5th International Bauhaus Award 2008

Housing Shortages – The minimum subsistence level housing of today

With the 5th Bauhaus Award, the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation continued its research into “Updating Modernism”. In doing so, a central topic of the historical Bauhaus is taken up and put into the context of a contemporary discourse: solutions are sought for the subsistencelevel housing of today.

The same title was chosen for the second conference held by CIAM (or International Congress of Modern Architecture) in Frankfurt am Main in 1929. Here, new models and prototypes for small apartments were presented and discussed by, among others, the Bauhaus directors Walter Gropius and Hannes Meyer. Almost eight decades later, this historical Bauhaus theme is more pertinent than ever. Societies worldwide are confronted, in the social, ecological and cultural respect, with the problem of housing shortage.

The 5th International Bauhaus Award looked at modern standards in the field of housing and examined these in the light of the current parameters of housing shortage. Creative designs or concepts and models or scenarios for housing policy were sought for the social strata, which live on the subsistence minimum and are therefore unable to establish themselves on the housing market. The urban ways of life associated with poverty lead to existential housing shortages, which, given the ecological conditions of climate change, will only become more extreme. How is the ever-critical relationship between poverty and the housing shortage resolved?

Presentation of prizes

The Bauhaus Dessau Foundation conferred the 5th Bauhaus Award on 21st June. This year, solutions were sought on the theme of housing shortages for “Housing for the minimum subsistence level of today”.

The jury awarded not only a first, second and third prize, but also two commendations, in recognition of the wide range of entries tendered. The first prize is € 6,000, the second € 4,000, the third € 2,000, and winners of the certificates each received € 500.