The Originality in Bauhaus-Post 4

Bauhaus was a school of combined crafts and fine arts, located in three German cities.  The school was first located in Weimer, Germany from 1919 to 1925, then in Dessau, Germany from 1925 to 1932 and Berlin, Germany in 1932 to 1933.  Bauhaus school had three different architect directors, but was founded first by German architect Walter Gropius in Weimer, Germany in 1919.  Gropius was the first director until 1928 when Swiss architect Hannes Meyer became director until 1930 and German-American architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, succeeded as director until the school was forced closed in 1933 by the Nazi government. 

 

The school was named Bauhaus meaning in German house of construction, with the idea that it would be a school of building.  Although Bauhaus was founded by an architect, it did not include an architecture department for a couple of years.  Instead, the school’s curriculum was based on the philosophy that the school would contain art that would encompass all arts including architecture.  Over time, Bauhaus developed a curriculum that included art, graphic design, architecture, typography, interior design and industrial design.  Bauhaus also developed a style that set a trend in architecture that influenced Modernist architecture and modern design, with its simplification of form and creation of ornament from the structure and theme of the building.

As the Bauhaus school relocated, it experienced transition in its curriculum.  For instance, Bauhaus lost one of its most financially productive programs, the pottery shop when Ludwig Mies van der Rohe took over as director in 1930.  Ludwig Mies van der Rohe privatized Bauhaus and decided to take autonomy in recreating the academic methods of design based on a different hypothesis and ideal.  Ludwig Mies van der Rohe wanted to create an architecture that was original.  Bauhaus became known for its International style, which is attributed more to Walter Gropius, and its designs consisted of expression of volume rather than mass, the emphasis on balance rather than preconceived symmetry, and the expulsion of applied ornament.  Mies van der Rohe contributed to the use of industrial steel and plate glass to define interior spaces.  He made great efforts toward creating architecture with minimal framework of structure and free-flowing open space, or “skin and bones” architecture.  He believed in the aphorism that “less is more”.  It was both Gropius and Mies van der Rohe that created this International style that would be adopted by architects all over the world. 

According to scholars, the Bauhaus style was already present in Germany before the school was founded.  The German national designers' organization Deutscher Werkbund was formed in 1907 by Hermann Muthesius to harness the new potentials of mass production, with an idea towards preserving Germany's economic competitiveness with England.  In its first seven years, the Werkbund came to be regarded as the authoritative body on questions of design in Germany, and was copied in many countries.  Many fundamental questions of craftsmanship versus mass production, the relationship of usefulness and beauty, the practical purpose of formal beauty in a commonplace object, and whether or not a single proper form could exist, were argued out among its 1,870 members (by 1914).  This movement of German architecture during that time was called Neues Bauen, and was influenced by the idea of modernism.

Peter Behrens, a German architect and designer, worked for the German electrical company (Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft), and successfully integrated art and mass production on a large scale. He designed consumer products, standardized parts, created clean-lined designs for the company's graphics, developed a consistent corporate identity, built the modernist landmark AEG Turbine Factory. He also developed the idea of newly developed materials such as poured concrete and exposed steel.  Behrens was a founding member of the Werkbund, and Walter Gropius worked for him during this period.  Since Gropius was influenced by Behrens, extending on expression of volume rather than mass, expulsion of applied ornament and emphasis on balance rather than preconceived symmetry.  It was because Gropius extended on the Neues Bauen, Behren’s architecture ideas and founded Bauhaus and its creation of the International style, the school and its name was surely to succeed internationally, capturing the interests of other architects all over the world throughout the decades.  The Bauhaus style and architecture can be seen today in public buildings such as train stations, industrial factory buildings, corporate office buildings and home designs.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauhaus

Hunter, Sam. Modern Art. 3^rd Ed., Pearson Prentice Hall, New York. 2004.

http://routestravel.blogspot.com/2011/11/bauhaus-style-in-middle-east.html