5. International Bauhaus Award 2008

HOUSING SHORTAGES ||  5. INTERNATIONAL BAUHAUS AWARD 2008 || The minimum subsistence level housing of today

With the 5th Bauhaus Award, the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation continues its research into “Updating Modernism”. In doing so, a central topic of the historical Bauhaus is taken up and put into the context of a contemporary discourse: solutions are sought for the subsistencelevel housing of today. The same title was chosen for the second conference held by CIAM (or International Congress of Modern Architecture) in Frankfurt am Main in 1929. Here, new models and prototypes for small apartments were presented and discussed by, among others, the Bauhaus directors Walter Gropius and Hannes Meyer. Almost eight decades later, this historical Bauhaus theme is more pertinent than ever. Societies worldwide are confronted, in the social, ecological and cultural respect, with the problem of housing shortage. The 5th International Bauhaus Award will look at modern standards in the field of housing and examine these in the light of the current parameters of housing shortage. Creative designs or concepts and models or scenarios for housing policy are sought for the social strata, which live on the subsistence minimum and are therefore unable to establish themselves on the housing market. The urban ways of life associated with poverty lead to existential housing shortages, which, given the ecological conditions of climate change, will only become more extreme. How is the ever-critical relationship between poverty and the housing shortage resolved? Individuals or groups may tender entries of work developed in the last five years – design outlines, plans, research projects, films, concepts, etc. Participants may include designers, artists and academics who are under 40 years of age by the project completion date. The first prize is 6,000 Euro, the second 4,000 Euro and the third 2,000 Euro.

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