A water bar as a sensory experience: scenographic visions for ‘On Water. WaterKnowledge in Berlin’

In cooperation with the Humboldt Laboratory at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, students on the Master’s degree program Bühnenbild_Szenischer Raum developed concepts for a unique water bar in the winter semester of 2024/25 – a sensory experience that will be part of the exhibition On Water. WasserWissen in Berlin. The exhibition will open at the Humboldt Forum in autumn 2025 and invites visitors to discover the complexity of this vital element with all their senses.

As part of an ideas competition led by Professor Kerstin Laube and lecturers Annette Müller and Robert Niemann, the challenge was to design an immersive space that not only thematises water, but makes it tangible. How can water be experienced as an element, as a sound, as a flavour? The water bar should not only be a place of knowledge, but also a place of experience – with plant exhibits, a filter system that transforms Spree water into drinking water and acoustic installations that open up scientific and poetic perspectives on the element.

15 students delved deep into the topic, researched, developed mood boards and mock-ups and received valuable input from scenographer Brigitte Fischer on the design of interactive exhibition elements. After an intensive design phase, they presented their concepts to a jury consisting of scenographer Casper Pichner, exhibition curator Anna-Lisa Dieter and the Humboldt Lab team.

In the end, an extraordinary concept won out: a sensory-performative laboratory that blurs the boundaries between art, science and sensory experience. This innovative project by Carmen Hartmann, Henrike Haber and Johanna Schulze will now be realised in collaboration with the HU team and the exhibition designers until the opening of the exhibition.

Students: Zoe Bertram, Eleni Drazinou, Henrike Haber, Carmen Hartmann, Soffia Heese, Rahma Kilouche, Danijela Matovic, Inés Peláez, Friederike Polzin, Chiara Poma Rinklef, Julie Savery, Michael Schulte-Austum, Johanna Schulze, Kaitlyn Woodburn