Follow the Surfaces
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Master European Architecture Workshop 5 - Dessau Duration: 19.04.2017 - 05.05.2017 Location: Germany Professor: Dagmar Jäger/Rhys Martin Student:
Joachim Daetz
Title:
Follow the Surfaces
Follow the Surfaces Spatial Strategies
Content
Workshop Topics ..............................................................................07 Bauhaus in Dessau..............................................................................09 Architectour Berlin...........................................................................13 Analysing Mauer Museum..................................................................15 Industry in Dessau..............................................................................17 Research...........................................................................................19 My Project.......................................................................................25 Path Development..............................................................................29 Architectour Berlin...........................................................................33 Space Analysis..................................................................................35 Following Surfaces..........................................................................47
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Workshop Topic
The workshop “Spatial Strategies” aims to investigate selected artistic, urban and architectural topics with a local, but superordinate European relevance like transformation of modern heritage or industrial sites out of function. The tracing of the historical, partly destroyed representations and related sites of the Bauhaus period until 1933 will be connected in a “Public Space Exhibition” to bridge the modern architecture, historical designs, performances and concepts of the Bauhaus interventions to the new buildings like the Museum 2019, activities of the city and the contemporary artistic projects of the Bauhaus foundation nowadays. During two weeks, the international group of students will deepen a concept what has been developed of the international Reiseuni_ Class-03, 2016: An urban network of interventions for knowledge transfer revealing the modern heritage in Dessau. The tracing of the historical, partly destroyed representations and related sites of the Bauhaus period until 1933 will be connected in a “Public Space Exhibition” to bridge the modern architecture, historical designs, performances and concepts of the Bauhaus interventions to the new buildings like the Museum 2019, activities of the city and the contemporary artistic projects of the Bauhaus foundation nowadays. During two weeks, the international group of students will deepen a concept what has been developed of the international Reiseuni_ Class-03, 2016: An urban network of interventions for knowledge transfer revealing the modern heritage in Dessau. Four tasks: [1] Mapping and analysis of previous results, lectures, site visits [2] Selection of sites, connection with the network, pathway concept [3] Design of spatial concepts of selected sites (scale between 1:200/1:5) [4] Individual working mock-ups and visualization in drawings and graphical representations
Introduction
(source: Workshop Program - Porf. Dr.-Ing. Dagmar Jäger)
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Bauhaus in Dessau
A brief history summary about what happened in Dessau. Walter Gropius is one of the key figures of Bauhaus. In 1911, together with Adolf Meyer, he already designed houses that contained many elements of the much later Bauhausperiod, like the curtain wall of windows. The beginning of the 20th century was a time of change, new electric trains with no smoke coming out of the chimneys were invented, but it was also the time of flying and the time of photography. All these, more or less new inventions at the time were revolutionary. Pictures taken out of a plane, showing Paris from above, had been published leaving the public breathless. Seeing their roofs from above was something none of them had seen before. Gropius new that and decided to use flat roofs in his designs. Today, not only flat roofs, are part of the 5th facade regulation. Some of the roofs are even under UNESCO-Protection. In 1916 Gropius went into WWI with the feeling of great competition, huge self-confidence and being able to win, similar characteristics as many successful architect did have. Coming back from the war the community feeling grew. Especially the Bauhäusler liked to gather the ideas of every individual person to create the best possible outcome.
“The Bauhaus combined elements of both fine arts and design education. The curriculum commenced with a preliminary course that immersed the students, who came from a diverse range of social and educational backgrounds, in the study of materials, color theory, and formal relationships in preparation for more specialized studies. This
Bauhaus
1923 was an important year for the change of the Bauhaus. Forms and quantitatives in their ideology changed and the Bauhaus became more and more structured to the Bauhaus we know today. In 1925 the Bauhaus decided to move away from its “Birthplace” Weimar. Weimar had too much cultural heritage already. Places were too historic, therefore Weimar did not offer many opportunities for the Bauhaus to live their modernistic lifestyle to its fullest. The Bauhaus had many choices to choose from, regarding the new moving place. Cities around Germany were very interested to host the Bauhaus with their great and modernistic ideology. Dessau fought the hardest and made many appealing offers to the Bauhaus. Dessau offered the Bauhaus to build their own school and modern houses while supporting them financially. At the same time Dessau had already a great variety of industry, that the Bauhaus thought could be of benefit to them. Thus, the Bauhaus decided to move to Dessau in 1925. The designing and building of the school went very quickly and took only one year. The teaching concept of the Bauhaus was a completely new way of teaching architecture.
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preliminary course was often taught by visual artists, including Paul Klee (1987.455.16), Vasily Kandinsky (1866–1944), and Josef Albers (59.160), among others. Following their immersion in Bauhaus theory, students entered specialized workshops, which included metalworking, cabinetmaking, weaving, pottery, typography, and wall painting. Although Gropius’ initial aim was a unification of the arts through craft, aspects of this approach proved financially impractical. While maintaining the emphasis on craft, he repositioned the goals of the Bauhaus in 1923, stressing the importance of designing for mass production. It was at this time that the school adopted the slogan ‘Art into Industry.’” (source: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/bauh/hd_bauh.htm)
The big idea in the 1920’s was to create communal spaces, everything you need for living compact at one place. Also the Bauhaus followed that Ideology,and all the Bauhäusler were working on that, not at last Hannes Meyer with his open gallery housing complexes in DessauTörten. Gropius idea was it also to simplify the process of construction to make living more affordable. The settlement in Dessau-Törten is a good example of industrial housing. Once the prefabricated walls arrived to the place it took the workers only 8 hours to complete a house of type 2. Which was revolutionary at that time. To proof that concrete was cheaper, faster and more efficient he also build 10 houses of type 2 with bricks and wood windows, which were more expensive and took longer to build. In 1925 also the famous Junkers Werke changed their production method to a more modern one, which was adopted from the FORD production industry. Entire Dessau was on an uprise. The Industry was booming, which was just perfect for the Bauhaus ideology. The Bauhäusler asked for permission to use some of their industrial machineries to create new furniture and every day life objects. The famous Kandinsky Chair, by Marcel Breuer, was a reuslt of a cooperation with the Junkers Werke. He used their steel bending tables to create this chair. Many cooperations with the Bauhaus and local industries formed over the years which resulted in great products. The Bauhaus era in Dessau was very productive and fruitful for everyone, unfortunately the era of the Nazis was not far from 1925. So in 1932 the NPD, which just got elected in Dessau, did not like the modern movement of the Bauhaus. It was just no German enough. The roofs were flat, but they had to be pitched and many more problems. Resulting the end of the Bauhaus in Dessau, the Masters fled the country to continue their ideology of modern lifestyle somewhere else.
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Walter Gropius: Scheme for construction of teaching at the Bauhaus in 1922
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Berlin
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Analysing Mauer Museum Berlin
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1 Junkers Werke 2 Tischlerwekstatt Karl&Friedrich BÜkenheide 3 Sugar Factory 4 Kameradschaftshaus der Zuckerraffinerie 5 Volksblatt Gebäude - Printing Company 6 Tuchversandhaus F.A. Seiler - Fabric Company 7 Stadtsparkasse - Destroyed 8 Stadtarchiv - Destroyed 9 Lesehalle
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Industry in Dessau
Industry
The main industries in Dessau are located along side the train tracks which are leading to Leipzig and Berlin. Along the tracks the Sugar Factory, the Junker Werke and ‘Karl und Heinrich Bökenheide’ placed their production factories. In Dessau itself where more than 84 small and big companies cooperating with the Bauhaus. From the famous ‘Junkers Werke’ to a small carpenter company with the Name ‘Karl und Heinrich Bökenheide’. Both sides were profiting immensely from the cooperation. The most know cooperation is of course the one with the ‘Junkers Werke’, where Marcel Breuer developed his steel tube chair: Kandinsky Chair. He used the steel bending tables that the Junkers Werke needed for their heaters production. The ever so growing Industry in Dessau created the perfect playground for the Bauhäusler. The vision of a modern city in Dessau was foreseeable, compared to Weimar. The Bauhaus could finally combine art with technology successfully. The Sugar Factory, along many others, had a successful business. They created ‘Zyklon B’ a gas for controlling insect pests. Following that great history of successful business, was a sad period. In 1942, the Nazis found that company to be perfect for their production of the gas for their mass murmurings in the concentration camps in Auschwitz. But that was not the only connection that we can draw with the Bauhaus. A Bauhäusler with the name of Fritz Ertl, became an important character in the history of the Nazis. He became the architect of Auschwitz. Ertl, graduated from the Bauhaus in 1934 and went back to Austria to take over this fathers business. To then start his career in the military of the Nazis. The Bauhaus era was great in itself, but the great hype was only short lived. The great cooperations with businesses that the Bauhaus had were overruled in history with dark and sad stories. Even the Bauhaus buildings were taken over by the Nazis to be used as Headquarters and so on. They even changed the exteriors of the buildings to make them look more German. Until today many layers of the city Dessau are visible: - 1920’s Bauhaus and Industrial boom - 1930’s Nazi Regime - DDR remains - mass fabrication - Park greeneries - that stayed the same throughout the years - Today - time of the foundation and reconstruction, tracing
Junkers Werke 1920’s
Technical Museum Junkers Today
Tischlerwekstatt Karl&Heinrich Bökenheide
Wera Meyer 1920’s
Sugar Factory 1920’s
Sugar Factory Today
Grandchild Today
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Research
1 Junkers Werke The Junkers Werke had 4 main factories spread out in the West of Dessau. The Flugzeugwerk(Airplane Factory), the Motorenbau (Engine Factory), the Appereilsbau (Gadget Factory) and the Kaloriferwerk (Radiator Factory). Cooperation with the Bauhaus: Marcel Breuer was using their steel bending tables to design his steel furniture. Also a cooperation with Gropius and the steelhouse is known.
Location Today: Kühnauer Str. 161a, 06846 Dessau
2 Tischlerwekstatt Karl&Friedrich Bökenheide Karl Bökenheide came to Dessau, after an initiative from Marcel Breuer, to work at the joinery of Bernhard Stadler. In 1925 he became the master of the production. He taught material knowledge and realised the ideas of custom made furniture from Marcel Breuer. From 1928 he worked together with Breuers follower Josef Albers. Both of Bökenheides sons obtained their education from the Bauhaus. One of his sons, Heinrich, joined his fathers joinery. Cooperation with the Bauhaus: Working closely together with Breuer on some new furniture and teaching material knowledge to students from the Bauhaus. Location Today: Elisabethstraße 16B, 06847 Dessau-Roßlau
3 Sugar Factory In the end of the 19th century the Sugar Factory succeeded in the production of Cyanide, a gas for insect pest control. In 1924 the production of Zyklon B, a toxic gas, began to control insect pests in mills, boats and warehouses. Unfortunately, in 1942 the Nazis used this Zyklon B for their mass murmurings in concentration camps like Auschwitz. The links between the Bauhaus and the sugar factory is not as obvious as in the other examples. Fritz Ertl, a graduate from the Bauhaus in 1931, began his career as an architect first in his fathers business in LInz (Austria), after being a lead architect of the concentration camps of Auschwitz.
Research
Location Today: An der Fine 6, 06842 Dessau-Roßlau
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Kameradschaftshaus der Zuckerraffinerie 1930’s
Kameradschaftshaus der Zuckerraffinerie Today
Volksblatt Gebäude 1933
former Volksblatt Druckerei Today
Versandhaus F.A. Seiler 1922
Versandhaus F.A. Seiler 2004, before deconstruction
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4 Kameradschaftshaus der Zuckerraffinerie The Kameradschaftshaus (Camaraderie) was planed by Kurt Elster in 1935/1936 as a communal place for the Nazis. He designed a swimming pool and a banquet hall. The designs were modern with conservative elements. It burned out in 2001. The building stood of course very close to the sugar factory, which is the link between the buildings and the Bauhaus itself. Location Today: Johann-Meier-Straße 12, 06842 Dessau-Roßlau Location 1930: Quellendorfer Straße
5 Volksblatt Gebäude - Printing Company The Volksblatt Building, established in 1890, announced a competition for redesigning their building in 1929. By that time the paper was already printing a lot of Bauhaus materials, due to their modernistic support to the Bauhaus movement. None of the submissions, fully convinced the jury, but because of the clear functional structure of the design, Carl Fieger (coworker of Gropius) won the first price. The second price went to Dipl-. Ing. Langfeld and the third price went to Leopold Fischer in cooperation with Fritz Bunse. In 1931 the Nazis heavily destroyed the building and sent the chief editor Gerhart Seger to the concentration camp Oranienburg, where he was able to flee from, to write one of the most international perceived credential stories. Location Today: Askanische Straße 107, 06842 Dessau-Roßlau
6 Tuchversandhaus F.A. Seiler - Fabric Company 1925, in the relocation period of the Bauhaus working spaces were limited. Amongst others, the shipping house F.A. Seiler provided workshop spaces for the Bauhäusler. Since Seiler himself believed in modern production methods the Bauhäusler were able to use state of the art machineries. The workshop areas were placed in the southern wing of the factory along the Rennstraße. Because the building was heavily bombed during the war it was partly reconstructed but had to be torn down eventually in 2007 to make space for the new shopping mall of today. Location Today: Rennstraße, 06842 Dessau-Roßlau
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Bombing 1945
Stadtsparkasse Today
Stadtarchiv 1920’s
Stadtarchiv Today
former Philanthropinum
Anhaltische LandesbĂźcherei Today
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7 Stadtsparkasse - Destroyed The city banks conference hall was furbished by the Bauhaus but was destroyed by bombs in the 1940’s. Alfred Arndt designed the concept for the conference hall in 1930. Location Today: Postraße 8, 06842 Dessau-Roßlau
8 Stadtarchiv - Destroyed The city archive moved into their current location, in the Lange Gasse, only in 1991. It already played an important role in the Bauhaus period though. Back than the archive already collected materials from the Bauhaus. Unfortunately a fire in 1945 destroyed most of the documentation from the archived Bauhaus period. This lead to the fact that one of the most important architectural periods were poorly documented in the post war and DDR period. Location Today: Lange Gasse 22, 06842 Dessau-Roßlau
9 Lesehalle - former Philantropium Alfred Arndt also designed and furbished the city reading hall, which is closely located to the city bank building. He used the steel tube furniture from Breuer and also installed the lightening fixtures. This building survived the bombings from the 1940’s. Location Today: Zerbster Straße 33,06842 Dessau-Roßlau
First Pathway
First Pathway
Second Pathway
Second Pathway
Second Pathway
Tracing Pathway
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My Project
I started my project by looking at the last years results of the workshop. Carolina, from Portugal, also investigated the topic of industry in Dessau. From her materials I had an interesting base for my project. Based on the information from Carolina I mapped my first pathway. At the second pathway I stated to trace my own pathway through Dessau, with stations, that I considered important: 1 Junkers Werke 2 Tischlerwekstatt Karl&Friedrich Bökenheide 3 Sugar Factory 4 Kameradschaftshaus der Zuckerraffinerie 5 Volksblatt Gebäude - Printing Company 6 Tuchversandhaus F.A. Seiler - Fabric Company 7 Stadtsparkasse - Destroyed 8 Stadtarchiv - Destroyed 9 Lesehalle These stops around my pathway were chosen with the help of the book: ‘Die unsichtbare Bauhausstadt - Eine Spurensuche in Dessau’ written by Andreas Butter. After mapping these stops out and connecting them to a pathway the development of my pathway started. The first change came after the feedback with Dr. Werner Möller and Porf. Dr.-Ing. Dagmar Jäger. I learned that the Unemployment Office, designed by Walter Gropius, also had great importance to the development of the industry in Dessau. So without a doubt this building had to be part of the pathways. Other that the Unemplyment office the Stadtsparkasse, Stadtarchiv, Lesehalle and the Volksblatt Gebäude had to be taken out of the path, since they do not have enough importance to my pathway, due to the fact that they are too complicated to figure out in such a short time frame. They had been partially distroyed and it is unclear to me what exactly happened there in cooperation with the Bauhaus. I stated to consider the different historic layers of Dessau. For my project of two weeks it is enough to compare the layer of the Bauhaus and the industrial boom (together with some of the dark history of the Nazis) with the layer of today. An approach of dealing with this could be to compare the different figure grounds to find out which buildings, that I am interested in, are still existing? Questions to be answered for the progress of my pathway
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Important for the process for my exhibition design is to understand the spatial urban qualities of my pathway. How does it change during the pathways? What do you feel where? Why? Are the streets wide or narrow, plastered or straight, earth or concrete? What information can I portrait where? What kind of knowledge transfer to I offer? Media, Text or both? How do you approach the buildings? Abstract don’t invent Do I place a model of Urban situations? If so, where? Do I need an icon for my exhibition? A landmark? Do the pathways work, coming from either side? What are the differences of an exhibition inside and outside? - Materiality? - Possible objects shown? - Presentations (Beamer/Media)? - Concentration? Focus? What is the link between all the projects? Choice of materiality? Different Knowledge Transfers Physical knowledge, showing in elements what has been there Informative knowledge, showing information about the background information to understand the context Reconstructive knowledge, reconstructing elements that have been destroyed (probably in a different material than the original and more abstract)
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1 Junkers Werke 2 Tischlerwekstatt Karl&Friedrich Bรถkenheide 3 Sugar Factory 4 Kameradschaftshaus der Zuckerraffinerie 5 Unemployment Center 6 Tuchversandhaus F.A. Seiler - Fabric Company
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Path Development
Due to the limited time available, it is important to not get too many opinion from too many sources. I focused on the book: “Die unischtbare Bauhausstadt - Eine Spurensuche in Dessau” (The invisible Bauhauscity Tracing tracks in Dessau) by Andreas Butter. Based on this book I decided to create my path throughout some of the industry connections with the Bauhaus. My current path starts at the Bauhaus building and ends up at the new museum, which will be opened in 2019. With stations along the way at the: 1 Junkers Werke 2 Tischlerwekstatt Karl&Friedrich Bökenheide 3 Sugar Factory 4 Kameradschaftshaus der Zuckerraffinerie 5 Unemployment Center 6 Tuchversandhaus F.A. Seiler - Fabric Company Some of these buildings have been under heavy construction or have been completely destroyed over the years, since it was very hard for Bauhaus related buildings to survive through first the Nazi period, than the WWII period and then the DDR period. The Junkers werke are today concentrated only in one building, the others have been destroyed. The joinery has maybe the most happy ending story of all the building since it is still the same as it was back then. Even the grandson of Bökenheide still runs the joinery today. The sugar factory and the Kammeradschaftshaus remain more or less the same, the unemployment center also survived throughout the years, although with a different function today. The biggest loss along my path is the Fabric Company F.A. Seiler. It survived all of those mentioned periods with heavy damages but was finally torn down in 2007 to make space for the new shopping mall that is there today. Since my path is more or less clear to me now, I need to investigate the different spacial urban experiences that occur in front of each of these buildings. How do I approach these big variety of buildings? What do I feel when I walk along and around these buildings? How and where can I make interventions of knowledge-transfer? To me the most intriguing of all these places is the Elisabethstraße, where the joinery is still placed today. When I enter that area I immediately feel thrown back into the 1920 of industrial revolution. Huge brick factories around me, cobble on the streets and pathways, chimneys and a certain rawness to the place fascinates me. Everything almost seems like it was back in the 1920’s. The area seems so authentic.
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I find that the other areas are much harder to be interpreted that easily. The fabric company is gone completely, so the knowledge transfer on that level is going to be hard, since there is already a huge new shopping mall on the site. No space for reconstruction of anything that could have happened there. Maybe if I could trace the rooms of the workshop space of the Bauhäusler I could trace it to a shop in the mall to have some sort of intervention there? But how will the owner of the shop like it if I place some sort of intervention into his highly paid shopping space? Would it be good advertising for him? Depending on the kind of shop it could also enlargen his selling profit. The sugar factory is in ruins, so its an unsafe space to enter. Also a part of the old factory area is still in use. So what is visitable and what is not? Important is the connection with the Kammeradschaftshaus. It was the link between the working people and the factories. It was their area where they could relax in between breaks. The Junkerswerke itself is already a museum, so it also must be treated differently. People go there with the intention of learning something. Other than the Tischlerei BÜkenheide, its a private space, people could also easily pass by. So where does the knowledge transfer begin in that scenario? The unemployment center is also an important link, which is physically connected to the Bauhaus. It provided jobs between the inhabitants and the industries. Gropius designed this center which is the obvious link between the Bauhaus and the industry, but like I said it also created the much more important link between the factory seeking for new workers to expand their production. Which of course goes back to the growth and expansion of the Bauhaus movement concerning the industrial growth of their ideology.
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Berlin
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Space Analysis
The next step was to frame my 6 stops along the path into bigger scales. Understanding the place, materiality and space. Each frame should contain the area that I find important for the better understanding for that specific building on site. It should also contain the place of my intervention and the first point to catch sight of a building along the path. Inside this frame further analysis will take place. Materials used around, surfaces that are more or less as it used to be in 1920’s and the landmark of the site, e.g. a chimney. I did not realise how important this kind of mapping was going to be for me. Seeing the actual space available to work with, within all these building masses was a huge acquisition to my architectural know-how. Reading the space in this way opened my eyes to knew possibilities. Each frame of the urban space in accompanied with a sketch of the urban situation around it.
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Following Surfaces
I started my work with the help of the material of Carolina, from last years workshop. I also took the book “Die unsichtbare Bauhausstadt Eine Spurensuche in Dessau� by Andreas Butter as the only reference to my work. All of my work is simply based on the knowledge I gained from the book. After analysing Carolinas path, reading the book and making first drafts of my own pathway I started to analyse the urban spatial qualities that my chosen buildings had to offer. Six main buildings around Dessau became part of my path, from which I wanted to detail four a bit more. Reading boards, surface boards, a chimney as viewpoint, photos on building walls and mock ups of past urban situations became part of my elements for the knowledge transfer.
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European Architecture 11 Workshops at 6 Universities +1 Master’s Thesis The two-year training is structured around a series of 8 project workshops + 1 reflective workshops at 6 different higher education institutions: Urban planning as well as architectural and artistic issues – open questions virulent to the cities & regions of the participating universities – will be examined at all scales; multidimensional planning processes, design and communication strategies constitute integral parts of a democratic culture of building to transform existing buildings and urban quarters with regard to ecological sustainability. Problems will be resolved in the context of cultural heritage and pre-existing structures. The postgraduate programme is a unique and innovative approach to international architectural education: it combines the idea of the classical artist journey with the intensive, interdisciplinary and project-oriented workshop tradition and teamwork, focusing on acute topics generating architectural knowledge and dialogue across greater Europe between cities as Tallinn, Lisbon, Helsinki, Dessau, Ljubljana, Innsbruck and Haifa.