Architect Walter Gropius’ iconic Bauhaus School of Design in the city of Dessau has been recreated on a smaller scale as a motorized bus that will travel through Dessau, Kinshasa, Berlin and Hong Kong to challenge a new generation of designers and thinkers.

Bauhaus Bus Design School

To mark the Bauhaus’ 100th anniversary, the “Wohnmaschine” has been created. A miniature, motorized version of the workshop wing of the Bauhaus building in Dessau, it’s the beginning of a longterm project titled SPINNING TRIANGLES by collective Savvy Contemporary with some help from Tiny House University.

Using the familiar imagery of the famous German design school, Savvy Contemporary questions the dictate of western design teaching, raising questions around heritage, property, urbanity, conviviality, visibilities and invisibilities. The Bauhaus Bus will be traveling through Dessau, Kinshasa, Berlin and Hong Kong.

“We recognize the Bauhaus not only as a solution, but also as a problem,” says the collective.

“The Bauhaus aimed to educate a new generation of designers, makers and thinkers that would face the challenges of their ‘now’. We will create a school of design that has what it takes to tackle the challenges of our ‘now’.”

The moving bus hides a 15 sqm apartment, complete with shower, electricity, a stove, bookshelves, desks and more. It is open to the public where the Bauhaus Bus can be used to host debates, workshops and exhibitions.

The moving truck is part of the Spinning Triangles long term project curated by design curator Elsa Westreicher and founder Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, dedicated to the Bauhaus centenary celebrations with chapters in Dessau, Kinhasa, Berlin and Hong Kong.

Savvy Contemporary, whose mission is to “create spaces for epistemological diversity and articulate knowledges as a means of de-colonizing the singularity of knowledge”. It tries to revive different perspectives on knowledge, celebrating epistemic systems from Africa and the African diaspora, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, but also Europe and North America through alternative means such as body, music, storytelling, food/eating, dance, theatre, and performance.

“These are our chosen means to swim against the Enlightenment conception of reason,” it states.

Spinning Triangles – Full Credits
Project: Spinning Triangles: Ignition of a school of design.
Concept: The machine is an idea by ​​Van Bo Le-Mentzel, implemented by Raphael Behr (technical director), both of Savvy Contemporary.
Production: Noam Goldstein and FH Holztechnik Hildesheim (Head: Joachim Frost).
In collaboration with: Tinyhouse University, Hochschule Anhalt, Goethe-Institut Kinshasa and Para Site Hong Kong
Project team: Jorinde Splettstößer, Abhishek Nilamber, Raisa Galofre, Lili Somogyi, Arlette Ndakoze
Curated by: Elsa Westreicher and Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung
Funded by: The Bauhaus heute Fund of the German Federal Cultural Foundation. The machine is funded by the IKEA Foundation.
Year: 2019

information and images courtesy of the following:
• Domus
• Savvy Contemporary on Facebook
• Tiny House University on Facebook