(smow) blog compact: Meisterhausfest – New Masters’ Houses for Bauhaus Dessau

Anyone who has ever had the pleasure of strolling with us through Potsdam will know our feelings on recreating exact replicas of long since lost buildings.

Yet much as we get annoyed, dismayed, confused, upset, angry, depressed and downright cross by the unjustifiable, untenable decisions taken in Brandenburg, we do appreciate that often such decisions have to be made.

Such as in Dessau in context of Walter Gropius and László Moholy-Nagy’s Masters’ Houses.

One and a half of four near identical buildings designed by Gropius for the Bauhaus Dessau teaching staff, Gropius and László Moholy-Nagy’s former dwellings were destroyed in an allied war time raid.

And pretty much since then the debate has raged.

Rebuild exactly as they were?

Don’t rebuild and use the space for something else?

Rebuild with reference to the original?

The Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau finally opted for the later, and on the weekend 16th – 18th May will publicly unveil and open the new houses.

Designed by Berlin based architect bureau Bruno Fioretti Marquez the new constructions are clearly based on/inspired by/reminiscent of the originals, without being exact replicas. And in the case of the Gropius Villa, rejects any form of a kitsch “homage”.

What is very much in keeping with the Bauhaus Dessau tradition however is that just as the festivities for the opening of Bauhaus Dessau in 1926 lasted all weekend, so to is the celebration of the new Meisterhäuser being spread over several days.

Festivities begin on Wednesday May 14th with the opening of the exhibition “Dessau 1945: Moderne zerstört” in the Aula of Gropius’s Bauhaus Dessau building: an exhibition documenting the slow, then much more rapid, moral and physical demise of Dessau during the war years as seen through the lens of the French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson.

On Friday May 16th the new houses will be officially opened by German President Gauck, an act which simultaneously launches a weekend of activities and events in and around Dessau.

A particular highlight promise to be a series of discussions with descendants of prominent Bauhäusler on Saturday May 17th, including Hattula Moholy-Nagy, daughter of László; Conrad Feininger, grandson of Lyonel; and Gunta Stölzl’s daughter Monika Stadler. That, and of course the party for Walter Gropius’ 131st birthday on Sunday May 18th.

In addition the Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau are offering free tours of the Bauhaus Meisterhäuser over the complete weekend.

Full details – sadly currently only in German, because obviously no non-German speakers would or could be interested in such a Bauhaus Fest!!! – can be found at www.bauhaus-dessau.de

Meisterhausfest - New Masters' Houses for Bauhaus Dessau