WE/trans/FORM

The Bundeskunsthalle has designated 2025 the year of sustainability and ecological change. Central to this year’s programme is an international exhibition project on sustainable architecture and urban development in Europe: WEtransFORM – On the Future of Building invites visitors to take an active interest in the future of our built environment. The focus is on fundamental design principles for a climate-friendly renewal of our building culture. First and foremost among these are strengthening climate resilience / promoting biodiversity / practising sufficiency / revitalising existing buildings / optimising cycles / daring to experiment / getting actively involved.

The exhibition features some 80 projects that deal with the challenges of climate change in an exemplary manner. Thus, the Glasner House in the Ahr Valley, for example, attempts to protect against future flooding and the Rambla Climate House against drought in Spain. The use of natural materials such as rammed earth by Anna Heringer or wood by Hermann Kaufmann can be seen as a viable answer to the philosophical question of what is essential. The renovation of an old barn in Iceland by Studio Bua and the conversion of the former World Trade Centre in Brussels by 51N4E reduce resource consumption, CO₂ emissions and construction waste. Innovative research projects such as NEST UMAR (Next Evolution in Sustainable Building Technologies / Urban Mining and Recycling) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology or the Hybrid Flax Pavilion by the University of Stuttgart explore new approaches to circular material cycles and computer-based construction methods.

One of the highlights presented on the Museum Plaza is Vert – a verdant timber beam construction by AHEC / DIEZ OFFICE / OMC°C that can help to cool public spaces and strengthen biodiversity in urban environments. The foyer of the Bundeskunsthalle is dominated by the floor-to-ceiling installation Tree.ONE by ecoLogicStudio (Claudia Pasquero/Marco Poletto): a synthetic tree grown from microalgae that absorbs CO₂ from the atmosphere and converts it into biomaterial.

For the exhibition design, the architecture firm MVRDV (Rotterdam) drew almost exclusively on materials already available at the Bundeskunsthalle.

An initiative of the Bundeskunsthalle in partnership with the New European Bauhaus and transform.NRW