Project:
Beigescape

Year:
2019

Location:
Dessau, Germany 

with Philip Ursprung

Dessau has seen much. A symbol of Modernism, the city is identified with the whiteness of Bauhaus architecture. Radical and purist, white stands for the autonomy and exclusivity of architecture. After the second World War, the white turned grey. The factories polluted the city and its environment. Grey roughcast became standard. No wonder that bright colors became suspicious. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the world has changed. Beige, or off white, predominates. Beige is the non-color of globalization: universal, pleasant to the majority, passive aggressive. For the “Radical Bauhaus Festival,” Dessau was decorated with moving flags, which were provisionally freed, taken out of the hands of politics. The flags marked a terrain without claiming it for someone alone. They competed with each other but just for fun. They follow the wind. They showed the way and defined sites. The white-grey-beige flags did not exclude anyone. They wished to celebrate and play. They ornated Dessau. Like all flags, they are vain but also well-tempered and patient. Everybody could use them, even as a picnic-blanket or as a rain shelter. Design connects.

Partner in Charge:
Jürgen Mayer H.

with: Matthias Wermke, Helene Romakin, Berit Seidel

Students: Sungho Park, Janine-Leonie Kübler Buchegger, Xhezide Vlashi, Deyshell Vincent South, Emily Aquilina, Jinyi Oh, Napapat Chantanan, Wichavasin Leelakanok, Diana Kuzina, Sophia Kim, Malte Didrigkeit