Art as Mediator between Science and the City

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Dessau has long been associated with the rise of the Bauhaus movement and a strong advocate of reshaping the modern society of its time. However, it has since fallen into a state of self-effacement and graceful decline.

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The dissolution and closure of the Bauhaus in 1933 saw the end of a mode of learning which embraced art and technology as parts of a whole.  This has led to the disassociation between art and science with an ever-widening chasm forming between both. 

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A solution is required to tackle this conundrum at its core, the education system. A new typological blueprint based on the previously established ideology of the Bauhaus - the combining of artistic development and scientific investigation - can operate both at the macro scale by linking the New Bauhaus Campus with the infrastructure of Dessau while at the micro-scale, induce a state of thought, reflection and a shift in perception for the town residents and foreign visitors.

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With the intent of making the city of Dessau becoming contingent on the intervention, the acknowledgment of the city’s vision and geological location must first be undertaken. With an abundance of rivers adjacent to the plot, the project aligns itself to the vision of Dessau by utilizing its natural resources to aid it in its goal of projecting its image as a sustainable city. The intervention should thus be firstly understood as a water treatment facility whereby residual byproducts of its machines and processes allow for the conception of art and innovation.

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In response to the exclusivity of the former Bauhaus whose doors were open only to the elite and the skilled, the intervention seeks to challenge this pedagogy by positing art as a spectacle for all to enjoy that gives rise to ts secondary role - a return to publicness. Occurring in the form of a public waterscape, a paradigm shift in the relationship between art and science is proposed. Through the provision of opportunities for outsiders to engage with and observe the artisans and their craft made possible by the process of water purification, the relationship between art and science is drawn via the programmatic investigation between the overlapping processes of water purification and artistic creation.