Das wachsende Haus

Building Bauhaus in Dessau

In summer 2019 Constructlab together with teachers and about 25 students of the University of Kassel are building an unrealized design of the Bauhaus for Dessau – Törten from 1930 – the Growing House of Bauhaus Teacher Ludwig Hilberseimer. More than 80 years after its planning, the recently declared World Heritage Site ensemble of the Laubenganghäuser has been completed as a mixed development.

The new building is serving the neighbors and citizens of Dessau as a place for communal activities as well as presenting an important bauhaus-idea to those who are interested in the bauhaus.
The “growing house” was an important contribution of the Bauhaus to housing construction but remained unrealised in the wake of the economic and political crisis that began in 1929.

The architect and urban planner Ludwig Hilberseimer, teacher at the Bauhaus Dessau from 1929-1933, had dealt intensively with questions of housing construction during his time there. In systematic studies, which he pursued consistently over many years, he developed new urban typologies and house types which, based on functional parameters and free of traditional principles, offer new solutions for urban living.

The project is a re-enactment that the designs and buildings of the Bauhaus under Hannes Meyer were developed, designed and built together with the students.

text by Fachgebiet Architekturtheorie und Entwerfen, Universität Kassel