4th International Bauhaus Award 2006
»Updating Modernism«
On 25th March 2006, the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation confered the International Bauhaus Award for the fourth time. The theme of this year’s competition was “Updating Modernism” using the Bauhaus as a World Cultural Heritage site as an example.
The Foundation was interested in forward-looking ideas for the former Gropius Director’s House in the Masters’ Houses Ensemble in Dessau. Solutions are sought that refer clearly to the site, to urban development in Dessau and to the Bauhaus and that, at the same time, take up and develop the basic values of Modernism. The Award is directed at designers, artists and academics, irrespective of discipline or profession.
The Masters’ Houses in Dessau are, like the Bauhaus Building, aesthetic objects and, at the same time, documents of the historic Bauhaus ideas. Designed by Walter Gropius in 1926, the Masters’ Houses Ensemble originally consisted of the Director’s House and three pairs of semidetached houses. During air raids in World War II, the Moholy-Nagy semi-detached house was completely destroyed, as was most of the Director’s House. Here, in 1956, a gable-roofed house was built on the original foundations.
Following the completion of restoration work on the five preserved Masters’ Houses in 2002, the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation initiated a debate on approaches to the former Director’s House. Beyond the alternatives presented by the “Reconstruction of Modernism” and the “Conservation” of historical development on the site lies the third alternative of “Updating Modernism”.
»Award«
First price
The first prize went to Stephan Weber and Michél Flasskamp, architecture students from Münster for their entry “EMMER moves out”. The jury’s decision was unanimous.
The jury’s reasons for its decision: The intelligent and convincingly presented design succeeds in recreating the ensemble of the Masters’ Houses without reconstructing Walter Gropius’ Director’s House and without denying the marks of history in the form of the Emmer House.
The entry exposes and makes visible the base, as the surviving and therefore authentic part of the former Director’s House, lending it a new significance and function.
As a space for holding events, the area between the relocated Emmer House and the basement level of the Gropius building becomes an event catalyst to activate the area. In doing so, the project makes an important contribution to updating modernism which it sees as a process.
- presentation of the project [pdf/29,9M]
Second prize
The jury awarded the second prize to Jelle Post and Paul Toornend, architects from Amsterdam, for their entry “Untitled Space”. This decision was also unanimous.
The jury’s reasons for its decision: The strength of this project lies predominantly in the conceptional sphere. By creating virtual spaces put in concrete form in simulated images, this concept makes a fresh attempt to come to terms with the respective place. Without actually building physically, the project makes the site the focus of attention, sharpening our perception through reflections. The project regards architecture as media-reflected, becoming a virtual medium.
In contrast to the entry awarded first prize, this concept takes the project of modernism on to the contemporary level of media-shaped perception.
- description of the project [pdf/532,2K]
- press release Award winner [pdf/43,6 KB]
The 4th Bauhaus Award was generously supported by:
Sparkasse Dessau, HOCHTIEF Aktiengesellschaft, WEKO Büromöbel Wessel GmbH, Hattinger Wohnstätten e.G., Dr. Andreas Schlanstein (Freundeskreis) und Vetter Möbelbau und Inneneinrichtung GmbH
