Quick access
DE EN
Bauhaus
Summer
School

Meaningful Mistakes: Exploring Failure, Collaboration, and As-Found Materials

Meaningful Mistakes: Exploring Failure, Collaboration, and As-Found Materials

„… bravely considering the implications of what you see around you and learning from them. Doing so may make your work look incredibly ugly-even to you. But that is the way aesthetic sensibilities change. New patterns and new societies tend to produce things we find ugly (…). But people grow to love them because they are, in the end, right.“


Denise Scott Brown in „Architecture, Signs, and Social Values“ Marta Nowak in conversation with Denise Scott Brown, 20131 (https://www.an-onymous.com/denis-scott-brown 17.04.2024). In this summer school experience, participants will explore the transformative potential of mistakes and the
collaborative richness of working with available (reused) resources, as-found materials, and their inherent narratives. Our methodology is based on research by design and fosters a culture of improvisational experimentation and prototyping. Over the span of 10 days, through interactive workshops,
engaging discussions with experts from art, design, and architecture, and hands-on activities, we will delve into the unexpected and welcome serendipity.
Proposed as an active and dialogical project, we will explore a creative process where errors, inappropriate materiality, and ambiguous shapes question our understanding of space, construction, and design. Through this, we seek to develop strategies of sustainability, indeterminate and polyvalent forms, and built structures that promote collective participation, openness, and playful appropriateness. Our interest lies in what modifies our surroundings and can deconstruct its underlying consumerist rules. We seek to counter prevailing forces of economic power and heteropatriarchy, advocating for reuse, multi-authorship, polyvalence, and spontaneity. 

Structure:

Phase 1: Reading Groups and Discussions 
Participants will engage in reading groups focused on critical texts exploring the intersections of architecture, spoils, and reuse. In discussions, they will be encouraged to reflect on sustainable design principles and collective decision-making. 

Phase 2: Inputs and Informal Discussions 
Experts from various fields will share their insights and experiences with the reuse of structures, buildings, and materials. Informal discussions will provide opportunities for participants to learn about innovative approaches to sustainability and gain inspiration for their projects. 

Phase 3: Hands-on Workshops 
Participants will have the opportunity to put theory into practice through workshops with different techniques for repurposing materials and a collaborative approach to encourage teamwork, fostering a supportive environment.

Luise Leon Elbern is an architect and urban planner, member of the Bavarian Chamber of Architects, studied
architecture at Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil and at TU Munich, where she graduated in 2013. Since then, she has gained experience in the design and executionon of building constructionon projects in architectural offices, including Peter Haimerl in Munich and most recently with Hütten & Paläste in Berlin. She has been involved in teaching at the Chair of Urban Design and Regional Planning Prof. Sophie Wolfrum at TU Munich, which focused on performaKve urbanism and the porous city. In 2021, she was a fellow of the The Akademie der Künste (Academy of Arts) in the secKon „Baukunst“. 

In addition to working mainly in architectural conversions and extensions, she is a research assistant at the Bauhaus University Weimar and co-founder of two multidisciplinary collecKves that pursue interventions in public or curatorial space CollColl e.V. and Cruising Curators. 

In 2020, CollColl e.V.’s installation in Apolda was part of the International Building Exhibition Thuringia (IBA StadtLand), and in 2022 an urban intervention in cooperation with the Staatstheater Stuttgart was part of the event programme of the International Building Exhibition Stuttgart (IBA’27). They have developed a number of proposals and have initiated building projects within the Fahrrender Raum, an art festival in Munich (DE) and with the children’s art museum KinderKunstLabor in St. Poelten (AT). In 2023 CollColl was invited by the Goethe-Institut New York to participate on
the ECO Solidarity Exhibition. Cruising Curators started off as a working group of the 11th Berlin Biennale’s Curatorial Workshop „How now to gather“ and gave workshops at KW Kunstwerke Berlin, Leuphana University Lüneburg and the University of Cologne, among others. Their project “Tracing the Ephemera. A Performative Reading Series” was funded by the DraussenStadt-Fonds of the Berlin Senate Department. The nGbK neue Gesellschaft für
Bildende Kunst assembly selected their proposal “Dissident Paths: Walking together as a Method” to be realized in Berlin in 2025/ 26.

The course fee is 950 EURO.

750 EURO for students & alumni
390 EURO for BUW students
 

The course fee includes:

  • Orientation & Support
  • Programme according to description
  • Teaching materials
  • Bauhaus Summer School ID card
  • Daily Lunch at the University Cafeteria (Monday - Friday)
  • Certificate
  • Internet access at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar
  • Free use of library
  • Accompanying programme including excursions
  • Free entrance to museums belonging to Klassik Stiftung Weimar

Please note our terms and conditions (admission conditions, cancellation conditions etc.)
 

The course fee does not include:

  • Travel costs
  • Accommodation
  • Insurance
  • Additional excursions

1. Online Registration

Please register first in our system ► Registration
Please follow the instructions on the page.
 

2. Documents

Please submit until 01/05/2025 the following documents:.

  • CV

  • Letter of motivation

ONLY COMPLETE AND CORRECTLY LABELED APPLICATIONS WILL BE CONSIDERED!

 

3. Selection Process

All applicants will receive notification about the outcome of the selection process as soon as possible via e-mail. In case of a positive answer you will receive the invoice simultaneously which you will have to pay within 10 days. If applicants fail to do this, places will be given to others on the waiting list.

If you need a VISA, we recommend you to get informed now about the requirements and to make an appointment with the German embassy in your home country.

A maximum of 20 applicants will be selected to participate in this course.

After successful completion of the language course, you will receive a certificate of participation issued by the Bauhaus Summer School. 

Participants earn 3 credit points (ECTS) after completion of the two-week course. In order to receive credit points, it is necessary to attend at least 80% of the course lessons and to fulfil the required tasks. 

Prior to your participation, it is essential that you clarify whether your home university will recognise the foreign credits you intend to earn.

If you would like to receive a grade, you must discuss this with the teacher at the beginning of the course! The fulfilment of additional tasks may be necessary.

IN-CLASS COURSE

In Weimar
August 16 - August 30, 2025

Join us in embracing failures, ambiguity, and mistakes as integral parts of a collaborative design process with recycled and as-found materials.

3 ECTS

Apply

from January 2025 on

Language

The course language is English.