A complex challenge needs a complex strategy composed of 5 interweaved layers of discussion with the existing urban and social landscape: exploration, using, building, planning and space-making

Bang Bang is touring through the urban landscape between Seoul and Anyang since september 2009 by invitation of the 3rd Anyang Public Art Project (APAP2010), Anyang. raumlaborkorea

Raumlabor approached this project with the questions: is reinventing the history of a place a good idea, when the current accepted history isn’t helping the present situation? Is it possible by reinventing a history to create a new perspective for a site which has undergone a century of urban catastrophes?

Subway-station Eichbaum between Essen and Mülheim/Ruhr is an urban spot of spatial deficiency, that has to be converted in near future. The project “Eichbaum Countdown” adresses to young people of the neighborhood, who are connected to the Eichbaum-station.

In St. Pölten, the regional capital city from Lower Austria - not far from Vienna - an expedition is being prepared. Where to? What for? What will we look for and discover? Who will take part? These are questions that raumlaborberlin will discuss with the inhabitants of the city.

Theater happens right now! A luminous mist of bubbles floating between the old bathhouse and the shaft tower of the former colliery Zeche Zollverein. On the one hand, it reminds of the cleaning process on the other of the transformation into a cultural location.

Eichbaumoper characterises the temporary transformation of the metro station Eichbaum into an opera house. ‚Eichbaum’ is a crosspoint and station located between the cities of Essen and Mülheim. Once considered as a place of aspiration and hope, the ‚Eichbaum’ is now shaped by vandalism, fear and foreboding. Premiere: 24th of June, 2009

Invited by Storefront for Art and Architecture the Spacebuster was developed and designed to explore the qualities and possibilities of public space in New York City. Spacebuster interacts with the architectural and the social space and its conditions. It opens urban space for temporary collective uses.

The project “les Archivistes” is the search for parts of a puzzle that make up the history of a modern city. Over one year, residents of Herouville St.Claire participated in workshops with actors, choreographers, artists, writers, and architects, from which emerged fragments of their own imaginary City Archive. Herouville St.Claire is a 1960’s “ville neuf” (new town), planned and built with all the urban resources postwar modernism had to offer. “Le Tabularium” now attempted to put the puzzle together.

The balcony of Salzburger Landestheater becomes an enlargement of the “smoker’s foyer”. Readings, cinema, concerts, dancing or casino can take place in this additional room. The bubble is translucent and very well adapted for projections from inside or outside. The result is a completely new view at night. Local and friendly artists are resposible for performances on the balcony.

The “Fondation Suisse” is the most prominent dormitory of modern times. To mark the 75th anniversary in november 2008 raumlaborberlin was commissioned to find a temporary solution for a recurring problem: the missing space for big festivities. In summer the >piloti< called terrace underneath the building would have been perfect, but in november it was too cold. We proposed to wrap the space with an inflatable, translucent membrane and thereby transform the semi public ambient to semiprivate. For three days the pneumatic hall gave home to concerts, speeches, dinners, a conference and a party.

“The Hotel-Stadt directly developed into self-regulating, informal urban strategies generated through participation of and cooperation between artists and populace, outsiders and locals, top-down and bottom-up movements. Just like a high-rise favela […][“Hotel Neustadt”] was a city without a master plan, a new city within a fading context, a temporary city within permanence, a nomadic city within a settlement.” Kyong Park, from: “Moving cities, moving nations”, Hotel Neustadt p.120 et seq. Berlin 2004

To inform the public about Periferic 8 a temporary architectural structure - the Info Point - was built in front of “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University. The architectural structure functions as a meeting and info-point of Periferic 8 and as a public space for discussions and screenings. It is not only a functional structure but also a specific object that serves as a metaphor for a Utopian place highlighting the necessity of public spaces for the community and acting as a catalyst for social awareness.

For the “house of imagination” raumlabor berlin interlaces two architectural ideas of living in Torstrasse 166: A 1:1 modell of a Plattenbau flat type P2 which is living reality in Halle-Neustadt and many cities of the former GDR is built into a Gründerzeit flat. Both models date from a time of mass production of living space, the Gründerzeit as a market driven approach, the P2 flat as a government-controlled approach.

The ctiy mattress is an installation in public space. It is a triangular pneumatic structure, measuring 15 metres on each side. As catalytic object it is a platform for various actions. The over-scaled soft surface questiones our behavioural codes in public space, especially the physical actions of the bodies within the space. The city mattress is an experimental condensator for acting in public.

Construction work is going on at “Wonders of the Prairie”. In the eyes of the public a boat is built from pieces of wood, junk, and offset-metals at the Alte Feuerwache. A sign points out that raumlabor-berlin is building a submarine which will be sent onto a „dangerous“ journey on the Neckar and Rhein to Ludwigshafen on Sept. 20. At its destination it will be handed over to the Kunstverein Ludwigshafen.We are looking for ten courageous persons who navigate the vessel on the difficult journey and for persons who want to participate in the building of the boat.

“Aus Flug Hafen Sicht” takes place from April to June 2008. Directors, choreographers, architects and artists will offer excursions to areas of one of the strangest territories in Central Germany. Wishful economic thinking and melancholy, departure and failure converge here like nowhere else: an empty airport building, which was to supposed to become the motor of development for a whole region, next to a more or less abandoned village between motorway and runway.

The System is a labyrinthine structure made of 223 doors from buildings that have been demolished in Halle-Neustadt. It opens up spaces to the visitors in unexpected ways, reflecting diverse aspects of our work.

Construction of a catalytic structure intended to reveal new appropriation and functional potentials within public space; tested and debated with residents and users. We appropriated a fenced-in empty lot in the Lavapies district of Madrid and transformed it into a public Japanese garden with stage and teahouse.

What meaning does the historical centre of a city carry and who has sovereignty over that meaning? Shortly before the demolition of Palast der Republik in Berlin, raumlaborberlin built a huge mountain formation in, on and in front of this controversial building. The mountain showed that even a rough concrete ruin can become home to people, their past and their dreams. Its size, grace and speed, along with the countless installations, performances and record numbers of visitors to it, caused a great storm within the political debate; a storm which unfortunately calmed all too quickly. However, this still remains one of the boldest projects on this list.