The Deutscher Werkbund was founded in 1907, in Munich, with the purpose of improving the quality of all industrially manufactured products, in order to reach a harmonic culture again, in a world affected by industrialization and mass production. The work of the association of architects, artists and businessman that, according to the maxim of one of his spiritual fathers, Hermann Muthesius, extends from the sofa cushion to urban design, reflects, in this way, the architecture, art and design of an entire century in its political and economic relations.

This exhibition was designed to mark the 100th/hundredth anniversary of the Werkbund and it describes, in seven chronologically structured sections, the efforts, the successes and the achievements of one of the most important and influential institutions of the 20th century, which also coined the cultural life of other European countries.

It is an exhibition of the Architectural Museum of the Technical University of Munich and the IFA – International Relations Institute of Stuttgart, sponsored by the then Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany, organized in Portugal by the Câmara Municipal de Santo Tirso/Fábrica de Santo Thyrso, by ESAD Matosinhos and by Goethe-Institut Portugal, and the roaming is provided by the IFA.

Up to this day important incentives emerge from the Werkbund, as a critical entity, towards the improvement of the environment and the living conditions. Many of the Werkbund’s attainments, like the good form of the industrial products and the corporate image of a company, have become so common throughout the world that the connection they had with its source is no longer provided. Likewise, milestones like the Werkbund’s Am Weißenhof housing development in Stuttgart, 1927, a manifestation of pioneer modern architecture in the 20th century, the presentation of the much-admired new housing concepts and of the German culture on the exhibitions in Paris, in 1930, and in Brussels, in 1958, or the first call for action, in 1959, on the issue of the effects of industrialization and urbanization on the environment, as well as the development of an awareness regarding the resources and the use of the technique, are not recognised today by the public as initiatives of the Werkbund.

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