d67 DESIGN HISTORY / BAUHAUS
f one follows the unbending rules of business logic, the Bauhaus should have been confined to the dust bowl of history many years ago. It existed for less than 15 years and in that time, it had three heads that fought amongst themselves, and moved its headquarters three times – hardly a blueprint for success. And yet, it is still shaping much of the modern thinking on architecture and interior design.
I
The Bauhaus was founded by Walter Gropius in Weimar. The German term Bauhaus literally means ‘building house’, but in spite of its name and the fact that its founder was an architect, the Bauhaus did not have an architecture department during its first years of existence. Nonetheless, it
was founded with the idea of creating a ‘total’ work of art (Gesamtkunstwerk) in which all arts, including architecture, would eventually be brought together.
The school existed in three German cities: Weimar from 1919 to 1925, Dessau from 1925 to 1932, and Berlin from 1932 to 1933, under three different architect-directors: Walter Gropius from 1919 to 1928, Hannes Meyer from 1928 to 1930, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe from 1930 until 1933, when the school was closed.
The changes of venue and leadership resulted in a constant shifting of focus, technique, instructors, and politics. For example, the pottery shop was discontinued when the school moved from Weimar to Dessau, even though
it had been an important revenue source; when Mies van der Rohe took over the school in 1930, he transformed it into a private school, and would not allow any supporters of Hannes Meyer to attend it.
Possibly because he was the last of the three architect-directors of the Bauhaus and who then went on to find fame in the USA, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe is often thought of as the ‘father’ of the Bauhaus, but that is to sell the other directors, especially Walter Gropius, a little short.
“Stripping away detail, Gropius’s stated aim was to create designs ‘suitable for mass production… carefully developed and continually improved’,” says Johnny Grey, designer, author, educator and
designer kitchen & bathroom
designerkbmag.co.uk
MAY 2019
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