
Staff Training Visit Maribor
April 17, 2024
Summer School Skopje
June 12, 2024Sbraus
Staff Training Visit Dessau
Location
HOCHSCHULE ANHALT
Duration
23rd - 24th May 2024
Action Type
Staff Training Visit
The staff training in Dessau kicked off on the 23rd of March 2024, with a focus on the topic of sustainability. Following a warm welcome coffee session, an updated section of the agenda was decided on the spot, with the majority agreeing to visit a revitalized mining area from Dessau. The Workshop I: Sustainability as Guideline and Idea Exchange I: Form follows Climate was replaced by the visit to Ferropolis. Located in Gräfenhainichen, a city between Wittenberg and Dessau, Germany. It is a disused open-cast mine Golpa Nord at Gremminer See and shows the transformation of a lignite mining site into a tourist destination. Known as the City of Iron, today, Ferropolis is an open-air museum with the centerpiece of former giant industrial machines. The impromptu change of location of Ferropolis has given the staff a unique experience and impression of how an abandoned mining site can be revitalized into a museum, industrial monument, event area, and theme park all at the same time. Following lunch, the visit was continued with an architectural tour of the Bauhaus state in Dessau, with buildings such as the former Employment Office by Walter Gropius in 1929 that was refurbished and reused as the office for public safety and regulations, and a visit to the new Bauhaus Museum Dessau by Addenda Architects in 2019. The visit was later extended to Kornhaus, a restaurant built in 1929 by Carl Fieger for tourists and cyclists along the Elbe River in Dessau.
On the second day, the training started with Workshop II: Tiny Project, Big Impacts on Sustainability, where a short presentation was given to discuss the elements that define a good urban space, with a special focus on protection, comfort and amenities. Four practical implications were included in the elements, with providing an urban space close to people, diverse green space, improving the comfort of public spaces and timely maintenance of each public space. These elements are included and to be added as a guideline or reference point for students. Several outstanding student projects from various elective themes by Prof. Peter Ruge with a focus on sustainability were introduced, to spark creativity among students. The project centralizes around target users, the climate of each location and what the students aim to solve in a specific region.
After the workshop, the staff followed the planned guided tour to Bauhaus Building and Masters’ Houses. The Bauhaus Building was built by Walter Gropius in 1926 and was to be used as a new school building with individual functions of workshop, living, school, etc. The Masters’ Houses was built by the same architect, Walter Gropius in 1926, and was conceived as the living accommodation for the Bauhaus Masters. Today, the houses are named after their first residents. After the guided tour, the staff training trip ended with a discussion, where each participant expressed comments and reviews that could be implemented in the following summer school. The visit to the Bauhaus-related building in Dessau has shown how we can seek connections between buildings, the city and the landscapes, to achieve perfect harmony if each were mutually dependent and permeated to the other. The evolution of functional and aesthetic architecture from experiments could be defined as the future, where the encouragement of student projects with testing and evaluating should be practiced. The remodeling of Dessau through demolition after World War II has turned concentrated settlements into a lusher, calmer landscape with neighborhoods functioning as city islands. It is important to keep the city a pleasant place to live while remaining as a space for proactive experiments with design and urban form. It is crucial to understand that the revitalization of abandoned urban space should not be just patches of green, but how the green overflowing landscape can be part of a region, creating a unique identity for each section.