The Curtain Wall at the Bauhaus:
1926, 1976, 2026 – Icon,
Monument and Climate Change

// Symposium
Sun, 6 June 2021
online
>> registration required

UNESCO designated the Bauhaus and its sites in Weimar and Dessau as a World Heritage Site on 7 December 1996 and extended it in 2017. The Bauhaus Dessau Foundation is using the 25th anniversary as an opportunity to place one of the landmarks of the Bauhaus at the centre of a major online symposium. Architectural historians, monument conservators, architects and experts in construction technology and climate change will discuss questions of architectural-historical evaluation and the construction challenges posed by climate change, among other things, on the UNESCO World Heritage Day 2021.

The curtain wall of the Bauhaus Building represents the development of a new architecture with the then modern materials steel, glass and concrete. Today, the original from 1926 is replaced by a reconstructed façade from 1976. This façade itself has become an important document for the rediscovery of the Bauhaus in the GDR and for the preservation of historical monuments in the modern era – and which has not escaped unscathed in recent years. The current structural problems of the façade have complex causes that are being analysed in detail. It is already becoming apparent that climate change, with extreme heat in summer and exceptionally heavy rain and storms in winter, is having a lasting impact on the fabric of the building. This is a great challenge for the protection of the historical monument and the preservation of the Bauhaus Building.

The online symposium will be simultaneously translated into English.

Registration

Register here for the online event via Zoom.

Program

10:00 a.m. – Welcome
Prof. Dr. Regina Bittner, Bauhaus Dessau Foundation

10:10 a.m. – Greeting

10:20 am – Introduction
Prof. Dr. Hans-Rudolf Meier, Bauhaus University Weimar


1926 // Origin and Occasion

Moderation: M.Sc. Anne Stengel, Studio for Architecture and Monument Preservation, Dessau

10:30 am – From Fagus to Bauhaus
Dr. Annemarie Jaeggi, Director Bauhaus Archive, Berlin

11:00 a.m. – Glass facades on the Bauhaus building – an overview
Dipl.-Ing. Monika Markgraf, Bauhaus Dessau Foundation

11:30 am – From the Bauhaus to Lever House, and Beyond
Prof. Dr. Joan Ockman, Yale University School of Architecture

12:00 p.m. – D i s c u s s i o n > > from 12:30 p.m. break


1976 // The Monument

Moderation: Prof. Dr. Andreas Schwarting, HTWG Konstanz

1:30 p.m. – "[…] it went as fast as when it was built half a century ago." Notes on the reconstruction of the Dessau Bauhaus building in 1976
Dr. Norbert Korrek, Bauhaus University Weimar

2:00 p.m. – On the state of the art. Postwar aluminum-glass facades today
Prof. Dr. Andreas Putz, TU Munich

2:30 p.m. – Modernity as an object of monument preservation
Dr. Daniela Spiegel, Anhalt University of Applied Sciences, Dessau

3:00 p.m. – D i s c u s s i o n > > from 15:30 Break


2026 // The Renovation

Moderation: Dipl.-Ing. Frank Assmann, Bauhaus Dessau Foundation

4:00 p.m. – The climate change in direct analogy to damage patterns on building-period constructions using the example of the Bauhaus Dessau workshop wing
Dipl.-Ing. Heinfried Stuve, Studio for Architecture and Preservation of Monuments, Dessau

4:30 p.m. – Innovative Neugestaltung eines ikonischen Glashauses Umbau der Van-Nelle-Fabrik in Rotterdam, 1926-31
Prof. Wessel De Jonge, WDJ Architects, Rotterdam

4:50 p.m. – Basic restoration of the New National Gallery Berlin
Dipl.-Ing. Daniel Wendler, David Chipperfield Architects, Berlin

5:10 p.m. – Resilience to climate change impacts for cultural monuments are challenge and opportunity for heritage conservation
Dr. Ulrike Wendland, German National Committee for Monument Protection


Discussion

5:30 p.m. – Résumé – Statements, Strategies and Outlook
Prof. Dr. Hans-Rudolf Meier, Bauhaus University Weimar

6:00 p.m. – End of the event