SMAQ

October 1, 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of Greater Berlin’s. On this occasion, the extensive the exhibition „Unifinished Metropolis“ at Kronprinzenpalais in Berlin aims to link the history, present and future of the metropolis. With the help of around 800 plans and illustrations, the urban development achievements of the new Berlin are shown as well as the potentials and problems of the Berlin-Brandenburg region. In this context, the vision for an ecological and social future of the metropolitan city-region Berlin-Brandenburg formulated by SMAQ in collaboration with Kopperroth, Alex Wall, Office MMK and Stefan Tischer, that was awarded in the framework of the international urban idea competition “Berlin-Brandenburg 2070“, is on show as well. The exhibition is curated Harald Bodenschatz together with Christina Gräwe and Benedikt Goebel.

Exhibition: October 1st, 2020 until January 3rd, 2021, Mo–Su 10:00–18:00
Kronprinzenpalais, Unter den Linden 3, D-10117 Berlin

The exhibition “urbainable – stadthaltig. Positions on the European City for the 21st Century“ at the Academy of Arts (Akademie der Künste) in Berlin examines the role of the European city in the age of global warming, digitisation, demographic change and the dissolution of traditional social networks and presents the Überseeinsel in Bremen by SMAQ, Man Made Land, gruppeomp and nsp as one benchmark project with large scale photographs by Hanns Joosten and models by SMAQ and gruppeomp.

Exhibition: September 5th – November 22nd, 2020
Akademie der Künste, Hanseatenweg 10, D-10557 Berlin

In the framework of “projekt bauhaus” and alongside the international symposium ‘Can design change society?’ (September 18–19, 2015), a pop-up exhibition at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin will showcase SMAQ’s “Charter of Dubai” together with 24 other project prototypes centred on the theme.

ARAB CONTEMPORARY is the second chapter in the series “Architecture, Culture and Identity” at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark. The exhibition takes the visitor to old Yemenite civilizations and new cities like Dubai and new architectural projects that relate to the desert as place. It shows SMAQ’s proposal Ex-Palm for the transformation of Palm Jumeirah in Dubai towards a sustainable city quarter as printed model with a diametre of two metres together with SMAQ’s manifesto for a critical urban transformation “Charter of Dubai” in large format (50 cm x 66 cm) leather bound as well as how other architectural offices such as Jean Nouvel, Henning Larsen Architects and X-Architects, intervene in the region with new interpretations.

The International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam IABR-2014, curated by Dirk Sijmons, presents under the theme “Urban by Nature” in the section “Urban Metabolism” SMAQ´s project “Rainmaker – A City Generating Rain” which was conceived for the metropolitain region of Casablanca, Morocco.

The exhibition “Concrete Geometries” at Architectural Association (AA) in London presents among others SMAQs Charter of Dubai. The twenty projects in the exhibition investigating how geometric aspects of space such as size, shape or relative position of figures are perceived and influence behavior, not in an abstract but very real sense.

Today more than half of the world’s population lives in cities. Facing climate change and finite supplies of fossil fuels, therefore, also means facing urban challenges. The exhibition “Post-Oil City: The History of the City’s Future” presents a host of innovative city planning projects in Asia, Africa, and the Americas. The exhibition has been produced by the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations, or ifa) and curated by the architecture journal ARCH+. The English-language version of the exhibition will open in Yokohama on September 27 and run through October 8. It will be part of the collateral events of the 24th World Congress of Architecture of the International Union of Architects in Tokyo.

Wie erreichen wir ein nachhaltiges Wachstum? Welche Änderungen stehen uns bevor? Und wie sieht die Stadt der Zukunft aus? Diesen und anderen Fragen widmet sich der vierte Energiesalon 2011 in Zürich. In diesem Kontext präsentiert das Architekturforum Zürich vom 26. Mai bis am 16. Juli 2011 die von ARCH+ für das Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen kuratierte Ausstellung “Post Oil City”.

By bringing together artworks and practices that point to overlapping trajectories within the contemporary urban landscape, this year Matrix City exhibition ‘Opportunities of Entanglement’ speaks about ambivalences between entanglement (or even enslavement) and the next playful ‘liberation of mankind’. The exhibition touches upon the shelf life or expiration date of contemporary concepts of the city; something hard to comprehend in the current boom of urban and metropolitan territories, but with a long and recurrent base in history. For this occasion Matrix City appropriates part of Hoog Catharijne, Utrecht’s 1970s avant-garde shopping center, which is today regarded outdated and finds itself on the verge of a major reconstruction. This site in an eerie way reminds of parts of Constant Nieuwenhuys’ New Babylon, a superstructure meant to liberate humans of physical work – just in Hoog Catharijne one was to find satisfaction in shopping, not in play.
Matrix City presents SMAQ’s Charta of Dubai and the X-Palm.

The fourth edition of the International Architecture Biennale in Rotterdam (IABR) with the theme “Open City – Designing Coexistence”, curated by Kees Christiaanse, presents SMAQ´s manifesto “The Charta of Dubai” and its application: “X-Palm” as part of the exhibition REFUGE, sub-curated by Philipp Misselwitz and Can Altay, at the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAi).

In the framework of the exhibition “Post-it City. Occasional Urbanities” the CCCB – Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona presents SMAQ’s project “Call me now!” that explores alternatives uses of the mobile phone and its consequences in the capitals Brazzaville and Kinshasa in the Republic and the D.R. Congo.

GLASHAUS, a series by the German Center for Architecture DAZ in Berlin, is presenting SMAQ and their work in a solo exhibition with the title Environment – Umwelten.

During the Salone del Mobile 2008 in Milan SMAQ’s Cosy Chair designed for Droog Design is on display at the Fondazione Antonio Mazzotta.

The Los Angeles branche of the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna MAK Center for Art Architecture presents SMAQ’s project LA Water in the exhibtion Ah CA va bien.
For their project, SMAQ investigated a Los Angeles dichotomy: How so dry a place has come to be known for a wet lifestyle of green lawns and swimming pools. Building on an interest in exposing infrastructure as integral to urban life, SMAQ explores Los Angeles’ complex system of water supply and usage.

Génération Europan recalls 20 years of Europan competitions, which since its creation made emerge on the European scene young talents in the fields of architecture and the urban design. In the course of the eight sessions, 430 sites were proposed with the reflexion of approximately 40.000 young designers gathered in 15.000 teams. The juries of the Europan competition awarded a prize to 450 of them. The exhibition redraws the strong moments of this competition and invited SMAQ and ten other winning teams to present the implementation of their Europan proposals as well as recent projects.

The DAM (Deutsches Architekturmuseum) in Frankfurt is presenting the exhibition Shrinking Cities: Nine Urban Ideas. Besides more than 20 other projects by contemporay architects it feature SMAQ’s project Schkreutz. City Map. 1st Edition.
Shrinking Cities: Nine Urban Ideas. In the 1990s, more than a quarter of the world’s big cities shrank, and their number continues to grow. But how can shrinking be shaped?

SMAQ’s folly BAD(bath) – water folly on the dock was selected from an international competition with some other twenty designs for building in Heijplaat, Rotterdam. During the FollyDOCK Expo it is open for public viewing. FollyDOCK Expo is part of Rotterdam 2007 City of Architecture.

Among others the exhibition Searching for an Ideal Urbanity at Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart is presenting the project Call me now! by SMAQ supported by From/To Europe that is based on the research of moblie phones in Brazzaville and Kinshasa.

In an international competition with 398 entries SMAQ’s project “Water Folly on the Dock” was selected as one of the eleven best entries. The exhibition FollyDOCK in the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAi) in Rotterdam presents SMAQ’s project with 44 other selected entries.

The Shedhalle in Zurich is presenting SMAQ’s research Mobile Kinshasa as part of the exhibtion From/To Europe #3 Roaming Around – Digital Devide, Regional Codes, Copy/South & the Question of Access.

The installation “Suburban Living Room” thematizes, in the context of the Weissenhof housing development (Mies van der Rohe) inStuttgart, the change of living towards an intersection of infrastructure and the leisure landscape. Whereas modernity was striving for the opening of the interior to the exterior, the ideal of suburban living today, in an age that is characterized by mobility, organizes itself in a sequence of arrival by car and going outdoors. Similarly, in the gallery, street and garden become opposite poles between which the moment of living is suspended. The building as a limit disappears and the “living room” ceases to be interior, but emerges as a relay in the continuity from infrastructure to landscape.

The ABC Architectuurcentrum in Haarlem, Netherlands is presenting the exhibition “Creative immigration in NL – Typical NL architecture by NO NL architects”. The exhibition includes, amongst others, four of SMAQ’s projects and related products. The exposition shows a selection of design professionals in Holland: architects and graphic designers.

The second Shrinking Cities exhibition “Shrinking Cities – Intervention” in the Gallery for Contemporary Art in Leipzig, Germany and the related book “Shrinking Cities, Volume 2: Interventions” both feature SMAQ’s project “Schkreutz. City Map. 1st Edition” commissioned by the Bauhaus Dessau.

The Salon Blauraum in Hamburg, Germany is presenting SMAQ’s exhibition “Architectures for the Infrastructural Leisure Landscape”. The three projects presented are architectural maneuvers that develop strategies of embracement, negotiation and adaptation to activate, take advantage and authenticate the contemporary landscape. The exhibition is supported by the Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture.