The Bauhaus

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The Bauhaus The Bauhaus was the first model of
the modern art school. The Bauhaus curriculum
combined theoretic education and practical
training in the educational workshops. It drew
inspiration from the ideals of the revolutionary
art movements and design experiments of the early
20th c.
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• Literally means a construction building,
  Bauhaus was a common term for Staatliches
  Bauhaus. Also referred to its approach to design
  that it developed and taught, one of the most
  influential currents in Modernist architecture
• Established in 3 German cities in its 14 years
  Weimar, Dessau and Berlin.
• Most important contribution was in the field of
  furniture design Cantilever chair by Mart Stam,
  and the Wassily Chair by Marcel Breuer
• Closed on the orders of the Nazi regime in 1933.
  It was considered as a front for communists
  especially because many Russian artists were
  involved with it.

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In the beginning..

• An amalgamation of the old Weimar Academy of Fine
  Arts and the Weimar School of Applied Arts
• Henry van de Velde (Belgian), headmaster at the
  School of Arts and Crafts in Weimar, Germany, was
  asked to leave the country at the outbreak of
  World War I. He was replaced by Walter Gropius
  who reorganized the school under the name Bauhaus
  School of Design.
• Walter Gropius hoped to create a new social order
  through a regeneration of German visual culture
  where artists, craftspeople and architects would
  unite to build a symbolic future.

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in the face of economic plight. It is our task
to become pioneers of simplicity, that is to find
a simple form for all of lifes necessitates
which at the same time respectable and
genuine. -Oskar Schlemmer (1922)
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• What was new about the school was its attempt to
  integrate the artist and the craftsman, to bridge
  the gap between art and industry.
• This unity of arts is inspired by the Arts and
  Crafts movement, and the ideals of William Morris
  influenced Gropius's planning for the school.
• But the Bauhaus was the antithesis of the Arts
  and Crafts fundamental ways its emphasis was
  urban and technological, and it embraced 20th c
  machine culture.
• Mass production was the god, and the machine
  aesthetic demanded reduction to essentials

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the Bauhaus
The logo for the Bauhaus, a cathedral adorned
by 5-pointed stars promised the total art that
should embody architecture. Cathedral of
Socialism (1919) by Lyonel Feininger

• Architects, painters, sculptors,
• we must all return to crafts
• Bauhaus manifesto

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Bauhaus Teaching methods

• 2 categories of teachers Masters of form the
  artists and shop masters the artisans.
• Gropius believed that manual work was of primary
  importance in order that the students became well
  acquainted with the intrinsic qualities of the
  materials used workshops dedicated to these
  materials.
• Not initiated directly into architecture first
  have to acquire basic knowledge in construction
  art.
• Training at the Bauhaus will be based on a
  relearning of community life and initiation into
  all artistic disciplines.
• Vorkurs (initial course) Basic Design key
  foundation course now taught in architecture
  schools worldwide. History not taught
  everything was supposed to be created and
  designed according to first principles rather
  than following precedent.

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• Under the revolutionary curriculum of the
  Bauhaus, the notion of design was first taught
  formally, rather than one of emulation, for 6
  months,.
• Under the partnership of a craftsman and an
  artist, students received a balanced knowledge in
  both making and thinking for 3 years - spirit of
  the traditional guild
• Among the star teachers were Paul Klee, Wassily
  Kandinsky, Oskar Schlemmer, Johannes Itten,
  László Moholy-Nagy, Josef Albers and Marcel
  Breuer.

Learn the basics of all crafts before they
specialised in one particular area of interest.
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• Phase 1 Bauhaus, Weimar, 1919-25
• Walter Gropius
• "Let us create a new guild of craftsmen without
  the class-distinctions that raise an arrogant
  barrier between craftsman and artist!
• Combine architecture, crafts and the arts
• New period of history had begun with the end of
  the war, he wanted to create a new architectural
  style to reflect this new era - functional,
  cheap, and consistent with mass production.

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Phase 2 - Dessau Bauhaus 1925-32Hannes Meyer

• Civic atmosphere more industrial
• and progressive.
• Meyers approach was to research
• users needs and scientifically
• develop the design solution
• architectural focus shifted away
• from aesthetics towards user
• requirements.
• Architecture function x
• economics

A complete artistic community in concrete, glass
and steel..
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• The Bauhaus masters at Dessau.
• (fr left) Josef Albers, Hinnerk Scheper, Georg
  Muche, Laszio Moholy-Nagy, Herbert Mayer, Joost
  Schmidt, Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer, Vassily
  Kadinsky, Paul Klee, Lyonel Feininger, Gunta
  Stoizi, and Oskar Schemmer

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Phase 3 Berlin Bauhaus 1932-33Mies van der
Rohe

• Moved the Bauhaus to Berlin in 1932 to an
  abandoned warehouse.
• Spatial implementation of intellectual decisions
  adoption of Mies own aesthetics.
• No built projects during the 1930s.
• Mies decided to close the school in July 1933 in
  order not to submit artistic freedom to the
  demands of the Nazi authorities

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Bauhaus furniture

• The Wassily chair an armchair of nickel
• plated steel from a 1925 design by Marcel
• Breuer who was the head of the furniture
• workshop. This armchair, the first of its kind,
• was mass produced in 1926 in Berlin.
• Extendable wall lamp of iron and brass,
• Made in 1923 by KJ Jucker. This lamp is
• characteristic of the Weimar Bauhaus. The
• metal workshop was headed by Moholy
• Nagy, whose goal was to encourage the
• creation of functional models. This piece is a
• students attempt to combine a new
• mechanism with an appropriate form.

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Bauhaus furniture

• The Cantilever Chair and table by
• Mart Stam designed in 1926.

The Cantilever Table by Breuer, 1926
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• Despite its relatively short lifespan, the
  influence of the Bauhaus, in both aesthetics and
  architectural education, is far reaching. The
  Bauhaus signatory use of tubular steel for home
  furnishing is still being used today.
  Architectural education, via the revolutionary
  teaching methods of the Bauhaus, broke free from
  its traditional methods and incorporated problem
  solving design studios. Most of all, the Bauhaus
  aesthetic and design principles, through the
  works of Walter Gropius and Mies van der Rohe,
  had a great impact on architecture on an
  international scale through their migration to
  the US.

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Walter Gropius (1883-1969)

• Worked with Peter Behrens, established practise
  with Adolph Meyer
• Early commissions were borrowed from the
  Industrial Classicism introduced by Behrens.
• Served in WW1, after which became involved with
  radical artists in Berlin, appointed Director of
  Bauhaus in 1919.
• Created innovative designs that borrowed
  materials and methods of construction from modern
  technology. This advocacy of industrialised
  building carried with it a belief in team work
  and an acceptance of standardisation and
  prefabrication. Using technology as a basis, he
  transformed building into a science of precise
  mathematical calculations.
• A theorist and teacher, he introduced a screen
  wall system that utilised a structural steel
  frame to support the floors and which allowed the
  external glass walls to continue without
  interruption.
• Eventually left for the US

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Gropius House, 1937

• Very gradually the process of building
• is splitting up into shop production of
• building parts on the one hand, and
• site assembly of such parts on the
• other. More and more the tendency
• develops to prefabricate component
• parts of buildings rather than whole
• houses. Here is where the emphasis
• belongs.
• The future architect and builder will
• have at their disposal something like a
• box of bricks to play with, and infinite
• variety of interchangeable, machine-
• made parts for building which will be
• bought in the competitive market and
• assembled into individual buildings of
• a different appearance and size

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• Architecture that strips down to its bare
  essentials of functionality.
• In the Fagus Works, the architectural world was
  presented with a façade that was made of a steel
  skeletal framework that was not hidden under
  false pretences.
• It was the first appearance of the curtain
  wall so prevalent even in todays buildings.
• The Bauhaus, Dessau

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the Dessau Bauhaus building

• Teaching, student and faculty member housing, an
  auditorium, and office spaces.
• The pinwheel configuration when viewed from above
  represents in form the propellers of the
  airplanes manufactured in the Dessau area a
  clear and carefully thought out system of
  connecting wings which correspond to the internal
  operating system of the school.
• Abolition of the walls as load-bearing elements,
  walls are merely screens stretched between the
  columns the load is transferred to the skeleton
  frame wider opening up of wall surfaces which
  allows more light in

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workshops
Meeting hall dining room
Classroom
Student dorms
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Harvard Graduate Center 1950Cambridge,
Massachesetts

• A group of 8 buildings arranged to enclose a
  series of small and large courtyards.
• The final solution to the problem must,
  therefore, be based on finding a balance between
  the relatively rigid requirements of economy and
  construction, and the less definable
  psychological requirements which, when met,
  provide a stimulating environment for education

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The Bauhaus Archive Building 1964-79Berlin

• Gropius initiated the design of this building for
  the original site in Darmstadt.
• H-formation, light to the exhibition space
  provided through shed roofs.
• Site was changed to Berlin in 1971 due to
  political conflicts project was carried out by
  Cvijanoic and Bandel with some changes to
  Gropiuss design due to site differences

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