Rebuilding the masters' houses for Bauhaus teachers in Dessau

Part of the school Bauhaus campus in Dessau also included master houses for the teachers. The director's house stood alone in a pine forest, while the remaining three duplexes for the teachers had identical floor plans and had to fit into smaller plots. However, during World War II, Gropius's house, along with half of the house for László Moholy-Nagy, was destroyed. While the remaining duplexes were reconstructed and restored to their original state fifteen years ago, long discussions ensued regarding the fate of the demolished houses, whether they should be identical replicas or should instead represent a contemporary statement. The newly opened master houses by the Berlin studio runo Fioretti Marquez are seen as too restrained by one group of critics and conversely radical by another. In restoring László Moholy-Nagy's duplex, the neighboring master houses could be copied, but there was not enough documentation for Gropius's house. The authors of the winning project primarily aimed for a "urban renewal" of the campus. They sought to find an optimal balance between the original appearance and contemporary use for the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation. From a distance, visitors might get a sense of what the entire complex of master houses once looked like, but upon closer inspection, everyone can clearly recognize that it is distinctly a contemporary building. The architects themselves wanted to "clearly distinguish between the original and the restored through the choice of materials, texture, and drastic reduction of details."
Both houses are cast from insulating concrete. The glazing of the window openings aligns framelessly with the facade. The internal layout differs diametrically from the original state. Some of the rooms have heights of over three stories, which corresponds to their future use for hosting exhibitions, concerts, lectures, and expanding the documentation center.

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