Mumbai. In succeeding phases, other architects will give it a new face. For the first cycle, a compact, lightweight structure was developed – a “mobile toolbox”, as the architects describe it, that can be integrated into various urban situations. The open lower realm is designed to be used in a flexible form. The requisite furnishings and equipment are suspended in the upper space and can be drawn down when needed. The pavilion reveals many tokens of Japanese architecture, not least the skin to the upper section: as the translucent layers flap playfully in the wind, a shifting moire pattern is created. A transparent membrane roof provides protection against the rain.
