The Silbersalz Festival in Halle (Saale), from October 30 to November 3, 2024
A colorful mix of economic impulses and projects, as well as dystopian visions of the future in artful robotic aesthetics, greeted visitors at this year’s Science & Media Festival Silbersalz24. The Science and Structural Change Market in the former Galeria Kaufhof building on Halle’s marketplace offered a wide range of information from Friday to Sunday on the use of natural resources, sustainable production, and supporting such economic structures. For example, local craftspeople showcased their work, including a folding map provided at the booth of the Burgenlandkreis Development and Economic Promotion Corporation (SEWIG). The map lists around 50 businesses in the Burgenlandkreis region, offering products ranging from wooden toys to culinary goods—an especially great tip for the holiday season.
Alongside industry, science also had a strong presence. At the Leopoldina booth, visitors could learn all about peatlands and floodplains and their significance for soil water balance. Meanwhile, the natural building material clay was explored in a cultural context through guided clay-building tours in the Giebichenstein neighborhood. Many of these historic buildings, prized for their excellent indoor climate, have been left to decay, explained Franziska Knoll from the GoLehm Clay Building Initiative during her tour of the Giebichenstein district. She emphasized that it's high time to rediscover and work with this material. At the booth of the Schwemme e. V., visitors could immediately put theory into practice and try their hand at constructing a timber-framed wall with clay.
All in all, the Structural Change Market, as one of the main venues of this year’s Silbersalz Festival, offered an inspiring glimpse into what is already happening and what is still emerging—such as ideas for personal creative projects that could receive funding through the Saxony-Anhalt Ideas Competition for Future, Land, and People: REVIERPIONIER.
“New European Bauhaus (NEB) – How Can the Construction Transition 2030/2045 Succeed in Central Germany?” was the topic of a panel discussion hosted by Forum Rathenau e. V. at the CarbonCycleCultureClub (C4) on November 3, 2024. Experts, including Prof. Eike Roswag-Klinge, Managing Director of the Institute for Architecture, NATURAL BUILDING LAB – Department of Structural Design and Climate-Adaptive Architecture at TU Berlin, Bauhaus Director Dr. Barbara Steiner, and Franziska Knoll of GoLehm, discussed approaches to the major challenge of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in building construction and operation, and examined how a systemic transformation in this field can be achieved.
For more information:
https://www.forum-rathenau.de/professor-roswag-klinge-im-interview/
