Material Talk: Concrete
Material Talk: Concrete
Where exactly did the timber used for formwork, support structures, and scaffolding in the Bauhaus buildings in Dessau come from? What types of wood were used? And what does wood as a material reveal about the origins and history of the Bauhaus buildings? We’ll explore these and other questions together with Hans-Carsten Kühne, head of the Building Materials Technology Division at the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing in Berlin, and Hauke Köhn, deputy director of the Dessau Forest Management Office at the Saxony-Anhalt State Forestry Center.
The focus is on concrete construction from about 100 years ago—examined from three different, complementary perspectives: materials research, forestry, and classical construction research. How can the relationship between the construction and forestry industries in the 1920s be described? What traces have the materials used left behind, and how can scientific analyses reveal information that remains hidden to the naked eye? What can material analyses tell us about the design, construction, and usage history of a historic building—and what are the limitations of such investigations? This discussion offers a unique insight into the material history of the Bauhaus buildings—and thus also into the economic, technical, and craftsmanship conditions of the era in which they were built.
The discussion will be moderated by Dorothea Roos and Peter Biewer, curators of the exhibition section “Concrete.”
Language: German
Exhibition
Glass | Concrete | Metal
28 Mar 2026 – 10 Oct 2027
Mon – Sun, 10 am – 5 pm (Mar – Oct)
Tue – Sun, 10 am – 5 pm (Nov – Feb)
Tue – Sun, 10 am – 5 pm (Nov – Feb)
Bauhaus Building