International Summercamp 2026
Deadline: February 19, 2026
Zeitz 06712
Germany
About the International Summercamp
The International Summercamp 2026 takes place May 29–June 7 and is organized by the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation as part of the Real-World Laboratory ZEKIWA Zeitz (RZZ), the initiative of a multidisciplinary consortium that also includes Anhalt University of Applied Sciences, Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design, Martin-Luther-University, Forum Rathenau, and the city of Zeitz. Situated on the site of the former ZEKIWA pram factory in Zeitz, the RZZ functions as a future-oriented laboratory for climate-neutral and circular experiments in construction, living, and working—according to the criteria of the New European Bauhaus (“beautiful—sustainable—together”). The city of Zeitz itself is in Saxony-Anhalt and part of the Central German lignite mining region. As a result of ongoing deindustrialization and the gradual phase-out of fossil fuels, the region is paradigmatically facing structural change.
Under the title Irregular Circularities, the ten-day Summercamp will bring together different positions from various academics, architects, artists, designers, local actors, and students to collectively debate and practice visions for such regions in transition. Through a series of hands-on workshops, experimental learning platforms, and keynote lectures, a set of multiscale possibilities will be explored to gain local, resource-efficient, and sustainable impulses for the former ZEKIWA area, the Zeitz locality, and beyond.
Thematic clusters
Structured around four thematic clusters soil, energy, air, and dreams, the Summercamp invites international students and early career practitioners from the fields of art, architecture, design, and related disciplines to collectively explore circularity and future transformation through the following projects:
I. Soil: “Brick Factory”
A practice-oriented project that understands soil as a distinctive resource and combines material research, craftsmanship, and spatial experimentation. Throughout the Summercamp, a temporary "Brick Factory" will be established in which production, use, and disposal are equivalent phases and make circular thinking spatially, materially, and performatively tangible.
II. Energy: “New (Mobile) Working Environments”
An experimental, practice-oriented project that focuses on how energy (whether human, technical, or digital) can be generated, used, and transformed, and what forms of work result from this. This project invites participants to explore notions of contemporary work environments through performative and installative living and working experiments, or through scenarios in which human movement, interaction, or creative practice generate energy.
III. Air: “Exchange Market”
An experimental, practice-oriented project that understands air as an indicator and symbol of change and circulation: an invisible force that enables flow, exchange, movement, and dependencies between people, things, and spaces. This project focuses on sharing and exchanging as a circular principle and invites participants to simulate an exchange platform as an installative and performative structure where value is negotiated by use and need.
IV. Dreams: “Cartographies of Dreams”
An artistic, speculative project that understands dreams and desires as productive forces for designing possible future scenarios, visions, and alternative models of coexistence. By understanding dreams as imaginative raw material, the fourth project invites participants to artistically excavate, formulate, and translate dreams and wishes into a collective cartography of possibilities.
Call for applications
During the Summercamp, participants will be provided workspaces, temporary accommodation, and a meal allowance, but must cover their own travel to and from Zeitz. Participants are expected to be present on site for the entire duration of the Summercamp to contribute to the collective work on one of the four projects presented above. The camp will be conducted in English and German, as language barriers can be part of the adventure.
To apply, please send a short biography (150 words), up to five images of recent projects/assignments, and a letter of interest (350 words) in at least one (preferably two) of the four above-mentioned projects to Daniel Springer by February 19, 2026: summercamp [at] bauhaus-dessau.de. Please also direct any questions to this email.
All application documents should be submitted as a single PDF file (size should not exceed 10MB). Selected candidates will be notified by February 27, 2026. The full program will be published in March 2026.
