European designers and architects present sustainable ideas in Brussels at the “New European Bauhaus” festival / Article

Creative ideas from such fields as architecture, urban planning, ecology, education, even linguistics and many others are these days looking for their like-minded people and, possibly, investors too in the “New European “Bauhaus” at the festival.

Historically, “Bauhaus” is an artist movement that originated in Germany. It was created by the architect Walter Gropius with the aim of combining various creative industries, creating functional and aesthetic products at the same time.

The “Bauhaus” school existed only for a short time – from 1919 to 1933, when it was closed by the Nazis who came to power, but in this short time the movement left a lasting mark on architecture, design and other fields. Now, on the initiative of the European Commission, “Bauhaus” is reborn as a European-wide festival for creative minds.

“It is a movement that aims to make our environment, our living space, sustainable, beautiful and inclusive at the same time. Thus promoting societal change and greening,” said Salla Sāstamoinen, representative of the European Commission.

The most interesting part of the festival is the exhibition where start-ups, educational institutions and non-governmental organizations from all over Europe present their ideas.

For example, Aalto University experts from Finland offer new, more environmentally friendly recipes for building blocks instead of conventional concrete. And as an innovative solution, non-standard trees – crooked or branched – can also be used in construction.

“By cutting three separate trees in this way and connecting them like Lego, we get a stronger tree log that we can use in the construction as a pillar. This method has already been used, for example, in the Finlandia concert hall in Helsinki,” explained Aalto University representative Susanna Reitala. “This allows for a much more sustainable and efficient use of trees that would otherwise simply become firewood.”

“We are a group of Ukrainian designers who ended up in different countries because of the war, but we want to continue sharing our ideas,” said designer Olga Glinina. “It’s basically a waste or production surplus left over from the production of shoe soles. (..) From this residue we can create many other different things. We can create both large installations and everyday objects.”

It is the first experience of Ukrainian designers to also create costumes that could be used, for example, in performances, added Olga.

Meanwhile, Spanish architect Ingrid Ehalar Gutarres here offered a vision for the residential area she proposes to set up in an abandoned mine in Spain near the town of Estercuela.

“Building adapted to the shape of the crater allows creating both residential areas and parks where people can enjoy nature,” she said. “In the future, we will have to look for new solutions for living space, and such places can provide shelter from both storms and heat waves that are expected in the future.”

The “Bauhaus” exhibition also features several workshops where visitors are invited to participate in the creation of various products. And a lot of different things are created here – from leather wallets to a completely new language.

“Today we have a leather workshop. We have collected a large amount of leather scraps from many factories in France and together with the visitors we make these lovely wallets out of it,” said Kim Hou, a French fashion designer.

“Here in the workshop, we try to turn various words or phrases into visual symbols. As the project grows, the visual dictionary will be added and maybe in the future people will be able to communicate simply using these symbols,” continued the artist from Germany, Júlia Gudehus. “When we talk to artists, we try to create universal symbols for concepts like ‘power’ or ‘future’. The vision is that when you’re communicating with someone who doesn’t fully speak your language, you can use these symbols to get your point across in a way that they can understand.”

But at the end of the festival, the best architectural projects are especially honored. Among the finalists is the object designed by Latvian architects in North Kurzeme – “Pitraga stop”.

Thanks to this, the long-abandoned Pitraga Fish Workshop, built in Soviet times, is gradually being revived as a place of culture, recreation and meeting.

“”The new European “Bauhaus” precisely with this, values ​​are like a tool, how through design, architecture and public involvement we can revive these places,” said Miķelis Putrāms, architect of “Made arhitekti”.

“Yes – it was a great pleasure, because we see a lot of interesting and strong participants here in the finalists. And it is also a great pleasure that we are among them,” the architect of the same company, Linda Krumiņa, echoed him.

And even if this time the main prize went to another project – the urban community gardens in Amsterdam, this year’s “Bauhaus” festival proves that no less creative and exciting ideas are born in Latvia than elsewhere in Europe.