The EC is looking for the philosophers of the New European Bauhaus among the citizens

On Monday, the European Commission (EC) presented the roadmap for its New European Bauhaus, a philosophical, artistic and scientific concept to redefine post-pandemic society and inspired by the German movement that put creation and technology at the service of citizens a century ago.

"Sustainability, inclusion and aesthetics" will be the basic pillars for redefining this new trend, which the Commission defines as "a project of hope", with an architectural and urbanistic flavour, which aims to stimulate reflection on the society that Europeans want to build after the health and economic crisis of the Covid-19.

"It is about how we want to live together after the pandemic while protecting the planet and protecting our environment, about empowering those who have the solutions to the climate crisis, about combining sustainability with style. It's about us," said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen of Germany in a video.

The EU executive thus presented what had been brushed aside in various speeches by its president, who takes as a reference the principles of rationality, functionalism and aesthetic heterodoxy of the avant-garde Bauhaus art school, founded in 1919 in the German town of Weimar by the German architect and town planner Walter Gropius.

The new concept for that Bauhaus of the 21st century is supposedly vague because it has yet to be defined and the Commission wants Europeans to be the ones who can "mould it together" in an "inclusive and collective process".

"I would like to invite all of you to participate in the new European Bauhaus (...) From professional architects to citizens' initiatives, from leaders of large companies to innovative start-ups. There are many people with great ideas out there. Let's bring them together," said Von der Leyen.

The European Commission wants "the coming months" to be used to develop a social dialogue on how to encourage the use of new organic building materials, how to put design at the service of climate solutions, how to turn a train station or an opera house into a sustainable building or how to encourage culture to contribute to overcoming the climate crisis.

"We need new driving forces" that will rethink "how to make art and culture, science and technology, a tool for transformation" and "a bridge between generations", explained the Bulgarian Commissioner for Innovation, Science, Culture and Innovation, Mariya Gabriel.

As in the original Bauhaus movement, the starting point will be concepts such as "accessible", "functional" or "aesthetic", to which "sustainability" will be added, explained the Portuguese Euro Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Elisa Ferreira, at a press conference.

But everything is open and remains to be defined, even the name, after some 400 architects from the Netherlands signed a petition in favour of the idea, but asking that the name "Bauhaus" not be used, as they understood that the original movement left women aside.

In spring, the Commission will award "a dozen or so Bauhaus prizes" in categories yet to be defined, each worth EUR30,000, as well as support for the dissemination of the work, for example through documentary projects or exhibitions.

This first edition will reward elements of "existing examples of the new Bauhaus" that correspond to the conceptual definition given in the "design" phase that starts this Monday, explained the Commission officials.

And in "autumn", as a result of this reflection, the call for tenders will be opened for the first five projects of the new Bauhaus in different European countries to beat this trend in whose original form, a hundred years ago, artists such as Paul Klee or Vassily Kandinsky participated and which laid the revolutionary foundations of the relationship between design and practicality.