The „Mobile BAUWERKstatt“ offers pupils the opportunity to try out crafts and various construction techniques in order to develop an interest and perhaps discover aptitude for this professional field. We are convinced that the life decision for a profession should be made on the basis of one’s own experiences.

In the BAUWERKstatt, the working fields of „building“ and „crafts“ become tangible for the pupils. In this way, we would like to counteract skills shortage in the long term and bring the building professions back into focus in society. It is important to create an understanding and appreciation for these future-proof professions among the next generation.

In the course of one-day workshops at the BAUWERKstatt location in the Malzfabrik, participants make small workpieces under professional supervision. Schools can also register for longer-term cooperation in the form of fixed project days at the BAUWERKstatt and participate in the real construction projects.

At present, individual participation in the BAUWERKstatt is not possible; registration is handled by the schools. In individual cases, internships at the BAUWERKstatt are possible (enquiries can be made at ).

The project is funded by the Social Fund of the Berlin Construction Industry (Sozialkasse des Berliner Baugewerbes) and the Senate Department for Labour (SenASGIVA).

2000

The history of Schinkel’s Bauakademie in Berlin

In September 1999, the Bildungsverein Bautechnik, together with the Governing Mayor Diepgen, laid the foundation stone for the construction of a model façade of the historic Berlin Bauakademie. Karl Friedrich Schinkel’s masterpiece, completed in 1836, had been demolished in 1962 amid international protests. The building is still considered a landmark for modern architecture today because of its special construction and building techniques, but also because of the high quality of its pictorial programme. Many of Schinkel’s other buildings are still located in the immediate vicinity of the former site of the Bauakademie, for example the Neue Wache, the Altes Museum, the Schauspielhaus on Gendarmenmarkt, the Friedrichswerder Church and the Schlossbrücke.

Contribution of the Bildungsverein Bautechnik

The collective bargaining partners in the building trade are working together for the reconstruction of the Bauakademie. They commissioned the specially founded Bildungsverein Bautechnik to construct a model façade to spark the discussion about reconstructing the entire building and to serve as a training site for Berlin and Brandenburg apprentices. The quality standards of Karl Friedrich Schinkel were to be preserved and implemented here. To this end, the apprentices not only worked on the construction site, but also dealt with the master builder Schinkel and his work, with the Bauakademie as an institution and as a building with its special technical features, with the historical background as well as Schinkel’s buildings in Berlin and the surrounding area that still exist today.

The reconstruction

On the basis of plans, photos and fragments of the original terracottas, some 200 future bricklayers, carpenters, stonemasons, stone sculptors, plasterers, scaffolders, carpenters, glaziers, energy electronics technicians and construction mechanics created the model façade, which was completed in October 2001, according to the idea and design of the architect Horst Draheim. The architects Abri and Raabe undertook the detailed reconstruction of the model facade and also supported the project with generous donations. In a festive ceremony with the Governing Mayor Klaus Wowereit, the apprentices presented their work to the Berlin Senate.

Awards

• Winner „Most Exceptional Building Achievement in Berlin/Brandenburg „1999
• „Culture plus“ Gotha Prize for Cultural Education 2000

The new installation of the pendulum pillars by Berlin trainees

History of the pendulum pillars

When the long-distance and suburban railway was extended along the route of the royal eastern railway around 1903, the town hall bridge with its 12 pendulum supports was built in the Victoriastadt (Berlin-Lichtenberg). To avoid tensile and bending stresses, the cast-iron columns were equipped with ball joints in the head and foot sections and thus corresponded to the historical bridge construction method used from 1882 to around 1910. They are also called Hartung’s columns after the Berlin architect Hugo Hartung.

A local residents‘ initiative has initiated the reconstruction of the pendulum columns

The filigree and richly ornamented supports became superfluous in the course of the reconstruction work on the Stadtbahn route and were to be demolished. Under the motto „A monument for a monument“, residents of the Victoriastadt campaigned for the preservation of the columns and achieved their re-installation as a row of colonnades on the corner of Türrschmidtstrasse and Stadthausstrasse in the immediate vicinity of their historic location in Berlin-Lichtenberg.

2014 – 2019

In cooperation with zukunftsgeraeusche GbR, the Bildungsverein Bautechnik has been conducting an exchange project with Israel since 2014, which was funded by the DBU (Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt). The so-called IGSBE project (Israeli German Sustainable Building Education) was realised in Berlin and Tel Aviv, with the overarching thematic focus on intercultural exchange and sustainable building.

Young trainees and students of architecture and civil engineering from Germany and Israel worked together on the following topics

– sustainable building,

– the architectural heritage of the two countries and

– the common heritage of modern architecture and the Bauhaus ideas for a mutual intercultural and professional exchange.

The overarching focal points were energy and resource conservation, simple and climate-friendly building, including sustainable solutions for heat and cold protection, building with reusable and regionally available materials, and the common heritage of modern architecture and Bauhaus ideas in Germany and Israel.

Exhibitions

The results were presented in an exhibition on 3 April 2017 at the „Bauhaus reuse“. In December 2019, another exhibition „Triennale der Moderne“ took place in the atrium of the Technische Universität Berlin.

2008 – 2010

As contribution to the restoration of the memorial site, the Bildungsverein Bautechnik organised work stays for trainees in Mauthausen from 2008 onwards. This was made possible with the support of the Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior, the German War Graves Commission and the Knobelsdorff School in Berlin.

The Mauthausen concentration camp was the largest Nazi concentration camp in Austria during the Second World War. The projects in Mauthausen confronted all trainees with new challenges. In addition to the high psychological stress in view of the daily confrontation with the Holocaust, the trainees also coped with new professional and practical demands. In conversations with international visitors, English skills were tested and improved; through group work, the trainees practised teamwork and independence. In addition, their views on Europe opened up. For many apprentices, the practical experience they gained was decisive for shaping their further career and increased their willingness to be mobile.

After successful participation in the project, all apprentices received the Europass Mobility. This documents the experience gained in Austria and thus facilitates access to other professional activities in other European countries.

Awards

„Good Practice“ – Project 2009 of the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training

Bruno Taut Pavilion 2001

Together with students of the TU Berlin from the postgraduate course in monument preservation, apprentices of the Bildungsverein Bautechnik saved an important Berlin architectural monument of modernism: the Bruno Taut Pavilion, built in 1928 in Berlin Neukoelln. The students prepared a damage report and finally a restoration plan, which was implemented by apprentice bricklayers. Their concept was based on comprehensive preservation of the original substance.

In 2001, the Berlin Senate awarded the Bildungsverein Bautechnik, together with the Knobelsdorff School Berlin and the TU Berlin, the Ferdinand von Quast Medal for special services to monument conservation in the restoration of the Bruno Taut Pavilion.

Awards

– Ferdinand von Quast Medal of the Berlin Senate 2001

Further information on the project can be found online:

– Master’s Degree in Historic Preservation (Master’s Degree in Historic Preservation at the Technical University of Berlin).