During the last State of Union, in October 2020, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, addressed the idea of a new Bauhaus movement in the European Parliament as part of the recovery plan for post-crisis Europe:
“I want NextGenerationEU to kickstart a European renovation wave and make our Union a leader in the circular economy.
But this is not just an environmental or economic project: it needs to be a new cultural project for Europe. Each movement has its own appearance. And we need to give our systemic change its own distinct aesthetic – to match style with sustainability.
This is why we will set up a new European Bauhaus – a co-creation space where architects, artists, students, engineers, designers work together to make that happen.”
The New European Bauhaus announced by President von der Leyen responds to the objectives of the European Green Deal with a design centered on the human being and sustainability. Unlike the original Bauhaus, the new movement is more than rethinking our buildings, our aesthetics and architecture, it is a multidisciplinary project that will affect the environment, the economy, culture (where all the arts are included), science, education and digital innovation.
Furthermore, the European Green Deal is pushing the industry towards digitalization, another point for The New European Bauhaus players to explore. This is the opportunity to combine good design and technological innovation with the goal of a bright, beautiful and sustainable future.
The new European Bauhaus movement now emerges as a bridge between science and art, technology and culture. Like the first Bauhaus did.
In the 1920’s, the Bauhaus movement brought to European society a new approach into arts and technology with the development of a new industrial design never seen before. Names like Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, Josef and Annie Albers changed the aesthetics perception at the time. With the Bauhaus Movement, Europeans learned to appreciate more functional shapes, beautifully displayed and perfectly assembled within their environment.
The New European Bauhaus is also an aesthetic movement, pursuing a true integration of design and arts to development and industrialization, “making tangible the comfort and attractiveness of sustainable living,” as President von der Leyen said at the press statement.
ThePowerHouse team took part in the Bureau of European Design Associations: BEDA Design Forum, together with the New European Bauhaus Task force of the European Commission, to get insights on how the strategy will look.
We’re looking forward to the launch of the New Digital Platform , presented by Ruth Reichstein, Press and Media Advisor at European Parliament.
Reichstein presented the program with great enthusiasm:
“It is not the same Bauhaus as it was 100 years ago. There is a new mindset. New protagonists.”
Furthermore, it was explained it is an environmental, economic, and cultural project for Europe based on education and will open new opportunities to future generations. The legacy can be as huge and meaningful as the Bauhaus still is.
The future is, in fact, still to be drawn, but there are already some clues that indicate that this new project will revolutionize future ways of thinking and behaving, with an optimistic sense of hope for the upcoming European generations.
So, the main features about this New European Bauhaus are based on the communal spirit of collective learning propagated by Walter Gropius 100 years ago to understand “How can we live better together?”. This innovative initiative is about uniting and bringing together people from different areas and backgrounds to open up and co-create a new future, a new way of thinking, and to go full hands-on in building the new and innovative Europe.
But where is the New European Bauhaus going to act and what will it do?
We can tell you some clues from some areas or future stakeholders that will inevitably be associated with this new and renewed project. They will essentially be in the areas of Digital, Next Generation, Architecture, Culture, Political Structures, Science, Education (of course), Investors and Innovation.
The New European Bauhaus is essentially different and is ready to make a difference in the most varied areas! It is not just about education, but about building a different European way of thinking. It is about building and developing new mindsets. Only then is it possible to start the path to the future centered on the development of humans and how design can lead to innovation.
And these new mindsets and protagonists will give The New European Bauhaus a new proposition and generate new ways of thinking in a more inclusive, multidisciplinary and more user-focused way.
It is a project focused on the future. And how do we get to the future?
Through humans and our wonderful and powerful potential! The New European Bauhaus is essentially focused and centered on humans, inclusion, innovation and bringing together different professionals, from different themes and areas, in order to generate a discussion to build and design the path to the true and real future.
Here at ThePowerHouse, we deeply believe in education as the source and strength for social, cultural and economic renovation. We’re educators and enthusiasts of projects such as The New European Bauhaus because we believe in and work every day for this future, co-created, multidisciplinary and multicultural. We’re the NextGenerationEU of researchers and makers. But also, we’re the NextGenerationEU who’ve proudly chosen Europe as our home.
So let’s build the Bauhaus of the 21st century together, and implement this vision of creative and socially-useful digital design for the green future!
Our door is always open – get in touch with us and let’s continue the conversation: hello@thepowerhouse.group.
#theFUTUREisNOW
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