Sheet | Membrane | Porthole
Sheet | Membrane | Porthole
Open Air Presentation
Sheet | Membrane | Porthole
28 Mar 2026 – 28 Feb 2027
Steel House
In the years after World War I, steel was considered a material of modernity. Originating in Great Britain, skeleton, frame, and panel structures employing drywall were developed in Germany. Innovative materials for insulation materials such as peat-based Torfoleum, pumice concrete, and plant fibres were employed – many of them in the Dessau-Törten Housing Estate as well.
The presentation Sheet | Membrane | Porthole at the Steel House shows the example of the experimental building constructed primarily from sheet metal in 1926 in the Dessau-Törten Housing Estate. The Bauhaus master Georg Muche designed it with the architect Richard Paulick with support from the Carl Kästner steel-house factory in Leipzig. The uncompromisingly modern construction of custom profiles offered spatial modules that could be expanded flexibly. But their rust protection and insulation turned out to be inadequate. A renovation has restored the Steel House to its historical appearance.
The Steel House combines Bauhaus visions with their industrial implementation during an innovative construction boom. The presentation shows how Dessau became a centre of experiments with metal, which ended with the rearmament for war after 1933.
Opening:
28 Mar 2026, 11 am in the Bauhaus Building
