An die Substanz: Bauhaus Dessau 100

Steel, glass, concrete: When the Bauhaus Building opened in Dessau in 1926, these materials were celebrated as harbingers of a new industrial modernity. A century later, precisely these materials have become a problem—evidence of the depletion of resources and ecological degradation whose consequences we are facing today. Marking the centenary Bauhaus Dessau 100, this book offers a kaleidoscopic view of the material substance of modernity: What did innovation in materials mean in the 1920s? What does it mean today, in an age of circular building and climate crisis? Essays, interviews, visual essays, and artistic contributions interweave historical and contemporary perspectives on materials and matter. This book is intended for specialist readers and anyone interested in the future of architecture, construction, and design. It asks what remains of modernity’s promises when we get down to its very core.