CONF 28.05.2021

The Bauhaus Curtain Wall: 1926, 1976, 2026 ­(online, 6 Jun 21)

online / Bauhaus Dessau, 06.06.2021

Ute König

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

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: Under the title "The Bauhaus Curtain Wall: 1926, 1976, 2026 ­– Icon, Monument and Climate Change", 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 Sunday, 6 June – the UNESCO World Heritage Day 2021. The event starts at 10 am.

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: www.bauhaus-dessau.de/en/events/the-curtain-wall-at-the-bauhaus

PROGRAMME - HIGHLIGHTS

10 a.m.
Welcome
- Prof Dr Regina Bittner, Bauhaus Dessau Foundation

10:20 a.m.
Introduction
- Prof Dr Hans-Rudolf Meier, Bauhaus University Weimar

1926 // Origin and Occasion

10:30 a.m.
From Fagus to Bauhaus
- Dr Annemarie Jaeggi, Director Bauhaus Archive, Berlin

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

11:30 a.m.
From the Bauhaus to Lever House, and Beyond
- Prof Dr Joan Ockman, Cornell University

1976 // The Monument

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 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

2026 // The Renovation

4 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 redesign of an iconic glass house. Conversion of the Van Nelle factory 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

Quellennachweis:
CONF: The Bauhaus Curtain Wall: 1926, 1976, 2026 ­(online, 6 Jun 21). In: ArtHist.net, 28.05.2021. Letzter Zugriff 28.03.2024. <https://arthist.net/archive/34220>.

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