This exhibition in the former Zeeck department store highlights cross-disciplinary working methods and practical examples that combine aesthetic with sustainable design. It explores alternative modes of building and is designed to be CO2-neutral, taking the form of a “model exhibition” – both showcase and functional space at once.
The former Zeeck department store in downtown Dessau is the point of departure for the exhibition Algae | Debris | CO2. Opened in 1908 and expanded in the 1920, the building is an outstanding example of modernist department-store architecture, and its material layers tell a story of the city lasting more than a century.
The exhibition makes this history visible: Within the framework of the exhibition, so-called time windows at the stairs, floors, pillars, and ceiling provide views of the material history of the building. What seems unchanged at first glance reveals on closer inspection a sensitive approach to the historical building fabric. Flaking plaster is removed, holes are filled, whatever can be repaired is repaired or renovated – for example, old windowpanes or the panels of the Hetaflex aluminium façade, which were removed when the façade was renovated in the spring of 2025. Additions such as the ceiling lighting system and repairs of the floor covering in the 1980s follow the principles of reusability.
Algae | Debris | CO2 is a “model exhibition” for sustainable design intended to produce as little CO2 as possible. It is a space for display, use, and events all at once. It presents cross-disciplinary approaches to research and collaborative work in which human and non-human actors, economies, technologies, and material streams come together. The exhibition centres on alternatives to the canon of materials of (classical) Modernism: for example, clay, mycelia, algae, and geopolymer concrete based on clay, basalt, flax, and recycled materials. For example, the InMyco project at the Anhalt University of Applied Sciences is developing innovative mycelia materials, while waste materials from regional agriculture, forestry, and industry are used as substrates.
Tradespeople, small and larger companies, researchers, designers, and artists were closely together here. Building is understood to mean a joint process that is sparing with material resources and that needs to be updated constantly because it is subject to change. During the exhibition, model construction sites offer insight into these processes and workshops invite others to participate.
Opening:
28 Mar 2026, 11 am in the Bauhaus Building
Curator’s tour:
29 Mar 2026, 11 am
Curator tour with Barbara Steiner:
10 Apr / 5 June / 10 July / 28 Aug 26, 5 pm
Curator tour with Juliane Aleithe:
24 Apr / 22 May / 19 June / 14 Aug / 18 Sept 2026, 5 pm
Finissage:
27 Sept 2026, 2–4 pm
