Bauhaus Study Rooms 2026

The Bauhaus Study Rooms 2026 take place in cooperation with the International Summercamp as part of the Real-World Laboratory ZEKIWA Zeitz. They are dedicated to processes of transformation in regions shaped by industrial and post-industrial change. The Academy of the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation invites designers and researchers to follow the entanglements of industrial landscapes, social infrastructures, and the making of living environments.

At the Bauhaus Dessau, design was closely interwoven with the industrial logic of production, aiming to develop prototypes for serial manufacturing by local industry. In this sense, the Bauhaus was deeply implicated in the landscape transformations of the industrial age, the acceleration of resource extraction, and environmental degradation. At the same time, it carried an early awareness of the fragility of the natural foundations of life. Holistic ways of thinking—understanding humans as part of ecosystems and in reciprocal relations with their environments—were integral to both teaching and practice. The Bauhaus thus emerges, in its history and its reception, as a complex constellation of tensions and contradictions.

Against this background, the Bauhaus Study Rooms 2026, titled Irregular Circularities: Foundations, unfold multiple perspectives on Bauhaus legacies and invite participants to experience the historical Bauhaus building in Dessau as a space shaped by layered histories, uses, and relations. Partners and alumni of the Bauhaus Academy share insights from their practices.

For the Summercamp Irregular Circularities, they open the introductory workshops on site in Zeitz. Structured around the thematic clusters Energy, Soil, Air, and Dreams, the sessions engage with the site’s material and environmental fabrics: they reflect on labour relations and infrastructures of care; explore anthropogenic soils as living archives through craft-based and cartographic practices; attune to atmospheric conditions and soundscapes as modes of environmental perception; and work with archives, artefacts, and local narratives through speculative approaches that weave collective memory with situated imaginaries. More information.

With contributions by: Lili Carr, Elena Falomo, Shaiwanti Gupta, Teresa Häußler, Pierre Klein, Anastasiia Noga, Angela Rui, Hannah Schönicke, Johanna Soto, Vivien Tauchmann, Urban Farm Dessau.

Bauhaus Study Rooms
Each year, the Bauhaus Study Rooms bring together graduates, researchers, and designers from the international educational programs of the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation with external guests and partners. These temporary learning spaces offer opportunities for open discussion, the exchange of ideas, and collaboration on projects. Through the contributions of participants, the Study Rooms connect local themes and contexts with the program’s international network and make these engagements accessible to a broader public.

The Bauhaus Study Rooms 2026 are conducted in cooperation with Anhalt University of Applied Sciences and RZZ—Reallabor ZEKIWA, Zeitz.

The Bauhaus Dessau Foundation is a non-profit foundation under public law. It is institutionally funded by the German Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, the State of Saxony-Anhalt and the city of Dessau-Roßlau.