Deconstruct Deconstructivism

Against the backdrop of current challenges such as climate change and resource scarcity, the need for transformation in architecture is becoming increasingly clear. With the aim of rethinking existing spaces and architecture, designing them more sustainably, and better adapting them to people's needs, new approaches to thinking and designing are needed to explore what a transformation process can look like.

This transformation can be radical, but it doesn't necessarily have to mean radical innovation; it can also manifest itself as a further development and adaptation of what already exists. By consciously engaging with materials, spaces, and processes, designers play a crucial role in shaping a sustainable built environment. This perspective requires openness to new approaches and a willingness to understand architecture as a dynamic, yet long-term process—in dialogue with society and the specific local conditions.

The exhibition "Deconstruct Deconstructivism" showcases the diploma projects of students from the Faculty of Architecture and Landscape at TU Dresden, completed in the summer semester of 2025 within the Architecture program. The works on display explore the transformation of Dresden's Kristallpalast and demonstrate the necessity of transformation processes in current planning processes, considering urban society and sustainability.

The Kristallpalast, designed by Coop Himmel(b)lau and built in 1998, is one such place. Marked by the crisis in the cinema industry, it now demands an examination of alternative uses, such as a museum of applied arts and a design campus. This raises the question, in an exemplary way, of how to deal with the iconic and identity-forming significance of a building in the current urban context and how such buildings function today at the intersection of urban space and cultural use.

Opening: November 6, 2025, 6:30 p.m.

Speakers: Henning Haupt, Jörg Joppien, Juliane Naumann