Bautzen Memorial

On September 19th, the third and last part of Bautzen Memorial's permanent exhibition »Haft unterm Hakenkreuz Bautzen I und Bautzen II 1933-1945« about the National Socialist penal system was inaugurated. gewerkdesign has been involved in the different stages of Bautzen Memorial's remodelling since 1997, having created the design for the exhibition parts about Bautzen as a Stasi prison and as a special detention camp during the Soviet occupation. The parts are chronologically arranged on the three stories of the building. While the architecture of the building was mostly left in its original state, a few of the rooms were rearranged: Their contemplative exhibition design provides an opportunity for the visitors to concentrate on the exhibitions and on the information given. Creative highlight: the rooms are furnished with a free transformable, modular system of wooden shelves – elegantly honouring the complex history of the memorial site. The shelf compartments' proportions are similar to the former prison cells, thus referring to the site itself and its architecture. In order to physically and semantically guide the visitors through the multi-layered area, gewerkdesign created a signage system and, together with Lotsenhaus Media, a media guide.