International design competition for Bauhaus Museum Dessau

The Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, in association with City of Dessau-Roßlau, has launched an international open competition for a new Bauhaus Museum in Germany.

The new museum will make the foundation’s collection of more than 40,000 objects publicly accessible for the first time. The collection is the second largest after the Bauhaus Archive museum in Berlin. The museum is planned to open in 2019 in celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of the Bauhaus school.

The two-stage competition includes an anonymous initial phase, which closes 13 April 2015. A thirteen-member jury will then select thirty architecture practices to further develop their designs in the second phase. Winners will be announced in September 2015.

A total prize pool of 113,000 euros is on offer, including 37,000 euros for first prize, 25,000, 17,000 and 11,000 euros for second, third and fourth prizes respectively, and an additional 23,000 euros for honourable mentions.

The Bauhaus building in Dessau by Walter Gropius, 1925/1926.

The Bauhaus building in Dessau by Walter Gropius, 1925/1926.

Image: Bauhaus Dessau Foundation

Founded by Walter Gropius in 1919, the Bauhaus school is one of the most important art, architecture and design schools of the twentieth century. It operated from three German cities between the two world wars: Weimar (1919–1925), Dessau (1925–1932) and Berlin (1932–1933) until it was forced to close under Nazi government. Under the direction of Walter Gropius and architects including Mies van der Rohe, it had an instrumental influence on the Modern movement.

The new museum will be sited within City Park, on land provided by the City of Dessau-Roßlau. Its location will link Dessau’s city centre more closely with the original network of Bauhaus buildings. “With the international architectural competition, we are now seeking a contemporary, innovative design for a Bauhaus museum of the twenty-first century that will incorporate the Bauhaus heritage and simultaneously address the city,” said Claudia Perren, Director of the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation.

City Park in Dessau, the proposed site for the new Bauhaus Museum.

City Park in Dessau, the proposed site for the new Bauhaus Museum.

Image: Bauhaus Dessau Foundation

The Bauhaus Museum Dessau is the second international competition to be held by the Bauhaus organizations. In 2012 an international competition for the Bauhaus Museum Weimar received more than five hundred submissions, but no first prize was awarded. Third place-getters Heike Hanada and Benedict Tonon, both based in Berlin, were later awarded the commission to design the museum, which is due for completion in late 2015. A new building is also planned for the Bauhaus Archive Museum in Berlin, to be completed in time for the centenary of the Bauhaus.

For the full competition brief and submission requirements, click here.

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