House of the Princess – A Whole State as a Garden

Background

The House of the Princess, also known as the Grey House, is the exhibition centre of the Dessau-Wörlitz Cultural Foundation. It was built in 1789 as the private retreat of Princess Louise Henriette Wilhelmine von Anhalt-Dessau, wife of Prince Leopold III Friedrich Franz. Before being inaugurated as exhibition centre in 2023, it was thoroughly modernized. Today, the House of the Princess contains a permanent exhibition showcasing 18th century landscaping as well as the princess’s significant art collection that not only conveys her deep understanding of art but also reflects her humanistic education and her knowledge of the discourse going on during her time, the enlightenment period. Numerous documents, letters and artworks prove her vast intellectual and societal activities. 

In addition to the permanent exhibition, changing special exhibitions take place at the House of the Princess. For this reason, gewerkdesign has devised the permanent exhibition with moveable elements so that it is possible to easily deinstall and reinstall the exhibition in accordance with current conservation standards and to store it efficiently. Maximal flexibility and highest-quality presentation of the exhibits were central factors in the exhibition design. gewerkdesign developed a discrete visitor routing, compact exhibition furniture, object cases and carts. The furniture enables the easy deinstallation of the exhibition and concurrently functions as depot architecture that ensures the storage to be in line with conservation standards. The graphic, material and colour concepts are based on historic styles, reflecting the feudal taste of the royal residence in a contemporary manner. A web-based app with audio guide explains the exhibition content with in-depth information in German and English as well as in a children’s version. The app was developed specifically for this commission by gewerkdesign in collaboration with the Berlin-based design studio Kulturbanause.

Tasks / Range of Services
General contractor, implementation planning, exhibition production, exhibition design, planning of the object presentation, exhibition graphics, information booklet, media graphics, app development