Future Modernities / Lecture Series: Urbanthinktank_next
In a full Prostor, our guests Hubert Klumpner and Michael Walzcak held a lecture titled “Urbanization, Ecologization, Digitalization” and presented the work of Urbanthinktank_next in South America and their latest project in Sarajevo. The audience was able to see various socially engaged projects based on the need to improve the lives of people in urban areas. An especially interesting aspect of the latest projects is the use of digital technologies, which involves the use of digital twins and algorithms for simulating large-scale transformations. At the end of the presentation, a call for projects from Serbia was announced, which were a part of the exhibition “100 Ideas for the Western Balkans” in February 2025 at the Museum of Applied Arts in Belgrade.
Hubert Klumpner, architect, founding partner of the architecture practice Urbanthinktank_next in Zurich. As co-curator of the “100 Ideas for the Western Balkan: Belgrade Underground” exhibition, he is internationally considered one of the originators of the “Social Turn,” in architecture, a movement that had its breakthrough in 2010 with the MoMA, NY exhibition “Small Scale, Big Change: New Architectures of Social Engagement”, and Architecture and Urban Design Professor at the Swiss Institute of Technology / ETHZurich. Urbanthinktank received numerous awards and prizes such as the Golden Lion of the Venice Architecture Biennale, the Gold Holcim Award Latin America, and the Award for the Best Educational Building from the Chicago Museum of Architecture and Design. Recent built work includes “Fabrica de Cultura”, Carnival School nominated for the MCHAP, and the ONDA Green Corridor Project in Medellin, Colombia.
Michael Walczak, architect, founding partner of Urbanthinktank_next, and co-curator of the “100 Ideas for the Western Balkan: Belgrade Underground” exhibition. He holds a doctoral degree, “Digital Urban Imaginaries”, from the University of Applied Arts Vienna / AT, receiving the state prize from the Austrian Federal Minister of Science and Education. His work is bridging research and practice in the field of architecture and Urban-Design, co-developing „EnerPol“ software for large-scale urban simulations. Currently, he is leading the Urban Transformation Project Sarajevo / Digital Twin, and teaching at ETH Zurich and the University of Sarajevo Faculty of Architecture. During the opening of the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale, he presented “Studio Mobil” as a dialogue platform for architecture, and human and environmental rights at the Global Campus of Human Rights in Venice.
