Glass | Concrete | Metal — Bauhaus Dessau at 100: The Birth Certificates of the Buildings We All Live In

• VENUE: Bauhaus Building, Dessau
• DATES: Now open → January 10, 2027
• TAGS: Bauhaus • Modernist Architecture • Glass & Steel & Concrete

A two-hour ICE train journey from Berlin—and before you stands the world’s most influential art school, dating back to 1926. The building itself is a more powerful experience than any exhibition.

Last year in September, the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus’s move to Dessau was celebrated. But this is Germany, they extend the celebration across a whole year—and rightfully so. Three new exhibitions are currently running inside the Bauhaus Building: Glass, Concrete, and Metal. The title is simple, but the content is highly layered.

The building was completed in 1926, and it was a revolution for its time: glass facades, a steel skeleton, open plans. Every straight line you see today in IKEA stores, office blocks, or even those ordinary apartment facades passes through the Bauhaus somewhere. This exhibition shows the beginning of that line.

The Metal exhibition is particularly powerful. It examines the relationship between the metal industry, Weimar Germany, and Bauhaus designers from both an aesthetic and economic perspective. The narrative wall alone could take up an hour of your time—but it is well worth it. The Glass section is a bit sparser, but the Concrete section beautifully demonstrates the role of wooden formwork in shaping concrete.

Let me say this: the true joy of touring the Bauhaus Building goes beyond the exhibitions. As you climb the stairs, you look at the handrails—this is the shape Walter Gropius designed. You look at the relationship between the windows and the seating corner—this is the angle Marcel Breuer conceptualized. The space itself is a living collection.

I woke up early in the morning from Berlin, was in Dessau by noon, and by evening I was sitting in a bar back in Berlin. Definitely do this route. On the way back, looking through the train window at Germany’s flat fields and warehouse buildings and thinking ‘this is where the idea for all these buildings came from’ is a very strange and beautiful feeling.

Exhibition Details:

• Venue: Bauhaus Building, Gropiusallee 38, Dessau-Roßlau, Germany
• Exhibition Trilogy: Glas | Beton | Metall (Glass | Concrete | Metal)
• Centennial Framework: 100 Years of Bauhaus Dessau (1926–2026/2027)
• Closing Date: January 10, 2027