Four Monsters in Dessau
Basic information
Project Title
Full project title
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Project Description
To regain people, which includes the youths and the olds, a sense of belonging, and hopefully mitigate the problem of depopulation in Dessau. The recycled concrete panels from the Plattenbau buildings will be reused to generate landscape architecture, the four kiosks, along the red thread in Dessau according to its future city planning. These kiosks will establish conversations between existing buildings and green fields to provide new opportunities for activities belonging to the citizens.
Geographical Scope
Project Region
Urban or rural issues
Physical or other transformations
EU Programme or fund
Which funds
Description of the project
Summary
Nowadays, Dessau which is a city known for its history of bauhaus is facing a problem of depopulation and losing its original vitality. To regain people, which includes the youths and the olds, a sense of belonging, The recycled concrete panels from the Plattenbau buildings will be reused to generate landscape architecture, the four kiosks, along the red thread in Dessau according to its future city planning. The site of these kiosks are specifically chosen to establish conversations between existing buildings and green fields to provide new opportunities for pop activities belonging to the youth. While the panels itself as a kind of material bearing the city's old memory will still tell the stories belonging to the olds. The panels will be used in the most direct way which can lower the carbon footprint of the process and reflect the idea of sustainability. The four kiosks with their unique forms just look like four little monsters running into the city from an alien world and trying to bring back vitality to Dessau.
Key objectives for sustainability
In this design, the main material is the recycled concrete panels from the old Plattenbau buildings. During both its producing and recycling, concrete as a building material has a larger carbon footprint compared with many other materials. The design uses these concrete panels in one of the most direct ways, which only allows simple cut operations on the panels. It will lower the carbon footprint from material producing, transportation, recycling which usually is grinding down concrete to be part of aggregate in new concrete.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
The kiosks along the red thread are part of the landscape, which merge themselves into the ground. And there is no obvious boundary between landscape and the kiosk as a building, both formally and spatially. What can be interestingly observed from the roof plan is the twisted and scattered facade of the old Plattenbau buildings. But from different angles to observe the elevations, it will be like different drawings from Wassily Kandinsky. The original openings will be turned into skylights in various angles and shapes. And with the metal mesh and polycarbonate panels filled in, it will allow light to come smoothly and have different variations at different times of a day to generate rich spatial experiences. The inner and outer sides of the concrete panels will be largely preserved as part of the memories of the city. You can even find old dweller's traces of life from the interior of the panel. And on the panel's surface, there will be Mondrian’s patterns engraved to increase textile.
Key objectives for inclusion
The kiosks are just generators of social activities for people to gather and build up a sense of belonging to this city. And there is no specific restraint to the programs inside and outside the kiosks, which allows citizens explore and decide those by themselves. In a sense, this project wants to define areas for citizens to fill in what they need.
Physical or other transformations
Innovative character
The idea of landscape architecture is introduced in this project. In which the city shall be reconnected through curtain circulations and landscape nodes on the path. Red thread and Green field along it in Dessau provide a chance for these kiosks to work as catalysts to sponsor new conversation between surroundings and different generations.
