Peter Volgger: The New European Bauhaus - A Fatal Affair? In: DAKAM - Eastern Mediterranean Academic Research Center: ARCHTHEO'21. XV. International Theory and History of Architecture Conference Proceedings. November 12, Istanbul - Online. Istanbul: DAKAM Publishing (Eastern Mediterranean Academic Research Center), S. 8 – 18. (*peer reviewed)
Abstract
One hundred years after the Bauhaus was founded in Weimar, we are facing new global challenges: climatechange, the digital revolution, and demographic explosion. These developments go hand in hand with aseemingly limitless economic growth at the expense of our well-being and limited natural resources. The NewEuropean Bauhaus (NEB) initiative announced by European Commission President von der Leyen in January 2021may be viewed as a cultural expression of the ‘European Green Deal’. It is being proposed as an idea that willbring together nature, society and architecture, and is expected to reshape Europe into a cleaner and fairertomorrow. The intention is laudable, but many questions do arise. A comparison of the NEB with the OMA/AMO’sRoadmap 2050 on the basis of Laclau and Mouffe’s theory of hegemony reveals that central narrative chains arerepeated without changing the leading strategy in political discourse. At their heart stands the oxymoron‘ecological modernisation’, which invalidates the recently established thesis of the necessity for a post-growtheconomy. In this context, the New European Bauhaus becomes a magic formula that cannot initiate the promisedenvironmental policy, but de-politicises the ecological and culturalises the political. In any case, in the liaisonbetween architecture and politics, one should read the fine print before signing the marriage contract ...
Keywords
New European Bauhaus, Green Deal, ecological modernisation, culturalisation
Form follows planet — design for a better world
In her Opening Statement at the European Parliament’s Plenary Session, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen strongly advocated a new reform initiative to find a way out of the multiple crises faced by the European Union. Von der Leyen called for architects, artists, students, scientists, engineers and designers ‘tosupport ecological change through a combination of sustainability and aesthetics’ in the next few years. The Commission launched an ambitious initiative — the ’European Green Deal’ — to fund innovative scientific andartistic endeavours seeking to abate climate change and allow Europe to meet its goal of zero net carbonemissions by 2050 (Bason et al 2021). Indeed, there remains no alternative to green change for the survival of Planet Earth, just as there is no alternative to unification for Europe’s political project. To achieve this, von derLeyen is playing a trump card: ‘The European Green Deal must also — and especially — be a new cultural projectfor Europe. [...] And this systemic change needs its own aesthetics — blending design and sustainability’ (von derLeyen 2021). Tackling climate change is this generation’s defining task. By being placed at the heart of the GreenDeal, the ‘New European Bauhaus’ (NEB) is being given cultural expression. What are the intentions behind this?
The traditional Bauhaus is already anchored in the collective imagination as a cultural institution. It implies theideas of awakening, renewal and change, which are so attractive because taking the initiative, assumingresponsibility and creating places where change can happen is all contained in the promise of the Bauhaus. After the Second World War, Robert Schuman called for a broad-based cultural initiative to rebuild Europe. Back then, it was already true that growth and hard economic factors had to be linked up with culture and emotion in orderto reach people. ‘The new European Bauhaus will show that even the necessary can be beautiful’, von der Leyen explained (von der Leyen 2020). Never before had the European Commission placed beauty so high on its policy agenda. The Bauhaus stands for the belief in this beauty, in design for a better world, and the conviction that design is fundamentally political. Nonetheless, we will not be able to design our way out of a climate crisis by simply quoting a historical formula. What we need is a transformation of our ethics of life. Culture can set the stage to bring about these changes, but only if we begin from a recognition of what is wrong with what we have inherited. The Bauhaus propagated the industrialisation of design. With the creation of the International Style, Bauhaus utilitarianism was brought to full fruition. It resulted in an architecture and design that was co-opted by big business and became the corporate language of power. We continue to live with its consequences today (Khalidi and Vázquez 2021). Unsurprisingly, when the NEB was presented to the public, it was not only cultural actors who applauded it, but the entire construction industry, which is looking forward to the subsidy funds promised by the wave of renovation that probably the initiative will primarily entail.
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