BA1 GDIM 2015-16-Contextual Studies: The Bauhaus

This school was founded by Walter Gropius a German architect, in 1919 in Weimar. His vision was to “utopian craft guild combining architecture, sculpture and painting into a single creative expression.” In 1925, from Weimar, the Bauhaus moved to Dessau where the building of the school was designed by Gropius himself and it had some features that later on, they became the trademark of modernist architecture. Such features included: steel-frame construction, glass curtain wall and an asymmetrical pin-wheel plan.

Walter Gropius

Bauhaus Building as designed by Walter Gropius

After changes in the director position for various times, in 1930 the Bauhaus was moved by the present/last director to Berlin because of the political situation in Germany and the uncertain financial state of the Bauhaus. But in 1933 Bauhaus was closed down because it was working on a reduced scale which wasn't enough to keep on going.

How Bauhaus as a school worked?

When entering the Bauhaus, students who used to come from different backgrounds both in education and in social, used to start with preliminary course which often would be taught by visual artists such as: Paul Klee, Vasily Kandinsky and Josef Albers. Apart the theory lessons, they had the practical lessons as well, which were called as workshops. Such workshops included; metalworking, cabinetmaking, weaving (textile), pottery, typography and wall painting with all the workshops having their own studio and their own director.

Among all of the workshops that students used to study/do, these were the most popular and their objects done usually they were used in the Bauhaus campus.

Metalworking: the director was Laszlo Moholy – Nagy but he was replaced by Marianne Brandt who was the first women to attend this workshop. One of the things that she created and remained popular among others is the silver and ebony teapot.

Laszlo Moholy - Nagy

Marianne Brandt

Silver and Ebony Teapot

Cabinetworking: the director of this workshop was Marcel Breuer, and in this studio they used to work things that has to do with furniture. The thing that Breuer created was a lightweight chair which he was inspired by the extruded steel tubes of his bicycle after he theorized that a chair can become outdated. Eventually to set up the Bauhaus (Dessau) theatre they used some of these chairs.

Marcel Breuer

Marcel Breuer chair creation

Weaving (textile): the director was Gunta Stolzl with the student being primarily women, here they created textiles which is abstract that also was used for the Bauhaus environment. Stolzl used to encourage her students to work with unorthodox materials such as cellophane, fiberglass and metal. Thanks to these objects done from this studio Bauhaus earned a lot of funds because the objects were commercially successful.

Gunta Stolzl

Gunta Stolzl work

Typography: the director was Herbert Bayer and although it wasn’t the priority of the Bauhaus, by time Bayer gave it its importance of usage; to corporate identity and advertising. Infect the promotional materials of the Bauhaus were done in this workshop with the use of sans serif typefaces and also the incorporation of photography.