Former BNP Paribas REIM CEO Barbara Knoflach has launched a 'habitable sculpture' project, dubbed tinyBE, to help foster sustainable micro-living in cities.
Knoflach has teamed up with Frankfurt-based art advisor Cornelia Saalfrank for an exhibition in Frankfurt of eight sculptures, commissioned from a group of international artists, that provide mobile and sustainable living spaces measuring no more than 30 m2. The sculptures will also provide short-term experimental living space for visitors in a secured area.
Barbara Knoflach, co-founder of tinyBE, said: 'Our cities are becoming increasingly crowded and unaffordable to live as young and old leave more peripheral economic regions in search of work, culture and experience in the main urban centres.
'Add to this potent mix forced migrations from war and poverty and we face one of the greatest challenges of our time in creating urban landscapes that can accommodate these huge demands in a sustainable and liveable way.
'tinyBE aims to make new creative ideas about micro-living more accessible to a wider public and to inspire urban planners, developers, architects and other real estate professionals to develop alternatives to more traditional technocratic approaches and to incorporate them in developments comprising a mix of other functions such as retail, offices, hotels and conferences.'
The tinyBE exhibition will run from May to August 2021 in the Metzlerpark in Frankfurt, with satellite displays in Darmstadt and Wiesbaden. Parallel to the exhibition an academic forum will take place comprising debates and an art education programme.
Following the first edition of tinyBE in Frankfurt in 2021, the exhibition will be continued as an ongoing series with the aim to realise a new presentation approximately every two to three years with different artists in other cities.
