ETOM 2025 pilot-Conference

Modernism#progressiveheritage

International conference on 28th and 29th November 2025 for the „ETOM2025pilot-Festival“ in Berlin, presented by the „ETOM NEB Lab“ within the framework of the „NEB – New European Bauhaus“, featured by DOCOMOMO international and ICOMOS international. The International Conference also serves as the closing event of the Berlin program of the Triennale der Moderne.

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Day I · Day II · Contact · Partners · ETOM > Biographies

About the Topic

The trans-European exploration of Modernism as a „progressive heritage“ opens up a large cosmos of joint findings and insights – concerning the current backlash against democratic and emancipatory values across Europe, and, at the same time, their importance for societal cohesion and active cultural collaboration, especially for Central Europe.

The core question is: How can we make our joint progressive heritage of Modernism productive, to derive answers for pressing current and prospective questions for a liberal and sustainable future? On the one hand this addresses the better understanding for the origins, developments, and transformations of the existing built modern environments and modern societies, and, on the other hand it concerns the understanding of the development of interpretations and agencies of these joint modern heritage and values. From history to present this implies an examination of „Disrupted Modernism(s)“ as well as in comparison the notions of diversity or ambivalences.

Following the perspective of the „New European Bauhaus“, this will essentially contribute to bridging between the objectives of the „New Green Deal“ and the larger frame of reference implicated by the term „Bauhaus“ as a label of the very diverse Modern avantgarde – to elucidate the intrinsic connection between the genesis of Modernism(s) and contemporary imperatives for resilient liberal and sustainable societies, dealing with green transformation, social cohesion and societal emancipation, democratic participation, social equality, and the unity of Europe.

Inputs and impulses

by Riin Alatalu, Franziska Bollerey, Lenka Burgerová, David Crowely, Ana Ivanovska Deskova, Joerg Gleiter, Jörg Haspel, Thomas Flierl, Monika Kicová, Wolfgang Knöbl, Andrea Londakova, Tino Mager, Ákos Moravánsky, Henrieta Moravčíková, Michał Murawski, Nataliia Mysak, Uta Pottgiesser, Dumitru Ruso, Irina Scherbakowa, Hubert Trammer, and other partners from the ETOM NEB Lab.

Press Info

Synergy of Formats

These pilot events are conceived by members of the European Triennial of Modernism (ETOM) network. This was created as a transnational offshoot of the Triennale der Moderne (TDM), an already established supraregional German festival with some program in Dessau and Weimar and an extensive program in Berlin from 25 Sep to 14 Dec 2025.

Day I · Day II · Contact · Partners · ETOM > Biographies

Program Day 1

28th November, 2025

Venue: Rathaus Tempelhof, Erweiterungsbau
(District Townhall of Berlin-Tempelhof – Northern building extension [in Brutalist style] )
Address: Tempelhofer Damm 165, 12099 Berlin

Best Public Transport: Subway U6 (Heading for „Alt-Mariendorf“), get off at station „Kaiserin-Augusta-Strasse“; or (the closest option): Bus 184 to „Rathaus Tempelhof“; additional options: Bus lines M46 + 246 to „Alt-Tempelhof“ and 700 meters walk southwards

  • 13:00 Registration – venue open for public (light lunch offer)
  • Welcoming and Thematic Introduction
  • 14:00 Introduction Robert K. Huber
  • 14:30 Assignment / Keynote Panel
    (panel-talk – work-assignment for the conference)
  • 15:00 Prelude – Special Impulse:
    Irina Scherbakowa (Russia): Putinism as disrupted Postmodernism?
  • 15:15 Coffee-break
  • Section 1: Modernism – a progressive heritage
    for liberal, democratic, and sustainable societies?
  • 15:45 Intro to section
  • 16:00 Keynotes – Impulses
    • David Crowely (Ireland): Socmodernist Emotions
    • Franziska Bollerey (Netherlands): Modernism Takes Command or the Supremacy of Modernity?
    • Thomas Flierl (Germany): EAST WEST EAST MODERN. What concept of modernism did the last Berlin World Heritage application use for post-war architecture and urban development
  • 17:00 Workshop-talk – Discussion with speakers (Q&A with audience)
  • 17:45 Short-break
  • 18:00 Keynotes – Impulses
    • Wolfgang Knöbl (Germany): Disrupted Modernism –
      Zerrissene Moderne
    • Ákos Moravánszky (Hungary/Switzerland): Peripheral Modernisms
    • Jörg Gleiter (Germany): Modern Criticism of Modernity
  • 19:15 Workshop-talk – Discussion with speakers (Q&A with audience)
  • 20:00 Wrap-up (Lessons-learned Day 1)
  • 20:15 Get-together

Register for Friday

Direct link to: Top of Page — Day I — Day II – See Biographies

Program Day 2

29th November, 2025

Venue: Rathaus Tempelhof, Erweiterungsbau 
(District Townhall of Berlin-Tempelhof – Northern building extension [in Brutalist style] )
Address: Tempelhofer Damm 165, 12099 Berlin

  • 10:00 Registration – venue open for public (coffee offer)
  • Welcoming Day II
  • 10:30 Follow-up
  • 10:40 Interlude – external impulse(s):
    • Docomomo International, Uta Pottgiesser:
      Preview Docomomo Journal (DJ74) „Imperfect Modernism“
    • ICOMOS, Tino Mager: ICOMOS and the continuing discovery of Modernism
  • Continuation of Section 1: Modernism – a progressive
    heritage for liberal, democratic, and sustainable societies?
  • 11:00 Keynotes – Impulse
    Focus-statements
    • Jörg Haspel (Germany): Everyday Modernism – from Cultural Heritage to Ecological Resource?
    • Nataliia Mysak (Ukraine)
    • Hubert Trammer (Poland): Modernism as part of bigger whole ?
  • 12:15 Workshop-talk – Discussion with speakers (Q&A with audience)
  • 12:45 Lessons-learned Section 1 (conclusion)
  • 13:00 Lunch-break
  • 14:00 Keynote
    • Michał Murawski (Great Britain)
  • Section 2: Modern neighborhoods – in-between
    social cohesion and sustainable transformation?
  • 14:45 Intro to Section
  • 15:00 Opening Keynote
    Henrieta Moravcikova (Slovakia): Cultural centres:
    Messengers from the past or catalysts for community life?
  • 15:30 Case studies – Main presentations
    • Riin Alatalu (Estonia): Cultural house as an anchor of rural society
    • Dumitru Rusu (Romania): Monuments to Collective Joy –
      The Adaptive Requalification/Reuse of Soc-Modernist State Circuses in the Eastern Bloc
  • 16:00 Q&A with audience
  • 16:15 Coffee-break
  • Focus sessions
    (two sessions in parallel breakout rooms)
  • 16:45 Focus session A – Breakout-room
  • 16:45 Intro
  • 17:00 Case studies – Focus presentations
    • Monika Kicová (Slovakia): House of
      Communist Party in Kosice (1975–1984)
    • Ana Ivanovska Deskova (North Macedonia):
      The Case of the Cultural Center in Skopje
    • Sandra Uskokovic (Croatia)
  • 17:30 Workshop-talk
  • 18:00 Lessons-learned (Focus Session A)
    or
  • 16:45 Focus session B – Breakout-room
  • 16:45 Intro
  • 17:00 Case studies – Focus presentations
    • Lenka Burgerova (Czech Republic)
    • Andrea Londáková (Slovakia):
      Market Hall in Bratislava (1975-1983)
    • Mária Novotná (Slovakia)
  • 17:30 Workshop-talk
  • 18:00 Lessons-learned (Focus Session B)
  • 18:15 Short-break
  • 18:30 Forum discussion – with speakers (Q&A with audience)
  • 19:00 Lessons-learned (Section 2)
  • 19:15 Wrap-up & Outlook (Day 1 & Day 2)
  • 19:30 Release-Event – Docomomo Journal (DJ74) „Imperfect Modernism“
    Get together

Register for Saturday

Direct link to: Top of Page — Day I — Day II – See Biographies

Contact

ETOM – European Triennial of Modernism
triennial-of-modernism.eu

TDM – Triennale der Moderne
triennale-der-moderne.de

represented by the curators of the
TDM in Berlin and founders of ETOM

Robert K. Huber (Director | Managing Partner)
BHROX bauhaus reuse | zukunftsgeraeusche GbR
Dipl-Ing | M.Arch | M.Sc UD
bauhaus-reuse.de
robert.huber@zukunftsgeraeusche.de

Ben Buschfeld, Dipl-Designer
buschfeld.com – graphic and interface design
DOCOMOMO · DWB · ISTD · BFGG · KENB · FFHBB
LinkedIn | buschfeld.com | tautes-heim.de

Partners

Conference funded by

Direct links

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About the project

ETOM NEB Lab – New European Bauhaus Lab
on Trans-European Modernism and its Progressive Heritage with focus on Central-Europe

The ETOM NEB Lab — is a co-creation Lab on trans-European Modernism – from its architectural and built heritage to its heritage of ideas and its diverse and ambivalent legacies – to evolve and realize transnational cooperation, best-practice, research, and capacity building. The ETOM NEB Lab is an official Lab of the „New European Bauhaus“ (NEB) and the first NEB project on the topic of Modernism, founded in the framework of the „ETOM – European Triennial of Modernism“. ETOM represents a circular ecosystem on a three-year rhythm to bear and sustain plural transdisciplinary collaboration projects and to establish the decentralized and recurring ETOM festival. The overall objective is to explore, unlock, and maintain the diverse potentials and resilience of emancipatory values of Modernism, as a cultural domain and progressive heritage (#progressiveheritage) – to make it productive for contemporary planetary questions for a sustainable future. The growing network involves more than 40 partners from 15 countries, including around 10 official NEB community members, on a heterogeneous and transsectoral background, with emphasis on Central Europe.

ETOM festival – As target and starting point for ETOM’s circular ecosystem and the work of the „ETOM NEB Lab“, the recurring ETOM festival reinvents the conventional schemes of Biennials or Triennials, to interlink actors, joint activities, and exchange formats across Europe for a multi-local and decentral festival of public and professional offers. To sustainably develop and pursue the topic of ETOM, the festival fosters public dialogue to bridge between professional and civic target groups and audiences. This approach is activated and continuously maintained by the Lab, with regular meetups and partner-events within the three-years cycle, with curated encounters within Milestone-projects and -conferences, and with the recurring triennial ETOM festival.

CREDITS – The „ETOM NEB Lab“ was created by the NEB members BHROX bauhaus reuse / zukunftsgeraeusche, KÉK – The Hungarian Contemporary Architecture Center, ICOMOS international, National Gallery Prague, Slovak Design Center, Estonian Academy of Arts, and ACE – Architects’ Council of Europe, as well as buschfeld.com, jointly acting as the Coordination Group of the Lab. The ETOM initiative was founded by BHROX bauhaus reuse / zukunftsgeraeusche and buschfeld.com during the COVID-19 pandemic, being the initiators and starting the basis for the trans-European creation of the „ETOM NEB Lab“. The ETOM initiative originates as the transnational spin-off to the superregional „Triennial of Modernism“ (TDM) in the cities of Berlin, Dessau, and Weimar and takes place parallel and in association with the festival in Germany. The development of the „ETOM NEB Lab“ and ETOM network has been accompanied and supported by the German Federal Ministry of Housing, Urban Development and Building (BMWSB), hosting the German NEB National Contact Point (NCP), and especially by the Berlin Monument Authority (LDA). The international network activities are featured in a triangular cooperation with DOCOMOMO, ICOMOS and ETOM.

Contact

ETOM – European Triennial of Modernism
triennial-of-modernism.eu

TDM – Triennale der Moderne
www.triennale-der-moderne.de

represented by the curators of the
TDM in Berlin and founders of ETOM

BHROX bauhaus reuse | zukunftsgeraeusche GbR
Robert K. Huber (Director | Managing Partner)
Dipl-Ing | M.Arch | M.Sc UD
bauhaus-reuse.de
robert.huber@zukunftsgeraeusche.de

buschfeld.com – graphic and interface design
Ben Buschfeld, Dipl-Designer
DOCOMOMO · DWB · ISTD · BFGG · KENB
buschfeld.com | tautes-heim.de
tdm@buschfeld.com