Algae | Debris | CO2

The former Zeeck department store in downtown Dessau serves as the starting point for the exhibition Algae | Rubble | CO2. Opened in 1908 and expanded in the 1920s, the building is an outstanding example of modernist department store architecture and, through its layers of materials, tells a story of the city’s history spanning over a century.

The exhibition makes this history visible: so-called “time windows” on the stairs, floor, pillars, and ceiling offer a glimpse into the building’s material history. What appears unchanged at first glance reveals, upon closer inspection, a sensitive approach to the historic building fabric. Peeling plaster is removed, holes are filled, and whatever can be repaired is repaired or redesigned—for example, old window panes or the panels of the Hetaflex aluminum façade, which were removed during the façade renovation in the spring of 2025. Additions such as the ceiling lighting system and repairs to the 1980s flooring follow the principles of reusability.

Algae | Rubble | CO2 is a “model exhibition” for sustainable design, intended to operate with minimal CO2 emissions. It serves equally as a display space, a functional space, and an event venue. It showcases interdisciplinary research approaches and collaborative working methods that bring together human and non-human actors, economies, technologies, and material and substance flows. At the heart of the exhibition are alternatives to the material canon of (classical) modernism: for example, clay, mycelium, algae, and geopolymer concrete based on clay, basalt, flax, and waste materials. For instance, the InMyco project at Anhalt University of Applied Sciences is developing innovative mycelium-based materials, using waste materials from regional agriculture, forestry, and industry as a growth medium.

Opening: March 28, 2026, 11 a.m.