2023-02-01
The term Bauhaus is used both in the context of the art and craft school founded in Weimar by Walter Gropius and colloquially for the architectural direction created by the school. What should we know about the Bauhaus?
In 1919, Walter Gropius, the German modernist architect, founded a school of crafts, applied arts and architecture in Weimar. Its aim was to improve people's quality of life through modern design. The school moved to Dessau in 1925, where Gropius, together with his students, designed his school's famous building, which becomes one of the architectural icons of the 20th century. Due to the dissatisfaction of the Nazi authorities with the direction taken by the school, it changed its address again, this time to Berlin. This happens in 1933, the Bauhaus then was functioning as the private Mies van der Rohe School. Eventually, the school was closed down by the Nazis in 1934 anyway.
Today, the aforementioned building in Dessau is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Today, most of the building is used by the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, founded in 1994, whose mission is to preserve and pass on the Bauhaus legacy.
One of the first characteristics that can be seen in Bauhaus design is simplicity (e.g. lack of ornaments and decoration), which goes hand in hand with a tendency towards optical separation of spaces and a predilection for geometric forms. The artists valued the functionality of each designed object, which was supposed to harmonize with the whole designed environment (everyday objects with architecture). Interestingly, they strove for the use of repetitive forms, and prefabricated elements from which it should be possible to build various combinations. Bauhaus' ideologues recognized the architect's important role, who regulates the relationship between nature, technology and man through his designs.
The most important artists of Bauhaus should definitely include Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, László Moholy-Nagy and Wassily Kandinsky. All of them were associated with the academy and all sought to combine technology with art.