K LAB develops inde­pen­dent research projects at national and inter­na­tional levels, working in close collab­o­ra­tion with the ISR depart­ments as well as with other insti­tutes, orga­ni­za­tions and urban actors. The focus of its inter- and trans­dis­ci­pli­nary research lies on the commu­ni­ca­tion of and on the urban, its visu­al­iza­tions, repre­sen­ta­tions and medi­a­tions. We under­stand commu­ni­ca­tion not as a unidi­rec­tional presen­ta­tion of infor­ma­tion, but rather as a multi­di­rec­tional dialogue – i.e. exchange, medi­a­tion, and re-nego­ti­a­tion of our under­stand­ings of the urban and its spaces. Commu­ni­ca­tion as a two-footed prac­tice, pivoting on PRODUC­TION & PRESEN­TA­TION of content and media on one side (i.e. the orga­ni­za­tion and visu­al­iza­tion of infor­ma­tion); and on the other, the INTER­AC­TION of stake­holders and EXCHANGE of infor­ma­tion for the purpose of construc­tive delib­er­a­tion.

A core area of K LAB is the produc­tion of maps – both for its own research activ­i­ties and to support research and teaching tasks at the ISR, as well as for external clients. Maps and mapping play a central role in our projects, not as ends in itself but as tools to help navi­gating contem­po­rary urban complex­i­ties. The linking of different quan­ti­ta­tive and qual­i­ta­tive data (e.g. social, economic, legal, histor­ical, design), their local­iza­tion in space and time, and their presen­ta­tion and dissem­i­na­tion by means of different tools and methods are central aspects of our work. In addi­tion to its (Geo-) Visu­al­iza­tion-Work­shop, K LAB main­tains a collec­tion of analogue and digital maps at the ISR-Archive – including histor­ical Berlin maps and different Geodata for use in research and teaching.

K LAB contributes to debates on the urban through the orga­ni­za­tion of conver­sa­tions and events, as well as through the dissem­i­na­tion and publi­ca­tion of research results of the ISR using various commu­ni­ca­tion chan­nels. One of these is the Publi­ca­tions Office at K LAB which – in coop­er­a­tion with the TU Berlin central library – offers two print formats: ‘Work­books’ and ‘Special Publi­ca­tions’, and one online format: ‘ISR Impulse Online’ under Open Access license (Creative Commons BY 3.0 DE). On top, we publish the bianual news-pamphlet ‘ereignIS­Reich’ and are respon­sible for the Web- und Social-Media-Pres­ences of the ISR.

Last but not least, K LAB is the Coor­di­na­tion Unit that helps the different ISR depart­ments orga­nize their inte­gra­tive theory-prac­tice project studios, a core element in the ISR degree programs in Urban and Regional Plan­ning and Urban Design. In addi­tion, K LAB covers a great part of the methods teaching at ISR; including methods and tools for both research and design.