The Industrial Garden Realm
and the EXPO
 
International response to the Industrial Garden Realm began in 1991. The Industrial Garden Realm project was welcomed as an approach to "finding a positive developmental perspective for the Bauhaus Dessau".


 

(Cf. report of the University of Brussels, Jan. 22, 1991) At the same, the Industrial Garden Realm project was criticized for concerning itself too much with problems specific to the region. Whenever the Industrial Garden Realm was not linked with Modernist issues, the industrialization process and the role played by Bauhaus in this process, a provincial aftertaste remained which was brought about by the concrete nature of the project. This impression changed when preparations for the EXPO began in 1995. "A working group at the Bauhaus in Dessau began as early as 1988 to outline the reform landscape of the 21st century with its work on the Industrial     Garden     Realm     as     a  

contemporary interpretation of ideas from the historical Garden Realm. This wealth of ideas, which was only hesitantly accepted by experts and still today is frequently misunderstood in the region, laid the conceptual foundations for the participation of the Land of Saxony-Anhalt at EXPO 2000.
Above all, the Bauhaus Dessau has provided the region with expertise and a scientific competence, without which impetus for reform cannot develop.  

 
Work on the idea of the Industrial Garden Realm has in the course of time also allowed project ideas to mature sufficiently to enable them to move on to a stage of implementation in time for EXPO 2000." (Report to the board of trustees of EXPO 2000 Saxony-Anhalt, September 1995)
 
The term Industrial Garden Realm has proved itself to be a viable one. It has gained acceptance in the region, particularly among politicians and planners. The idea of the Industrial Garden Realm won worldwide recognition through national and international awards, at congresses and in publications. Exchange of ideas with international partners has flourished. The Industrial Garden Realm is now established. And the idea of a garden realm has again attained a programmatic dimension in the context of radical changes in industrialization.