The Bauhaus is much more than just a building, it is a complete design movement. The style was founded in 1919 in Weimer, Germany and it is a return to simple classical lines. It combined both art and technology to create pieces that were ornament free, classical, and pure. This style wanted to create functional and practical work that was pleasing aesthetically and technically. The best pieces were ones in which commodity and delight comingled. The Bauhaus style was also important because it drew design away from the 19th century work that focused on recreating the past. This new style lead to the creation of the Bauhaus school which taught about both arts and crafts and the warehouse. The school also taught about different art styles, but ironically didn’t teach architecture, which was Gropius’ specialty. The teachings tried to lead deign to a more modernistic industrial world. The school was started in 1925 and lasted until 1932, when it was shut down by the Nazis. Over the years it operated it produced a plethora of talented designers and helped to spread the Bauhaus style outwards. In America it was known as the international style and influenced office buildings and skyscrapers alike.
The Bauhaus also had cultural reasons for being built. The Bauhaus style arose right after WWI ended, and it was an escape from the violence. Gropius believed that the school would lead Germany in a social, economic, and cultural renewal. Bringing together the arts showed and encouraged economic rise and social unity throughout the country, but not limited to the arts. Before the war the school didn’t have precedents to be built, but after such economic and social hard times the need for change was there. The new school was what the country needed to save itself from the destruction the war brought with it.
The Bauhaus itself is the perfect example of the style it teaches. Both the exterior and the interior are reflections, and this is exactly as Gropius had intended. The building itself is in a propeller shape to emphasize the presence of machinery. Machinery both in the way work was produced in the workshops, and as a reference back to the war. Many casualties were lost in the war so the school was used to show the way that machines helped to save lives, and also to give a defensive appearance. The building also uses clean lines and flat planes to emphasize the style. The exterior is also very unique because of the use of the curtain wall and the transparent effect it has on the whole building. The glass “curtains” made it so that the buildings façade was supporting only itself, and then the curtain walls attached to such. The Bauhaus was one of the first buildings to use such a technological design. Another notable feature of the building are the materials used. Glass and iron were the two obvious framing materials, but concrete and other unadorned materials were also used. Altogether, the Bauhaus was a perfect learning environment because the designers were encompassed by their own teachings and design.
The Bauhaus not only served as an impressive piece of architecture that resembled the style of the time, but also spoke to the cultural hardships of Germany. It helped to promote the use of technology alongside the arts, and showed how the two could effectively work together. It fostered a new design style that got architecture out of the monotonous recreations of the past, and produced forward thinking. The Bauhaus also stood as a symbol of strength and defense for the country, seeing that WWI had just ended and before this the country was in both economic and social despair. In conclusion, the Bauhaus moved the country from its lowest point to a time of prosperity socially, economically, and artistically.
[1] Roth, Leland. Understanding Architecture. Boulder, Colorado, 2007.
-James-Chakraborty, Kathleen. Bauhaus Culture: From Weimar to the Cold War. Minnesota,2006.
-http://www.bauhaus-dessau.de/index.php?bauhaus_building_history_of_use
-http://www.bozzle.com/perBauhaus.html
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtain_wall
2 comments:
you suggest that "Gropius believed that the school would lead Germany in a social, economic, and cultural renewal. Bringing together the arts showed and encouraged economic rise and social unity throughout the country, but not limited to the arts." in the next paragraph, you talk about the building and its design characteristics, but do not draw upon HOW the building represents SOCIAL UNITY. i think you're onto something, but you just need to make sure that you write about that and show that in your drawings. be watchful of saying things like "the style begin in 1919"...it took many years for the "style" (if there is one) to be established by all the bauhaus faculty. strive for less description and more analysis focused on the key idea about SOCIAL UNITY.
Hello my name is Antonio Moretz I am in yor 221 class. I would like to pair my Rosenwald school with the Bauhaus school. The the social impact on culture and use of natural light are simular.
Have a good day.
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