Bauhaus Open Studios

Teaching Models Platform.
International universities visit the Bauhaus Dessau.

The Bauhaus is still regarded as one of the most renowned experimental sites of education in the arts and in design. With the teaching models platform, the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation builds on this pedagogical legacy. At regular intervals it invites international universities, art academies and education initiatives to the historic workshops of the Bauhaus in order to develop and apply contemporary models for education in design.

In the Open Studios, new pedagogical experiments in architecture and design education are ventured every year. Here there is room for knowledge of a different kind, room for speculation, visualisation and fantasy. Without strict guidelines, the invited groups can break out of the subject-specific contents and methods and question the status quo of education, knowledge production and everyday design. In the best sense of the word, undisciplined spaces emerge in which cooperative learning, manual knowledge and joint reflections on new educational visions take centre stage. Here breakouts and failures are permitted. This is where the future is thought of and shaped.

The Bauhaus Open Studios programme is designed to meet the wishes of educators* and students* for more freedom and time for experiments in education and teaching. The themes of the Open Studios oscillate between the past and the present, refer to the pedagogues*women of the historic Bauhaus and take up current debates on the training of designers*.

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A new teaching module on the Bauhaus preliminary course for international universities

From spring 2020, a new teaching module will be offered as part of the Bauhaus Open Studios. Based on the anthology Design Rehearsals. Conversations about Bauhaus Lessons   (2019), Katja Klaus and Philipp Sack, research associates of the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation’s Academy department, have developed a format in which historical models from the preliminary course at the Bauhaus in Dessau are reassessed regarding their relevance for the present.

Using selected examples of student works from the collection of the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, various historical tasks on the topics of "material", "knowledge" and "the human" are analysed and adapted to contemporary conditions by means of speculation. With the preliminary course module at the beginning of their Open Studio, students and teachers will be provided with a tool to sensually comprehend the Bauhaus teachings and historically relate them to current approaches to design education.

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Bauhaus Studios 2020
Habitat – Open Spaces for different knowledge

In 2020, the Open Studios will deal with the annual theme Habitat. How was living as one of the basic needs of people learned, taught and researched at the Bauhaus? What were the distinguishing features of living spaces at that time? What was considered modern and desirable? What demands are made on contemporary spaces for people and nature today in architecture and design in view of resource scarcity, climate change and mass migration? What does the habitat, the hut, the refuge of the future look like?

International universities are welcome to apply for a current annual theme 2020 Habitat.
Please contact Katja Klaus at klaus@bauhaus-dessau.de

Bauhaus Open Studios 2018
Experimental Lessons

Every year, the Open Studios invite universities worldwide to the Bauhaus Dessau to pursue new pedagogical experiments with their classes. In 2018 the Open Studios will address current standards and standardisations in the education sector, in keeping with the annual theme Standards.

The programme of the Bauhaus Open Studios aims to meet the wishes of educators and students for more freedom and time to experiment in education and training. The themes of the Open Studios alternate between past to present, refer to the educators of the historic Bauhaus and at the same time address current debates in design education. How did the Bauhauslers experiment with standards? Which educational standards apply in architecture and design? Which tools and production methods set standards for the designers of today and tomorrow?