BMW and Guggenheim team up for exploration of contemporary cities

A collaboration between car manufacturer BMW Group and the Guggenheim Foundation will see architects working alongside artists and futurists to explore issues regarding contemporary cities.

The project will run over six years in nine cities around the world with three distinct mobile structures created, each designed by a different architect.

The inaugural BMW Guggenheim Lab, designed by Tokyo-based Atelier Bow-Wow, will launch in New York on August 3, remaining at its location on an unused site between Manhattan’s Lower East Side and East Village until October 16.

Atelier Bow-Wow’s design is based on the idea of a “travelling toolbox”. A series of smaller wooden structures nearby will house a café and toilets.

Following its New York stint, the BMW Guggenheim Lab will move to Berlin in spring/summer 2012, and then on to a city in Asia, with an announcement on this due later this year.