This article appears in The Architect’s Newspaper’s April 2017 issue, which takes a deep dive into Florida to coincide with the upcoming AIA Conference on Architecture in Orlando (April 27 to 29). We’re publishing the issue online as the Conference approaches—click here to see the latest articles to be uploaded.
Florida International University (FIU) and the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation recently confirmed that they are creating a formal academic relationship for architecture,
design, and arts students. This is the first time the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation has formed an official partnership with a U.S. university.
Over the next couple of years, there are plans to host an ideas competition for the design and construction of a 21st-century Bauhaus “Master House” in Miami. FIU will announce the winner of the competition at the 2019 Bauhaus Centennial celebration.
Bauhaus Dessau hosts students, researchers, and resident artists at its campus and contains the second-largest archive of Bauhaus materials in the world. So far, FIU students and faculty have been participating in Open Studios at the Dessau campus, and, this year, FIU plans to inaugurate the space for the FIU-Bauhaus Think Tank. Additionally, FIU announced that it will create an international artist residency program with Bauhaus Dessau in 2018.
“The FIU-Bauhaus Think Tank and its related projectsrespond to all of the aspirations of the College of Communication, Architecture + The Arts, [CARTA] 2020 plan [the university’s mission to expand and elevate its position as Miami’s ‘first and only public university’],” said Marilys Nepomechie, professor of architecture and associate dean for Strategic Initiatives, College of Communication, Architecture + The Arts, who recently visited the Dessau campus to solidify the program.
