ETOM 2025 pilot Festival & Conference
Outline, Announcement and Open Call
This years first „ETOM2025pilot Festival & Conference“ is the pilot edition for the „ETOM – European Triennial of Modernism“, a decentralized triennial festival on the diverse heritage and future of Modernism. The topic of the „ETOM2025pilot“ is „MODERNISM#progressiveheritage“ and serves as a starting point for a discussion about different approaches towards Modernism. 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?
Save the Date: 28+29 Nov 2025
ETOM2025pilot Festival & Conference
MODERNISM#progressiveheritage
The „European Triennial of Modernism (ETOM)“ is a co-creation platform and an official Lab project of the „New European Bauhaus“ (NEB) on trans-European Modernism and its progressive heritage.
This years first „ETOM2025pilot Festival & Conference“ is the pilot edition for the „ETOM – European Triennial of Modernism“, a decentralized triennial festival on the diverse heritage and future of Modernism. The topic of the „ETOM2025pilot“ is „MODERNISM#progressiveheritage“.
It is associated with the Triennale der Moderne (Triennial of Modernism), an already established supraregional German festival with some program in Dessau and Weimar and an extensive program in Berlin, The festival programs of both the „ETOM2025pilot“ edition and the Triennial of Modernism will take place from September 25th to December 14th, 2025.
The „ETOM2025pilot Festival & Conference“ is presented by the „ETOM NEB Lab“, within the framework of the „NEB – New European Bauhaus“, featured by DOCOMOMO international and ICOMOS international.
Call for participation — MODERNISM#progressiveheritage
International conference for the „ETOM2025pilot-Festival“
Date: 28th and 29th November 2025
Location: Berlin, venue: will be announced soon
The Call – for the second section of the conference – asks for keystudies of current and exemplary architectural/urban (conversion) projects which shall be introduced with (short) keystudy-presentations for a substantial analysis/comparison of projects focusing mainly on socio-cultural community/municipal buildings of late Modernism or „Brutalism“ in particular.
The projects and keystudy-presentations should thus reflect the following two questions:
- Modern neighborhoods – what role play such late modern or „brutalist“ community/municipal buildings in-between social cohesion and sustainable transformation?
- Focus: How to revitalize/reuse the heritage and roles of brutalist-modern community/socio-cultural buildings within the conditions of different (large settlements to heterogenous neighborhoods) and changing urban environments?
The keystudy-presentations shall focus on originally intended community/socio-cultural buildings and refer to projects as for instance:
- successful projection of community/socio-cultural buildings and its functions for today’s needs and services
- successful conversion along with progressive ways of protection (adaptive reuse and innovative reuse strategies) to improve its community/socio-cultural functions for today
- ambivalent projects which protected the substance (heritage) but stripped out or changed the social functions, or projects which failed to protect the substance but kept or improved the intended public functions
- beside originally intended community/socio-cultural buildings, also projects on department stores or retail buildings (or comparable) which severed full services incorporating a social or broad societal function will be of interest
- See PDF for full details of the call
Call for Participation
Stay tuned via Social Media
Partners of the ETOM-Initiative:
Initiated by
• BHROX bauhaus reuse / zukunftsgeraeusche GbR (zkg), Robert K. Huber, Berlin
• buschfeld.com / Ben Buschfeld (BB), Berlin
Development supported by
• Landesdenkmalamt Berlin (LDA)
• Bundesministerium für Wohnen, Stadtentwicklung und Bauwesen (BMWSB)
German Partners
• Landesdenkmalamt Berlin (LDA)
• Architektenkammer Berlin (AKB)
• Kunstbibliothek Berlin (KUBI)
• since 2025: Tschechisches Zentrum Berlin (TZB)
Members of the Coordination Group
• BHROX bauhaus reuse / zukunftsgeraeusche GbR (zkg), Berlin
• The Hungarian Contemporary Architecture Centre (KÉK), Budapest
• ICOMOS International Secretariat, Paris
• National Gallery in Prague (NGP), Prague
• Slovak Design Center (SDC), Bratislava
• Estonian Academy of Arts – Institute of
Art History and Visual Culture (EAA–EKA), Tallinn
• Architects’ Council of Europe (ACE), Brussels
• buschfeld.com, Berlin
European Partners
(by nation in alphabetical order)
Czech Republic
• National Gallery in Prague (NGP), Prague
• Forum for Architecture and Media (4 AM), Brno
• Prague 7 District Municipality (UMC7)
Estonia
• Estonian Academy of Arts – Institute of
Art History and Visual Culture (EAA–EKA), Tallinn
• Estonian Museum of Architecture (EMA), Tallinn
• Tallinna linn (COT), Tallinn City
France
• ICOMOS International Secretariat, Paris
Hungary
• Hungarian Museum of Architecture
(MEM-MDK), Budapest
• The Hungarian Contemporary
Architecture Centre (KÉK), Budapest
• Budapest 13th District – city municipality (B13D)
Latvia
• Museum of Decorative
Arts and Design (LNMM), Riga
• Latvian Design Centre (FOLD), Riga
• Latvian Ministry of Culture (LMOC)
Lithuania
• Kaunas 2022 (K2022),
Kaunas European Capital of Culture
• Nematerialaus Turto Fondas (NTF)
• Kaunas City Municipal Administration (KCMA)
• Architects Association of Lithuania, Vilnius (LAS)
Netherlands
• DOCOMOMO international
North Macedonia
• Contineo 2020 (CONTINEO), Skopje
• University American College Skopje – Privatna Ustanova – Department of Architecture (UACS)
Poland
• National Institute of Architecture and
Urban Planning (NIAiU), Warsaw
• Institut of Architecture Foundation (FIA), Cracow
• International Cultural Centre (ICC), Cracow
• Gmina Miejska Kraków – Urząd Miasta Krakowa (CCK), Cracow
Romania
• Asociația Română pentru Cultură,
Educație și Normalitate (ARCEN), Bucharest
• SG Studio – zeppelin magazine (SGS-ZEP), Bucharest
• Second District Hall of Bucharest (SDHB)
Serbia
• Belgrade International Architecture Week (ABA-BINA), Belgrade
• ZAVOD – Zavod za zastitu spomenika kulture grada Beograda (Cultural Heritage Preservation Institute of Belgrade)
• Gradska opstina Novi Beograd, City Municipality (MNB), Belgrade
Slovakia
• Slovak Design Center (SDC), Bratislava
Ukraine
• Lviv Centre for Urban History, Lwiw (LCUH), Lviv
• Urban Forms Center (UFC), Kharkiv