New European Bauhaus

beautiful | sustainable | together 

The New European Bauhaus is a creative and interdisciplinary initiative that connects the European Green Deal to our experiences and the spaces we live in. It calls on all of us to imagine and build together a sustainable and inclusive future. BWA Wrocław has been its partner since 2021. 

The assumptions of the New European Bauhaus state that beautiful are the places, practices, and experiences that are: enriching – as they inspire us through art and culture and respond to our needs that go beyond functionality, sustainable – as they stay in harmony with nature, the environment and our planet, and finally inclusive – as they encourage a dialogue between cultures, disciplines, genders and ages. 

BWA Wrocław, along with other organizations from Poland and Europe, supports this initiative through a number of activities related to both the institution’s programme as well as its future infrastructure. In 2021, BWA Wrocław organized the “Regeneration Field” exhibition at the Dizajn BWA Wrocław gallery which ran under the auspices of the New European Bauhaus. The exhibition explored the phenomenon of the local irrigation fields which represent natural areas with remarkable regenerative potential, despite the fact that they were originally created by human activity. Apart from the exhibition, the audience could take part in an accompanying series of meetings and walks entitled the “Culture of Regeneration”. The leitmotif of the exhibition was constituted by three major issues: resilience design (systemic immunity), continuum (Breslau-Wrocław) and solutions based on nature. In addition, the project also recalled the scenario-thinking method and its potential for design disciplines, and addressed the role of sound in recreating endangered habitats. As a result, we were able to reflect on whether there was anything beyond sustainable development. Can one imagine scenarios in which human activity has a positive impact on the environment? 

Last year – together with the Office of the European Parliament in Wrocław and the European Commission in Wrocław – BWA Wrocław also organized a debate entitled “With a View on the New European Bauhaus”. During this debate, Hubert Trammer – the architect, teacher and participant of the Round Table of the New European Bauhaus, Katarzyna Roj – the art curator of the Dizajn BWA Wrocław gallery and Leszek Gaś – the director of the European Parliament Office in Wrocław, talked, among others, about the idea of world correcting social inequalities, the ecological development of cities and villages, design oriented not only towards human users, development that respects planetary boundaries, and discussed whether modernism is our antiquity and what lessons we should learn from it. 

On May 30-31, 2022, BWA Wrocław will host – again together with the European Parliament Office in Wrocław and the European Commission in Wrocław – Polish partners of the New European Bauhaus at the conference. The purpose of this meeting is to get to know each other and share experiences. It is also meant to enable us to develop strategies for participation in this initiative, as well as recommendations for its formula and scope in the future.  

As part of the conference, the debate “With a View on the New European Bauhaus #2”, which will take place on 30 May at 18:30 in the House of Europe, is open to the public. The debate will be held in Polish. 

If you would like to know more about the New European Bauhaus, please visit the following link. 

Contact:
Berenika Nikodemska, b.nikodemska@bwa.wroc.pl, phone: +48 666 746 506