'Bauhaus' (selam bauhaus) means 'hello bauhaus' in Amharic, one of the main languages in Ethiopia. Visually, the Amharic letters can also be interpreted as 'Why Bauhaus' to question the overuse of this label in 2019. So why Bauhaus? A hundred years ago, the teachings of architecture and design at the Bauhaus responded to the rapid changes in society and their impact on the built environment. The ambitions and methods of the historical Bauhaus can still inspire us today: against the backdrop of global climate change and migration, the methodological approaches of the State Bauhaus are more relevant than ever. With the Emerging City Lab Addis Ababa (ECL-AA), the Bauhaus University Weimar and the Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction and City Development (EiABC) of Addis Ababa University established a joint laboratory. This publication showcases projects from teaching and research that have emerged from this collaboration. Innovation and social responsibility are brought together through experiments with building materials, construction practices, and planning methods, transcending cultural, social, and disciplinary boundaries. The projects were presented in 2019 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus and the 65th anniversary of the EiABC in the exhibition 'Bauhaus (selam bauhaus) - hello bauhaus'.