DIA News 03.2018

Competition Success – Visitor Centre for Bauhaus Memorial and World Heritage Site »Bundesschule Bernau«

For the visitor centre on the plot of the Bauhaus Memorial to the Federal School of Bernau bei Berlin (UNESCO World Heritage Site), the jury, chaired by Prof. Barbara Holzer, gave one of the two recognitions to DIA – Dittel Architekten. Our concept thus prevailed against 11 of a total of 15 submissions.

The former Federal School of Bernau bei Berlin was declared a World Heritage Site in July 2017. It was built by the Bauhaus director Hannes Meyer and the Bauhaus teacher Hans Wittwer from 1928 to 1930, and used as an educational facility from the very start.

Competition task: The 100th anniversary of the founding of the Bauhaus will take place in 2019. A visitor centre is to be located on the plot of the Federal School of Bernau for this occasion. »The objective of the competition is the development of an innovative, identity-defining and sustainable visitor centre. The building should be subordinate to the World Heritage Site / memorial ensemble, while asserting itself as a high-quality urban architectural construction.« (Source: competitionline)

Exterior view: Entrance to visitor centre

We are pleased that our interpretation of the Bauhaus principles was recognised. The jury particularly highlighted our varied exhibition concept. For those interested, below is a summary of our thoughts. The full concept can be viewed here: Competitions DIA.

The heterogeneous urban environment of the competition area has no clear alignment or reference edges; the site is very limited. In this setting our single-storey building represents a plain, quiet cube that appears reserved compared with the expressive edges of the staggered architectural monument. The light, two-sided roof projection of the building is clearly oriented towards the architectural monument and marks the street entrance.

Ground floor plan

We deliberately avoided any structural, design or material reference to the architectural monument. Instead our fundamental design approach is to identify attitudes and principles of dealing with material, space and the plain construction, and to apply these analogously to contemporary architecture. These principles are applied in the four areas of construction and room layout, materials and sustainability, building technology and route guidance.