SMART THINKING
Celebrating the school that informed a design movement.
We celebrate 100 years of Bauhaus – the school that informed a design movement.
Originally founded in Weimar in 1919 by Prussian architect Walter Gropius, Germany’s Bauhaus art school united function and aesthetics – and thereby informed modernist architecture, art and design worldwide. While Bauhaus translates as ‘building house’, Gropius wanted to help his students see the world in a new way, and they were taught a range of disciplines – from pottery and weaving to advertising and typography – in addition to architecture. “An object is defined by its nature,” said Gropius. “In order to design it to function properly, one must first of all study its nature. For it to serve its purpose perfectly, it must fulfil its function in a practical way.” Marcel Breuer’s Wassily chair (1926) – the first domestic chair to use tubular steel – is just one of the many designs to emerge from Bauhaus at that time.
The art school moved to Dessau in 1925 and Berlin in 1932 – where it operated until 1933, when it was closed as a result of Nazi pressure. But by then its influence had spread, and many of its teachers had emigrated all over the world. In 1937 the ‘New Bauhaus’ opened in Chicago, and in 1938, New York’s Museum of Modern Art staged a Bauhaus exhibition. Students also continued to study the Bauhaus method all across the world. Florence Knoll was one such student, studying under German-American architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.
The reach of Bauhaus design and architecture can be seen in over 29 countries. In 2003, UNESCO named Tel Aviv’s White City a World Heritage site due to its incredible 4000 Bauhaus buildings. And this year Berlin is celebrating 100 years of this influential movement. Exhibitions such as ‘Original Bauhaus’ and ‘Bauhaus and Photography’ present the Bauhaus from both an artistic and thematic perspective all around the city.