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St. Petersburg (Russia) | October 17, 2011
Five imaginary scientists (a physicist, a mathematician, a biologist, a geologist and an astrophysicist) are mentors to an immersive field of experiences ofn800 sq.m.
All is happening within GALERIA, a brandnew shopping mall near Moscow Station right in the city center.
We were commissioned the conceptual design and artistic direction by Huetinger, the design & build contractor.
Visuals: Britta Speer, Joerg Walther, Joerg Hofmann
http://www.umnikum.com/
The temporary Museum of Creativity, Erlangen, April 2011
Curiosity fosters enterprise. New tools make for different products. And Do-it-yourself now is spelled Do-it-with-others!
During a fortnight, in April 2011 the inhabitants of the Nuremberg metropolitan region were invited to test their individual design ideas using 3d-plotters, lasercutters, transfer-presses, laptops, sewing machines, and paints, building blocks and flying objects. This is how the temporary museum of creativity saw the light of day. It is nor museum or science centre, nor fab-lab or hands-on exhibition – it is simply in the air.
We are amongst the happy ones to have initiated ICH KANN! – and are looking forward to new ventures in the interspace.
Initiative ICH KANN!:
Markus Edgar Hormeß, Jochen Hunger, Michael Niqué, Katarina Poetzsch-Meinhardt, Berndt Richter and Frank Seiferlein
With:
Lara Dade, Moira Drexler, Mona Graafmann, Sophia Herold, Carolin Hofer, Matthias Kutsch, Constanze Mareike, Hanna Oberle, Friederike Rasper, Claudia Schnupp, Britta Speer, Markus Stoll
Budget: 55 k EUR (13 TEUR public funding, the rest private & personal sponsoring)
Surface: 380 m2
Museum für Kommunikation, Nuremberg, November 2010
The permanent collection of the Museum of Communication in Nuremberg reopened in November 2011. Director Stefan Kley and his team went not only for a facelift but radically changed the museum's perspective: They focused not on the instruments and media, but on the way humans use them to communicate using sounds, images and language.
We were invited to develop ideas for a series of new exhibits. While in the Intro-zone the basics of vision, listening and writing call for simple explanations (like the two-person camera obscura), the digital revolution can hardly be demonstrated without a computer and (touch)screen.
Most sought-after: the do-it-yourself TV-studio. We humans simply love to look at ourselves…
Hardware: Setis, Falkensee
Programming: roccas GmbH, Nürnberg
Manufacturing: Berndt Richter / Ligneolus, Nürnberg
Centrum Nauki Kopernik, Warsaw/Poland, 2010
In Light Zone visitors encounter electromagnetic waves in all of their facets - and in the context of a detective story! The exhibition space is quite elongated, and shrouded in darkness. Fabric walls, printed black and white, turn it into a walk-in Comic-Noir where the good (detective Viktor Foton) hunts the bad (ex-scientist Arseniusz Cron). Based on the exhibition script by theoretical physicist (!) Lukasz Badowski and together with the inspired people from Hüttinger we developed a dramatic set, using vintage-furniture and props for the first time as basic parts of interactive exhibits.
The tender was awarded in the spring of 2008 and Light Zone opened in November 2010. It is one of the six galleries within Centrum Nauki Kopernik. Director Robert Firmhofer counted 400.000 visitors in the first six months!
Budget: 600 TEUR
Surface: 360 m²
Exhibition concept
Slovenian Museum of Natural History, Ljubljana/Slovenia, 2010
Competition entry, second prize (a first prize wasn't awarded)
In July 2010, the Slovenian Museum of Natural History launched an open competition, looking for an exhibition concept that would suit its planned new construction near the Botanical Gardens of Ljubljana. The focus was set on unconventional and efficient solutions using classical and contemporary exhibition technology.
Working for (and with) Hüttinger we developed both stimulating settings for the different collections (incorporating traditional and interactive exhibits), and a new type of museum encounter. In the so called expert zone, scientists and visitors meet each other amongst accessible storage spaces full of specimen and open labs with research tools. For the first time visitors get the full look and feel of the museum!
Fraunhofer ISC, Würzburg/Germany, 2011
ISC, the Fraunhofer Institute for Silicate Research in Würzburg is developing a credit card sized lab-on-a-chip for tumor diagnostics. As everything happens on nano-scale, smallest amounts of blood yield reliable results. Unfortunately nobody will ever see how this masterpiece of medical instrument really works. It is too small! Hence we developed an interactive exhibit for ISC which playfully illustrates the process. As part of a touring exhibition (Neue Wege in der Medizin) it can be seen in 33 German cities.
Hardware: Setis GmbH, Falkensee
Programming: roccas GmbH, Nürnberg
Manufacturing: Berndt Richter Ligneolus, Nürnberg
Budget: about 11 k EUR
Dimension: 90x70x185 cm
Architecture: EMI house, Hamburg
Renovation of a 1900 villa, Hamburg Eimsbüttel, 2005-2006
Architecture – for friends only. This could almost be the motto concerning the architectural activities of the office. We build only rarely, but when we do, it is with dedication. Based on the design of architect Barbara Sellwig, we underlined the pure forms of an urban villa in Hamburg. New openings in the roof and an additional glazed staircase on the garden side adjusted the building to the needs of a family of four, a hundred years after it was built.
Total budget: about 360 k EUR
Surface: about 400 sq.m.
Architektur: Building for industry / The Hilti years
What's the actuality here? Learning by doing is a priceless experience… Between 1993 and 1997 there was much opportunity to learn the tricks of the (building) trade, managing building projects for the Hilti AG (Liechtenstein).
During that period the Hilti group developed its new German headquarter in record time. There were tasks of every size and in a wide range: From a 10.000 sq.m. office building to a restaurant for the staff, a gatehouse and various infrastructural projects.
Hilti Germany shaped its new face investing around 20 million EUR. The lesson(s) learnt? Take the client seriously – at least as seriously as you take yourself…
External architects: Henn Architekten, Munich; Kratz & Partner, Kaufering; Klaus Beuth Architekt, Landsberg.
Science City competition ETH Zurich
International competition on sustainable development, ETH Zurich, 2006
In early 2006 the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology arranged a competition in which pluridisciplinary teams were asked to describe how an university campus should look like in a globalized world of science. Quite programmatically, the title of our submission was "Know how becomes currency". The idea was that knowledge, circulating in the heads of people living in the Greater Zurich Area, could be assigned a value as it was transferred to knowledge-accounts. From where it started to circulate. You pay for knowledge you need with knowledge you have – and EVERYBODY has some piece of know-how to put on the market…
Coming back to those ideas today, in times of economic crises, is somehow exciting.
How come that we are still attracted to simplify life by eliminating money?!
The members of our team were: Martina Eberle, Designer / Zurich; Wilhelm Klauser, Architect / Berlin; Peter Neudert, Interior architect / Erlangen, Horst Konietzny, director / Munich, Nadine Druschel, Communication designer / Frankfurt and Jochen Hunger (here in the role of illustrating funny to abstract ideas)...
Centrum Nauki Kopernik, Warsaw/Poland, 2010
Can the story of civilization be told merely using interactive exhibits? Axel Hüttinger, who had been awarded the contract to design & build the exhibition in autumn of 2007 asked us to develop the scenography and to participate in the content development of Roots of Civilization.
After three years of intense cooperation with scientists, artists and technicians, the exhibition opened in November 2010. More than seventy exhibits (partly originals) offer a panoramic view on the milestones of science & technology, mathematics, philosophy & law, and language.
Only six months from the opening, CNK's director Robert Firmhofer and his team could count 400.000 visitors!
Budget: 1,6 Mio EUR
Surface: 900 m²
Cité de l'espace, Toulouse, Competition, October 2009
Cité de l'espace, situated in the south-west of France, again and again manages to combine serious science with good entertainment. Competing for the scenographic design of the forthcoming exhibition "E.T. – Extraterrestres (Aliens)" we imagined, together with our friends from Hüttinger and graphic artist Katrin Geiss, how a potential visit of Aliens to the Cité must have looked like.
(Illustrations by Britta Speer / Jh and Jörg Walther / Hüttinger)
We were really inspired by the nice topical triad of "living beings on earth / life elsewhere / meeting the alien" proposed by la Cité, but french colleague Olivier Ferracci seemingly was even more…he was selected.
Cité – your concepts are intriguing, and one day we will work for you!
ZOOM – RUHRZOO Gelsenkirchen, 2002-2003
To live one day in Alaska – a dream in the middle of the densely populated Ruhr area in the west of Germany. This luxury is available to everybody since 2007 when ZOOM, a visitor attraction derived from the traditional Ruhr Zoo of Gelsenkirchen, opened its doors.
In 2003 we set out with Hüttinger Exhibition Engineering to develop the pilot scheme of a zoo enhanced by a multitude of media. The recipe: take classical zoo issues, add fully detailed replicas of typical landscapes and hide shelters and service buildings (done perfectly by zoo architect Giggi Heuss). In the end: connect all by a continuing story. ZOOM actually carries off visitors not only to Alaska but also to South-western Africa and to Borneo. The total investment was around 84 million EUR, about 10% of that sum has been spent for mediatic enhancement.
Economic promotion of the Stuttgart Region, Stuttgart and Sensapolis GmbH, Sindelfingen; May 2008
Within the context of “IdeenPark” (a temporary visitor attraction designed to promote technical professions) the brand new visitor attraction “Sensapolis” from Sindelfingen wanted to introduce itself and “show its face”.
We gathered a choice of exhibits, from simple mechanics to complex face recognition tools. Despite its spatial limitations, the pavillion turned out to be a good base for discussions and experiences.
Budget: 48 k EUR
Surface: around 60 m²
Glasgow Sciene Centre "Exploration and Discovery", 2001
In 2001 Jochen Hunger contributes as scenographer to the design of a floor called “Exploration and discovery” for the Glasgow science centre, at that time being under construction. With this exhibition the project team (including A.E. Hüttinger, C. Laemmle, M. Rudloff),explores new ways for that type of museum. The idea is to compress more than one hundred interactive exhibits into three distinct scenarios explaining the basics of natural history and mechanics.
The equipment of an expedition to a strange planet, the loud colours of a sports arena and the wooden hull of a barge sailing the River Clyde do not only help to find one’s way across 1.800 sq.m. of exhibition but also underline in a concrete way the client’s motto: “Don’t educate, motivate!”. The budget for this project is 1,6 million British Pound.
City of a 1000 Adventures, Stuttgart-Sindelfingen, June 2008
On three levels of about 300 m² each, we offer to see the topics and attractions of “Sensapolis”, a new indoor visitor attraction near Stuttgart/Germany, through a scientific eye. Connecting the feeling of fear (from the giant climbing wall nearby) with the “science” of fear in the Edutainment Zone allows for sublime moments of sudden understanding.
We had only six months from commission to opening for the conception and fabrication of 22 “openend books” (as we called the exhibition elements), with 56 partly original exhibits.
Budget: 1,1 MIO EUR
Surface: 900 m²
City of a 1000 Adventures, Stuttgart-Sindelfingen, June 2008
In the summer of 2007 we were asked by investor Alexander Schreibeisen jr. if we could realize the planned fairy-tale castle for “Sensapolis”, the first indoor attraction combining sports, fun, fantasy and science. A rare and appealing opportunity to take a walk to the borders of imagination. In a team of ten we designed throne hall, bibliothèque (with flying books), ballroom (with interactive dancers) and an interactive Portrait gallery, because we found that Drachlingen Castle should have its Royals... Meanwhile, they’re on the internet and soon the diary of Princess Livia will go in print.
Budget: 1,2 MIO EUR
Surface: 1100 m²
Hotel Three Raven, Nuremberg, 2000
Emperor Barbarossa, Eppelein (a local robbing knight with an extraordinarily gifted horse), the first railway line of Germany and the legendary football teams of 1.FCN – among the myths of the city of Nuremberg, Jochen Hunger had a rich choice of themes for the redesign of “Drei Raben” (Three Raven), a charming hotel situated just at the entrance to the medieval centre of the city.
The choice was to bring the reddish sandstone which is so characteristic for the famous Castle of Nuremberg right into the guests’ rooms. The boundary between bathroom and bed becomes blurred, and despite some rough surfaces there is much cosiness thanks to an array of warm colours used.
DaimlerChrysler LAB.01, Tour in Europe / Hanover 1999 – 2000
In 1997 I had the chance to become a member of the team that shaped the contribution of DaimlerChrysler to EXPO 2000 in Hanover. As a messenger of the world exhibition, LAB.01 travelled, between July 1999 and April 2000, through seven big cities in Europe offering sophisticated but also funny man-machine interfaces, mainly aimed at kids and young people. The two storey building radiated the spirit of discovery and orientated itself materialwise towards the protecting shelters of expeditions. The overall budget was around 8 million EUR, without travelling costs.
"Beerba", Bar-Restaurant in Turin, 2005
The different varieties of beer and its many colours were the inspiration for the design of a bar-restaurant in Turin. That reflects the ever-growing popularity of this beverage in the south of Europe. 160 guests at one time are invited to discover the diversity of beer with all of their senses. There are video-windows showing a meditation an what one can see in a glass of beer, and a collection of artists‘ sculptures made of beer cans and bottles – we are sure that the time of waiting for the next glass will pass quickly.
AUDI Pavilion Autostadt – re-attraction, Wolfsburg, 2003
1,5 million people had already seen François Confino’s Audi Pavilion in 2002, when Audi decided to adapt the experience of visitors of the Audi Pavilion in Volkswagen’s brandland to the dynamically evolving image of the brand. The already once successful team, this time under the eyes of Audi’s chief designer Walter da' Silva, revive the exhibition area touching two thirds of the total 2.100 sq.m. and convert their ideas into reality taking only 27 days for construction on site. The total budget is 2 million EUR.
AUDI Pavillon Autostadt, Wolfsburg, 2000
In 1998 Jochen Hunger joins french scenographer François Confino to conceive and carry out Audi’s brand pavilion in Volkswagen’s brandland "Autostadt", in Wolfsburg / Germany.
On a total surface of 2.100 sq.m. the pavilion shows the genuine style of Audi which has for that purpose been transformed to the loft-like home of an idealized couple of Audi enthousiasts. TIME magazine estimates it to be the best of the six brand pavilions in Autostadt, and 1 million visitors a year convince themselves of this judgement. The total budget for the turnkey project is 5 million EUR (architecture not included).
Time Magazine: "...just down the autobahn in Wolfsburg, Germany, Volkswagen has built a theme park that is drawing twice as many visitors as expected. Conceived as a place for VW customers to pick up their new cars ...it quickly grew into the EuroDisney of the automobile. The most popular attraction: The AUDI Pavilion, the home of a typical Audi-owning couple, complete with big screen TV showing AUDI ads."
"Collapse?", Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 2005
In his recent book, Californian biologist Jared Diamond proposes that there are only five factors determining whether a civilisation will survive or vanish, as did the Maya or Anasazi Indians in America despite the advanced means they had developed to survive. The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County asked Confino Hunger S.a.r.l. to translate Diamond’s account into an exhibition, for a budget of 1,5 million USD.
“Collapse?” opened in spring 2005. The exhibition extends itself over 700 sq.m. and has been designed transport-friendly, so Jared Diamond’s proposals in view of a globalized planet with a history can be experienced also outside the U.S.
Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, 2008
We were commissioned “Famous storms” in October, 2007. It is part of the touring exhibition “Nature unleashed” which openend in May 2008, in Chicago.
The touch screen application uses selected examples of storms to show how human activity affects the desastrous outcomes of storms.
Investment, size of an order: 15 k EUR
Museum Domherrenhaus, Verden/Aller, 2009
The Historical Museum of Verden (Germany) holds one of the oldest wooden weapons of mankind: a 40 000 year old spear. It was found stuck in the fossilized bones of an elephant. We brought the hunt alive using a LED video projection system inside a Neandertal figure, 3D sound and an illusionist wall painting. The face and mimics were created digitally.
As it was a presumably a group hunt which afforded communication amongst the hunters, the brief called for a Neandertal “speak” with its proper syntax. Experts helped to define the degree of freedom our actors could apply for this.
Budget: 36 TEUR
Surface: around 25 m²
Palais de la Découverte, Paris, 2007
An interactive scientific exhibition about volcanoes, earthquakes and the dynamics at the center of the earth.
True experiments taken from scientist’s labs, around thirty interactive exhibits and strong scenographic images are blended for an instructive adventure in the footprints of volcanologists and geologists.
Together with Hüttinger GmbH & Co KG who won the “design and build” contract in the end of 2006 we spent nine months "on top of volcanoes"… The exhibition openend in October 2007 – an intense work with scientists and the cellule de renovation from the Palais de la decouverte preceded it.
Conceived in a modular way it currently travels the French world, parts of it will be integrated later into the permanent galleries.
Budget: 310 k EUR
Surface: 250 m²
Huguenots' church, Erlangen, 2009
Twenty sails, puffed out by the heavy winds of the Protestant Reformation and labeled with short citations of Johannes Calvin. The headlines of the twenty posters refer to chapters in an illustrated reader to be consulted nearby.
The presentation opens doors to a mighty life's work, adapting Calvin's style: exiguity of concern, brevity of verbalization, sobriety of appearance. No images –metaphors only.
A low-tech-high-impact project which lends its success not least to an intense collaboration within the Calvin circle around "landlord" Johannes Mann.
Estimated costs: around 5 k EUR
Surface: 150 m²
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ICH KANN! Will be presented at Forum Wissenschaftskommunikation, 6.-8. december 2011, Cologne...
ICH KANN! participates at „Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften Nürnberg-Fürth-Erlangen“, saturday 22....