Dessau / Wörlitz: Architectural Guide

Dessau may be a mere speck on the map, but to this day the city of Bauhaus still occupies the most important place in the development of the New Building – otherwise known as the Neues Bauen – movement. Alongside the Modernist architecture, there is another World Cultural Heritage site which draws in visitors from all over the world to the region, namely the Garden Kingdom of Dessau Wörlitz (Gartenreich Dessau-Wörlitz). In the shape of the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation (Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau) and the Dessau-Wörlitz Cultural Foundation (Kulturstiftung Dessau Wörlitz), two institutions have come together to publish the first comprehensive architectural guide on Dessau-Roßlau and Wörlitz, areas most closely linked to the UNESCO World Heritage sites domiciled there. The eighteenth-century Garden Kingdom of Dessau Wörlitz and the twentieth-century Bauhaus School of Design (Bauhaus Hochschule für Gestaltung) have not only bequeathed the city and its surrounds inestimable architectural urban and rural properties and spaces, but also an associated intellectual heritage which has made a lasting impact on the world and, last but not least, accounts for the attraction the area holds for tourists. These and other notable historic and contemporary buildings alike are presented in this architectural guide which also raises issues about the nuanced handling of this architectural and cultural legacy and of future planning.