Prefabricated building EAST / WEST

Moving into new-build flats in Dresden, November 1975 | Photo: © Giso Löwe

Building with prefabricated panels - today generally referred to as prefabricated construction - was not only strongly characterised by the GDR. There were and still are numerous buildings in West Germany too. Countless flats were built using this construction method, especially in the 1960s to 1980s.

But why did people build this way? What were the advantages and disadvantages? What was it about living in the Platten? Today, we urgently need many new flats again. The focus is on modular, serial construction. So does the slab have a future?

The exhibition presents the different stages of prefabricated housing construction in a variety of ways: The exhibits range from contemporary models, photos, designs and an artistic spatial installation to playful approaches and interviews to a digital Tetris slab construction game. The various phases from 1945 to the present are presented - and we dare to take a look into the future.

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Photo at the top: Dresden-Mockritz, Olga Körner retirement home, around 1974 | Photo: © Erich Höhne, Deutsche Fotothek

Write us your »Plattenbau stories« and let us take a look at your photo albums or those of your parents!

We look forward to every memory and idea. Please send us your photos & texts to platte@projekte-museen-dresden.de

Please also leave your telephone number so that we can contact you. We will be in touch!

Your contact persons

Dr Claudia Quiring, curator for architectural history at the Stadtmuseum Dresden and Jonas Malzahn (studio central), freelance co-curator
platte@projekte-museen-dresden.de

And we are interested in what you really want to see in the exhibition:

What topics, questions or objects should be included?
What have you always wanted to know about prefabricated housing and would like to find out in the exhibition?
Do you have any objects that could be shown in the exhibition? Send us a photo and tell us the story behind it. Then we can work together to see what is feasible.

KI generiert: Das Bild zeigt eine Gruppe älterer Menschen, die auf einer Bank vor einem hohen Wohngebäude sitzen. Zwei Sonnenschirme bieten ihnen Schatten.

Playgrounds in the new Johannstadt neighbourhood, February 1976, SMD/Ph/2005/01248 | Photo: © Giso Löwe

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The residents know best what it was and is really like – they are the real experts. So we ask you:

Who lives in them – back then, directly in the new buildings, and today, possibly under completely different circumstances?
What is different in a prefabricated block than in an old building?
What did it look like in your prefabricated block? What details are there to discover?
And what was it like in the past? What might have disappeared in the meantime?
What memories do you have of your estate/flat? These can be smells, sounds, experiences and feelings ...
Did you work in one of the facilities belonging to each new-build complex (shopping centre, after-school care centre, service centre, outpatient clinics, etc.)?

Prefabricated building EAST / WEST

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