Roberto González: Bauhaus Museum Dessau – It’s a Look into the Future

The Bauhaus Museum Dessau was built by Addenda Architects, a young architect’s office from Barcelona. At the end of 2015, the design was selected as the winner from 831 submissions in an open international competition. Architect Roberto González talks about the basic concept of the museum and new approach that he and his colleagues have taken when designing  the Bauhaus Museum Dessau. 

What is the design concept for the Bauhaus Museum Dessau? 

Our basic concept for the museum was to create a large, flexible space so that exhibitions and workshops can take place without feeling restricted in any way by the architecture. We obviously had to integrate this idea with the requirements for the museum: It had to provide an area of 1,500 square metres for the collection, protect the exhibits from direct sunlight and offer ideal climatic conditions. 

This is how we came up with the idea for the Black Box, a closed concrete cube that floats above the ground. At almost 100 metres in length and 18 metres in width, the Black Box is supported by two staircases, which are 50 metres apart. It doesn’t have any supporting columns. 

So the Black Box hovers five metres above visitors’ heads. It is always there, always present – like the legacy of the historic Bauhaus. To utilise and experience the building, visitors don’t necessarily have to go through the exhibition of historical objects. On the ground floor, the Open Stage offers space for contemporary artistic perspectives. It’s a look into the future – and this future is open, flexible and welcoming to everyone. 

Of course we couldn’t just leave the space below the Black Box open. We are in Northern Europe where it rains a lot and gets very cold. So we built a kind of winter coat made of glass. This glass facade protects the building. But it also created additional space for exhibitions, events and offices on the ground floor. 

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