LABLAB

A research and design think tank dedicated to understanding the social, ecological and spatial transitions.
LABLAB explores the potential of linking theory and practice to identify and work within new classifications and configurations of the built and unbuilt environments. Disciplines, expertise and experience coalesce in cross-sectorial and trans-disciplinary collaborations to move beyond existing means of interpretation and innovation.

The electrical infrastructure has been part of our landscapes for generations. Thus, we have learned to unsee transmission towers bursting through forests and farmland, their overhead power lines hovering high in the sky. Now, the data infrastructure is drastically changing not only the digital but the spatial landscapes due to our online consumption and communication patterns.

The landscape of Bangladesh has always been a changing landscape. Seasonal changes come not only with floodings, but with land submerging and extricating. With the on-going climate change, Bangladesh is facing a 50 cm rise of the sea-level, which translates to losing more than 11% of its land and affecting 15 million people. What are these landscapes telling us? If we listen.

LABLAB och Landskapsarkitektur på SLU Alnarp skapar en gemensam kurs på Masternivå med fokus på de nya energilandskapen.

En omställning på lokal nivå – i det lokala landskapet.

Energiproduktionen kommer att bli mer lokal och synlig i människors vardag och därmed beröra fler. Vad betyder det för din kommun?

Since the 1990s, accommodating, catering and creating recreational experiences for visitors has set an example for an alternative to fickle income from agriculture. More and more farmers  now see the tourist as the most reliable harvest in Estonia.

By Mattias Malk

Vi har alla någon slags relation till landskap.

Detta gör energiomställningen även till en kommunikativ angelägenhet. Morgondagens energilandskap behöver kommunicera en framtid som synliggör, förstår och respekterar de planetära begränsningarna.

LABLAB medverkar på utställningen Symbiosis på konsthallen Färgfabriken.

27/8 – 28/11 2021.

Weather Glass or Crystal Ball?  is a research project designed to take place in Glasgow, Oslo, Copenhagen and Stockholm with the aim of setting up an interdisciplinary laboratory to investigate how we experience and communicate about weather and climate change.

Weather Glass or Crystal Ball? is a research project funded and designed by Goethe Institute and curated by LABLAB.

Adding urban will not save the rural. What forms and typologies can work with the real rather than the wishful expectations as we move towards rural futures?

By Keiti Kljavin

In Grand Tourismo we wonder if it is possible to understand the framing of a vista as an appreciation that borders on abuse?

By Peter Lang in collaboration with LABLAB.

Bright Futures explores the ecological, social and spatial transformations of German Lusatia in order to imagine futures beyond the monumental consequences of a never ending energy production.

Funded by the Goethe-Institut Schweden.

Marking the presence of humans and the conquest of landscapes.

I Open Studio Dalarna frågar vi oss var landsbygderna börjar, vad hållbarhet innebär för landsbygderna och hur förutsättningar för en platsspecifik och inkluderande samhällsplanering skapas. I nära dialog med Region Dalarna och IBA Thüringen utforskar och samskapar Open Studio Dalarna ett antal olika omvärderingar som fördjupar vår förståelse för den sociala, ekologiska och rumsliga omvandling som påverkar regionen Dalarna – inifrån och utifrån.

By Martina Doehler-Behzadi, Director of IBA Thüringia.

This essay is based on the lecture given by Martina Doehler-Behzadi at Umeå Architecture School the 27th of  March 2019. The lecture is part of LABLAB:s public program Hinterlands +, funded by the Goethe institut.

Levande, någorlunda täta och dynamiska stationssamhällen skapar regional identitet och förutsättningar för en hållbar existens i  landsbygderna. Med rimligt avstånd till resurser i form av arbetstillfällen, offentlig, kulturell och kommersiell service, och mänskliga kontakter,  ger stationssamhällen möjlighet för fler människor att bo och leva utanför centralorten – i eller nära landsbygderna.

The Swedish National Museum is opening the exhibition Arcadia – A Paradise Lost in September 2020. Our LABLAB co-founder, Daniel Urey, is participating as one of the main curators on the topic of Hinterland. Read his contributing essay to the exhibition publication.

Arcadia – A Paradise Lost is a cooperation between the contemporary art centre Färgfabriken in Stockholm, were Daniel Urey contributes to design know-how and programs on topics related to European politics, urbanisation, ruralisation, history, climate change and resilience.

Photos by Suvra Kanti Das. Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Understanding our societies is about evolving and involving. Thus, we share here in various languages what we currently are reading, thinking and talking about. Sometimes it is just a link, other times a comment, and maybe even a reflection longer than 280 characters…

How do we communicate about the climate? Peter Lang and LABLAB believe strongly that we need diverse kinds of communicative efforts to speak about climate.

Communicating Rural Transitions in Times of Global Locality.

Rural areas are central for a sustainable transition on a planetary level. However, the enormous focus on a planetary urbanization does not only complicates why and how to develop ecological and social sustainable rural areas but also how we communicate about these transitions from a small town perspective.

Countryside Unfolds takes a look on the world from the horizon of rural Estonia.

LABLAB participates as co-curator for the Architecture of Migration Conference in Riga, 7th and 8th of November 2019.

By choosing “Architecture of Migration” as a conference theme, the main curators – Dina Suhanova and Dagnija Smilga – aim to broaden the notion of “migration” beyond its preconceptions and deconstruct its most common meanings. Architecture in this context is considered a system, a medium and prerequisite for movement – not merely an inhabitable building but the physical infrastructure of space and intangible connections.

For more information please visit: https://architectureofmigration.org

LABLAB in cooperation with Goethe institut.

Conditions of Swedish and German countryside(s).