Bauhaus Earth Awards Fellowship to Baukreisel for Deconstruction and Re-Use Case Study

Bauhaus Earth is pleased to announce the award of its new fellowship to Baukreisel!

As part of the second Bauhaus Earth Fellowship Program (BE-FELLOW), Baukreisel will work with Bauhaus Earth on the case of the controlled deconstruction of the former Max Planck Institute high-rise building in Dortmund. Built in the 1950s on the Rheinlanddamm, the building lost its permit due to a long period of vacancy and needs to be partially deconstructed in order to continue to be used as a building. This fellowship is embedded in Baukreisel’s long-term project on the methodology of “Optimal Reuse Cases” (ORC) for demolished buildings.

The high-rise on the Rheinlanddamm in Dortmund © Baukreisel

“concrete.matters – primary structure laboratory”

This new BE-FELLOW project “concrete.matters – primary structure laboratory” aims to explore the possibilities of re-using the deconstructed primary concrete structure as structural elements in new construction. This will involve theoretical assessments and simulations, as well as the creation of a demonstrator mock-up.

The specific case of the high-rise building in Dortmund will serve as an example to document the history of development and decision-making that led to vacancy, decay, and finally to the threat of demolition. This fellowship will contribute to the current debate about the value of post-war modernist buildings, not only as a store of grey energy and material, but also their role in shaping the identity of the city and its places.

Harvesting materials © Baukreisel

Baukreisel

Baukreisel is an interdisciplinary group of architects, political and social scientists, economists, and lawyers, who – after years of informal activism – founded Baukreisel e.V. as a non-profit organization in Berlin in 2022. The organization is dedicated to maximizing the re-use of building materials through research, teaching, and creative activism – confronting and challenging the material and immaterial damage of current building practices. It advocates a fundamental reorientation of the building industry by re-evaluating and critically questioning existing processes. Baukreisel focuses on research into sustainable and circular construction, environmental protection, especially climate protection, and the development of a critical awareness of the social significance of building culture.