East / West prefabricated buildings

The event is already fully booked.

The "PLATTE" often doesn't have a good reputation: grey, monotonous, lots of people in a small space and the associated problems. But in the GDR, a flat in a prefabricated building was highly coveted - and isn't the "Platte" cult again today?

In cooperation with the Stadtmuseum, the participants of the B:Club of the Staatsschauspiel Dresden developed their own view of prefabricated buildings and the special exhibition. They collected scenes, archived personal experiences, explored associations and dreamed into the future.
What did we associate with the "Platte" in the past and what do we associate with it today? How would a prefabricated flat have to be designed for us to want to live here? What will happen to industrial housing in the future? And how will future generations view housing in prefabricated panel construction?

The workshop performance WOHNEN IN SCHICHTEN invites the audience on a theatrical tour of the exhibition with perspectives on and from the "Platte".

• Price: 6 € per person
• Tickets: www.staatsschauspiel-dresden.de

Photo: Participants of the B:Club in the installation "Plattenbau Vertigo" by Annett Zinsmeister (2025/26)

What does the future of the "Platte" look like? Experts from the housing industry, architecture and science shed light on the current and future possibilities for living in prefabricated housing estates in urban and rural areas.

With

• Mirjam Philipp (Director VSWG)
• Alexander Müller (Chairman VDW)
• Prof Dr Sigrun Kabisch from Leipzig (guest scientist at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research)
• Architect Christiane Hähle (IGC)
• Architecture critic Dr Wolfgang Kil
• Dr Matthias Rasch (Managing Director of Trave GmbH from Lübeck)

Moderation: Dr Bernd Hunger, Chairman of the Board of the Kompetenzzentrum Großsiedlungen e. V.

• Registration online or at the visitor service of the Museums of the City of Dresden on +49 351 488 7272 (Mon - Fri)

An event organised by the Kompetenzzentrum Großwohnsiedlungen e. V. in cooperation with the Stadtmuseum Dresden

• Duration: 1 hour
• Meeting point at the ticket office
• Guided tour free of charge plus museum admission
• Registration online or at the Visitor Service of the Museums of the City of Dresden on +49 351 488 7272 (Mon - Fri)

• Duration: 1.5 hours
• Meeting point at the ticket office
• Guided tour free of charge plus museum admission
• without registration

Become a master builder and design your own piece of the city! Create your own mini concrete slab from liquid plaster. Before the plaster sets, add some colour! Decorate your "Platte" with colourful stones, glittering sand and mosaic tiles. Whether it's a colourful apartment block or a chic pattern - you decide what the "Platte" of the future will look like.

• Age: 6 to 13 years
• Duration: 2 h
• Cost: €5 per child
• Registration online or at the Visitor Service of the Museums of the City of Dresden on +49 351 488 7272 (Mon - Fri)

"Platte" is grey and boring! Is that really true? In our exhibition, we will show you how colourful and diverse the "Platte" was and is. Afterwards, you can decorate your own "Platte" with your own patterns in our workshop.

• Age: 8 to 11 years
• Duration: 2 h
• Cost: €5 per child
• Registration online or at the Visitor Service of the Museums of the City of Dresden on +49 351 488 7272 (Mon - Fri)

• Duration: 1.5 hours
• Meeting point at the ticket office
• Guided tour free of charge plus museum admission
• without registration

Become a master builder and design your own piece of the city! Create your own mini concrete slab from liquid plaster. Before the plaster sets, add some colour! Decorate your "Platte" with colourful stones, glittering sand and mosaic tiles. Whether it's a colourful apartment block or a chic pattern - you decide what the "Platte" of the future will look like.

• Age: 6 to 13 years
• Duration: 2 h
• Cost: €5 per child
• Registration online or at the Visitor Service of the Museums of the City of Dresden on +49 351 488 7272 (Mon - Fri)

• Duration: 1.5 hours
• Meeting point at the ticket office
• Guided tour free of charge plus museum admission
• without registration

In the city museum we discover prefabricated buildings - these are houses that consist of many identical concrete slabs and were built in many cities. Then, using LEGO® bricks and a lot of imagination, you will transform such a prefabricated building and its surroundings into new, good living environments! All the ideas will then be shown in a small exhibition.

• Age: 8 to 11 years
• Duration: 3 h
• Cost: €6 per child
• Registration online or at the Visitor Service of the Museums of the City of Dresden on +49 351 488 7272 (Mon - Fri)

In the city museum we discover prefabricated buildings - these are houses that consist of many identical concrete slabs and were built in many cities. Then, using LEGO® bricks and a lot of imagination, you will transform such a prefabricated building and its surroundings into new, good living environments! All the ideas will then be shown in a small exhibition.

• Age: 8 to 11 years
• Duration: 3 h
• Cost: €6 per child
• Registration online or at the Visitor Service of the Museums of the City of Dresden on +49 351 488 7272 (Mon - Fri)

• Duration: 1.5 hours
• Meeting point at the ticket office
• Guided tour free of charge plus museum admission
• without registration

• Duration: 1.5 hours
• Meeting point at the ticket office
• Guided tour free of charge plus museum admission
• without registration

The Gorbitz prefabricated housing estate, which was built in the 1980s, has changed bit by bit over the past 25 years. Where once one block resembled another, today there is diversity, not only in the form of colourful facades, but also inside the buildings. Lifts, bathrooms with showers and windows, spacious kitchens, new balconies, tenants' gardens - all this can now be found in the "Platte" thanks to modernisations and conversions.

One outstanding and well-known conversion project is the Kräutersiedlung, which was realised between 2002 and 2004 by the Eisenbahner-Wohnungsbaugenossenschaft Dresden eG. But a lot has also happened in Gorbitz since then, and construction is still ongoing in several places.

The guiding principle has always been to preserve the strengths of prefabricated housing (e.g. spacious, green inner courtyards and compact structures) while at the same time eliminating disadvantages (e.g. small kitchens and bathrooms, six-storey buildings without lifts).

The tour leads to selected converted residential buildings and is intended to illustrate the potential of prefabricated housing and its future viability using the example of Gorbitz.

With Konstanze Mally

• Duration: 2 hours
• Meeting point at the Merianplatz tram stop (out-of-town side)
• Participation free of charge
• Registration online or at the visitor service of the Museums of the City of Dresden on +49 351 488 7272 (Mon - Fri)

• Duration: 1.5 hours
• Meeting point at the ticket office
• Guided tour free of charge plus museum admission
• without registration

Presentation of the publication accompanying the exhibition "PLATTE OST / WEST. Living and building in large panel construction"

The book contains seven essays that examine the development of prefabricated housing in East and West Germany from an architectural, historical and social perspective.

The publication is part of the Baukunstarchiv NRW publication series, which will also be showing the "Platte" East/West exhibition.

Editors are Markus Lehrmann, Claudia Quiring and Wolfgang Sonne.

An event organised by the Stadtmuseum Dresden in cooperation with the Baukunstarchiv NRW

The photographer Christine Starke presents her 1989 photo album about the Gorbitz development area.

The work documents a residential building using black and white photographs in medium format. The album is characterised by its elaborate design with various fold-out elements that lead the viewer from the outside to the inside and from the cellar to the roof. The photographs show the architecture, the residents and their living environment in the then new residential complex.

The photo album is currently on display in the special exhibition "Platte Ost / West" and will be removed from the display case for the event.

About the photographer:
Christine Starke (born 1951 in Dresden) has been working as a freelance photographer since 1985, specialising in portrait, documentary and architectural photography.