Berlin Techno Booth

Since Berlin is the undisputed home of techno music in Europe – and possibly throughout the world – the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been felt very hard by the city’s techno music community. With clubs and raves shut down to limit the spread of the coronavirus, the Berlin Techno Booth competition is a light-hearted attempt to bring back techno music by introducing dance booths to the streets of Berlin.

For this competition, participants are given complete creative control, with the only limitation being the size of the booth, which must not exceed 4m2. Perhaps socially – distanced street raves will be a new trend, or at least a temporary fix while Berlin waits for the return of the real thing.

Berlin is the undisputed home of techno music in Europe, and probably in the whole world. The distinctive energetic music flourished in the underground scene of a newly-reunified Berlin at the start of the 1990s. Originally held in abandoned factories, hangars, and underground stations, illegal raves that celebrated life and freedom and were fuelled by techno music soon became legitimate clubs that still operate to this day.

Techno music clubs and raves have felt the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, with venues quickly being shut down to limit the spread of the coronavirus. The Berlin Techno Booth competition is a light-hearted initiative to help cheer up the tired and frustrated techno music community by introducing dance cabins to the streets of Berlin.

For this competition, participants are being asked to design a temporary structure that could accommodate a single dancer, allowing them to dance and enjoy Berlin’s best techno music, all while socially distancing. The only constraint is that the structure needs to have a maximum area of 4 m².

While there are no specific requirements for design submissions, participants are encouraged to be as creative as possible, challenging the typical ideas of housing, design, and the community at large. Those projects that manage to merge blue sky thinking with an element of practicality will likely be the most successful.

Competition is open to all. No professional qualification is required. Design proposals can be developed individually or by teams (4 team members maximum). Correspondence with organizers must be conducted in English; All information submitted by participants must be in English.