The Bauhaus School - Design and Architecture
To have been a young adult in the years just before and just after World War I was to experience both terrifying social upheaval and dizzying intellectual freedom. The old order, as the Victorian and Edwardian eras came to a close, had been characterized by the rise of the middle class whose wealth often resulted from the industrialization of every form of production. While the middle class enjoyed the benefits of this industrialization, the working class sank more deeply into poverty and despair. Few governments had acted to alleviate such inequality between classes. Even before the outbreak of war, and indeed, for several decades before, there had been among Europe's intellectual elite, a growing revolution - the seeds of Marxism, socialism, and other social theories which intended to create a utopia for the working class.
Germany was home to many of these young radical thinkers, but other countries such as Russia, Hungary, Poland, France, Britain, Ireland and Scandinavia were also experiencing tremendous intellectual upheaval. Before World War I had even been declared over, there was revolution in Russia. And in Germany, suffering defeat and humiliation at the hands of the victors, millions of unemployed desperate men were ready for any New Order that would feed them and put them back to work.
Against this background, the Bauhaus school opened in Weimar in 1919, headed by Walter Gropius. Gropius, an architect, had been a leader of the Deutsches Werkbund, a group of artists, designers, industrialists and financial supporters who felt the industrial arts should be elevated to the same status as fine arts. By so equating these two forms of creative endeavors, the artisan would become as respected as the artist, and take greater pride in his work. At the same time, industry would benefit by fresh ideas and more cooperation between worker and factory owner. The movement no doubt had wonderful intentions, but failed to achieve its goals before the War intervened.
Gropius realized that to achieve this kind of happy cooperation between industry and art, the education of both fine and applied arts had to be reformed. The student had to tackle the problems of both artistic technique and machination, or production, of the final product. Gropius, as a Werkbund member, saw the simple utilitarian objects of daily life as opportunities to create beauty, provide employment, and provide improved design at the same time.
In 1925 he stated: 'Bauhaus wishes to serve the actual development of housing, from simple utensils to the complete dwelling house. Convinced of the fact that a house and the utensils have to be in a sensible relation to each other, Bauhaus tries to find the form of every object in its natural functions and presuppositions by systematically experimenting in theory and practice ...Bauhaus wishes to... educate a new type of worker for industry and handicrafts, so far missing, who simultaneously has the command over techniques as well as form... in the future, handicraft will [be] a supporter of industrial experimental production. Speculative experimentation in laboratory workshops create models - types - for the production to realize'. (Bauhaus Manifesto, 1919). By the mid 1920s Gropius had refined the starting points of modern design and its doctrines.
The Bauhaus curriculum combined theoretic education and practical vocational training in its educational workshops. As teachers, or Bauhaus Masters, Gropius brought from all over Europe such men as Lyonel Feininger, Vassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Johannes Itten, Oscar Schlemmer, and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. Marcel Breuer, Hannes Meyer and Josef Albers also joined the faculty.
The educational process was as much responsible for innovation and new design paradigms as the philosophy of the Bauhaus. Beginning with a required Preliminary Course, students learned the basics of fine art (color theory, composition, drawing). After completing this requirement, the student then chose the discipline he wished to pursue, in specialized workshops, for architecture, textile design, furniture design, typography, etc. This pedogological system was soon copied by art and design schools all over the world. Students studied the problems of manufacturing, the requirements for housing large populations inexpensively, or bringing beauty as well as function into the home through fabric, furniture or utensils.
Some of the more successful designs for the home are now so commonplace, we no longer give them a thought: the use of natural materials for fabric with colorful geometric patterns, the use of tubular steel for furniture, the use of cast concrete and glass in architecture, as well as prefabrication in the building process. By 1924 mass housing was the great social issue of Weimar Germany; by 1932 no other country had built more housing for its workers. Although architects had been members of the faculty from the beginning, the Bauhaus curriculum did not include architecture until the mid-1920s. With its stated philosophy of Expressionism as its guide, the Bauhaus style of architecture would proceed from certain assumptions:
The Bauhaus school left its greatest impact, however, in the field of applied design. Here, in designing for those objects of daily life which are mass-produced by industrial technology, it is perhaps harder to design a first-rate teapot than a second-rate painting. Modern design is now respected as a profession and an art. We are no longer surprised to see exhibits of modern furniture in museums such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
In 1937, in the wake of the Nazis' rise to power, many members of the Bauhaus migrated to the United States, where Gropius became head of the school of architecture at Harvard. Moholy-Nagy opened the New Bauhaus, which evolved into the Chicago Institute of Design, and Mies van der Rohe, who had become the head of the Bauhaus in 1930, was installed as dean of architecture at the Armour Institute in Chicago.
Soon American architects were learning the principles of the new International Style , a name taken from the book, International Architecture by Walter Gropius. The Beaux-Arts tradition, the American Romanesque Style, the Chicago School, and even the legacy of Frank Lloyd Wright were marginalized by the new style. An American corporation in the late 20th century is likely to call home a tall, sleek, glass edifice. The practical innovations developed by the Bauhaus have profoundly effected designs favored by industry as shown by the desks and chairs that fill offices, lobbies, and campuses across America. The effects of the Bauhaus stretches beyond our furniture and light fixtures, into the realms of architecture, social theory, and manufacturing processes.
"Modern individuals of 1926 need cities, buildings, dwellings, and appliances from their own time, the clear results in form and technology of the means and methods that our intellectual achievements have made available. ... Only once the comprehensive goals of modern architecture have been achieved will our epoch have defined a style of its own!" -Walter Gropius
Germany was home to many of these young radical thinkers, but other countries such as Russia, Hungary, Poland, France, Britain, Ireland and Scandinavia were also experiencing tremendous intellectual upheaval. Before World War I had even been declared over, there was revolution in Russia. And in Germany, suffering defeat and humiliation at the hands of the victors, millions of unemployed desperate men were ready for any New Order that would feed them and put them back to work.
Against this background, the Bauhaus school opened in Weimar in 1919, headed by Walter Gropius. Gropius, an architect, had been a leader of the Deutsches Werkbund, a group of artists, designers, industrialists and financial supporters who felt the industrial arts should be elevated to the same status as fine arts. By so equating these two forms of creative endeavors, the artisan would become as respected as the artist, and take greater pride in his work. At the same time, industry would benefit by fresh ideas and more cooperation between worker and factory owner. The movement no doubt had wonderful intentions, but failed to achieve its goals before the War intervened.
Gropius realized that to achieve this kind of happy cooperation between industry and art, the education of both fine and applied arts had to be reformed. The student had to tackle the problems of both artistic technique and machination, or production, of the final product. Gropius, as a Werkbund member, saw the simple utilitarian objects of daily life as opportunities to create beauty, provide employment, and provide improved design at the same time.
In 1925 he stated: 'Bauhaus wishes to serve the actual development of housing, from simple utensils to the complete dwelling house. Convinced of the fact that a house and the utensils have to be in a sensible relation to each other, Bauhaus tries to find the form of every object in its natural functions and presuppositions by systematically experimenting in theory and practice ...Bauhaus wishes to... educate a new type of worker for industry and handicrafts, so far missing, who simultaneously has the command over techniques as well as form... in the future, handicraft will [be] a supporter of industrial experimental production. Speculative experimentation in laboratory workshops create models - types - for the production to realize'. (Bauhaus Manifesto, 1919). By the mid 1920s Gropius had refined the starting points of modern design and its doctrines.
The Bauhaus curriculum combined theoretic education and practical vocational training in its educational workshops. As teachers, or Bauhaus Masters, Gropius brought from all over Europe such men as Lyonel Feininger, Vassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Johannes Itten, Oscar Schlemmer, and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. Marcel Breuer, Hannes Meyer and Josef Albers also joined the faculty.
The educational process was as much responsible for innovation and new design paradigms as the philosophy of the Bauhaus. Beginning with a required Preliminary Course, students learned the basics of fine art (color theory, composition, drawing). After completing this requirement, the student then chose the discipline he wished to pursue, in specialized workshops, for architecture, textile design, furniture design, typography, etc. This pedogological system was soon copied by art and design schools all over the world. Students studied the problems of manufacturing, the requirements for housing large populations inexpensively, or bringing beauty as well as function into the home through fabric, furniture or utensils.
Some of the more successful designs for the home are now so commonplace, we no longer give them a thought: the use of natural materials for fabric with colorful geometric patterns, the use of tubular steel for furniture, the use of cast concrete and glass in architecture, as well as prefabrication in the building process. By 1924 mass housing was the great social issue of Weimar Germany; by 1932 no other country had built more housing for its workers. Although architects had been members of the faculty from the beginning, the Bauhaus curriculum did not include architecture until the mid-1920s. With its stated philosophy of Expressionism as its guide, the Bauhaus style of architecture would proceed from certain assumptions:
- The new architecture was to be created for the workers;
- the new architecture was to reject all things bourgeois;
- and the new architecture would return to the original Classical principals of Western architecture.
The Bauhaus school left its greatest impact, however, in the field of applied design. Here, in designing for those objects of daily life which are mass-produced by industrial technology, it is perhaps harder to design a first-rate teapot than a second-rate painting. Modern design is now respected as a profession and an art. We are no longer surprised to see exhibits of modern furniture in museums such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
In 1937, in the wake of the Nazis' rise to power, many members of the Bauhaus migrated to the United States, where Gropius became head of the school of architecture at Harvard. Moholy-Nagy opened the New Bauhaus, which evolved into the Chicago Institute of Design, and Mies van der Rohe, who had become the head of the Bauhaus in 1930, was installed as dean of architecture at the Armour Institute in Chicago.
Soon American architects were learning the principles of the new International Style , a name taken from the book, International Architecture by Walter Gropius. The Beaux-Arts tradition, the American Romanesque Style, the Chicago School, and even the legacy of Frank Lloyd Wright were marginalized by the new style. An American corporation in the late 20th century is likely to call home a tall, sleek, glass edifice. The practical innovations developed by the Bauhaus have profoundly effected designs favored by industry as shown by the desks and chairs that fill offices, lobbies, and campuses across America. The effects of the Bauhaus stretches beyond our furniture and light fixtures, into the realms of architecture, social theory, and manufacturing processes.
"Modern individuals of 1926 need cities, buildings, dwellings, and appliances from their own time, the clear results in form and technology of the means and methods that our intellectual achievements have made available. ... Only once the comprehensive goals of modern architecture have been achieved will our epoch have defined a style of its own!" -Walter Gropius
Barcelona Chair designed by Mies Van der Rohe in 1928.