On Typology and Climate
October 22–23, 2026
Dessau-Roßlau 06846
Germany
HS Anhalt and TH Rosenheim present Unstable Models, an international symposium bringing together practitioners and theorists to discuss how climatic conditions shape type across history, design research, and practice.
Initiation and curation: Bilyana Asenova, Leonhard Clemens / Co-curation: Federico Coricelli
Abstract
Architecture faces the ubiquitous challenge of climate change. Yet while architects have begun to shift their focus from formal inquiries to the eco-performative qualities of buildings, typological knowledge itself has remained largely unchallenged: individual answers accumulate without consolidating into shared and transmissible form.
As practice often precedes theory and offers a growing body of built and conceptualised evidence, the symposium Unstable Models seeks to revisit built and unbuilt projects, as well as concepts of climate-adaptive architecture, as models from which strategic frameworks can be derived. The model then serves as an empirical instrument to challenge architectural conventions under the pressure of climate.
We consider these models unstable for their emergence from fluctuating climatic and social conditions to which they respond. A stable framework of knowledge arises only through the close examination and comparison of these models and their evaluation as potential prototypes. What proves itself is carried forward and consolidates into shared, transmissible form until the next revision unsettles it again.
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus Dessau, we invite architects and practitioners from related fields to present their work as models – experimental, exemplary, and unsettled – and to ask under what conditions the unstable arrangement of today might become the stable type of tomorrow.
Participants
Daniel Barber, TU Eindhoven
Regina Bittner, Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau
Tiago P. Borges, EPFL Lausanne
Benoît Burquel, AgwA / ULB Brussels
Alessandro Gess, l’AUC / HCU Hamburg
Sam Jacoby, RCA London
Lydia Kallipoliti, ANACycle / Columbia GSAPP
Andreas Lechner, Studio Andreas Lechner / TU Graz
Hilary Sample, MOS / Columbia GSAPP
Tatjana Schneider, MOULD / TU Braunschweig
Tobias Schrammek, Supertype Group / TU Berlin
Felix Thumm, Transsolar
Jonas Tratz, FAKT / HS Anhalt
Ariane Wiegner, Kirchberger & Wiegner Rohde / HS Anhalt
Vesta Nele Zareh, HS Anhalt
Program
Thursday October 22, 2026
5pm Introduction
Vesta Nele Zareh, HS Anhalt, Bilyana Asenova, UNAS Studio / HS Anhalt, Leonhard Clemens, LNCL / TH Rosenheim, Regina Bittner, Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau
5:20pm Lectures
Tatjana Schneider, MOULD / TU Braunschweig, Tiago P. Borges, EPFL Lausanne
6pm Keynote lecture
Daniel Barber, TU Eindhoven
6:45pm Roundtable
Friday October 23, 2026
10am Introduction
Bilyana Asenova, UNAS Studio / HS Anhalt, Leonhard Clemens, LNCL / TH Rosenheim, Federico Coricelli, cnvoffice / HS Anhalt.
10:30am Morning panel—Stable/Unstable Models
Andreas Lechner, Studio Andreas Lechner / TU Graz, Tobias Schrammek, Supertype Group / TU Berlin, Lydia Kallipoliti, ANACycle / Columbia GSAPP, Sam Jacoby, RCA London. Moderated by: Tiago P. Borges, EPFL Lausanne. Bilyana Asenova, UNAS Studio / HS Anhalt
12:30pm Lunch break
2pm Intermezzo
Felix Thumm, Transsolar. Moderated by: Ariane Wiegner, Kirchberger & Wiegner Rohde / HS Anhalt.
2:20pm Afternoon Panel: Current Models
Benoît Burquel, AgwA / ULB Brussels, Anne Femmer, summacumfemmer / HFBK Hamburg, Alessandro Gess, l’AUC / HCU Hamburg. Anna Puigjaner, MAIO / ETH Zurich, Jonas Tratz, FAKT / HS Anhalt. Moderated by: Leonhard Clemens, LNCL / TH Rosenheim, Bilyana Asenova, UNAS Studio / HS Anhalt.
4:30 Coffee break
5:00 Keynote lecture
Hilary Sample, MOS / Columbia GSAPP
6pm Synthesis: Unstable Models
7pm Apéro and closing party
The symposium is supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) through its “International Scientific Events” funding program.
