Bauhaus

Featuring:
Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer

Presented by: Nicole Kutay

History of Bauhaus
The Bauhaus was founded in 1919 by Walter Gropius. Gropius
came from the Werkbund Movement, which aimed to integrate
art and economics, and to add an element of engineering to art.
The Bauhaus was founded by the combining of the Weimar Art
Academy and the Weimar Arts and Crafts School.
Students were taught by both an artist and a master craftsman,
to unite creative imagination with the practical knowledge of a
craftsman, in order to develop a functional design.
The Bauhaus were dependent on state funding. In 1924 the
political composition of the Weimar parliament changed and
the Bauhauss contract was terminated.

 In 1925 the school moved to Dessau which was more

industrialized and had a sympathetic mayor, Fritz Hesse, who
welcomed the Bauhaus and secured funds for a new school
building.
During its time in Dessau, the Bauhaus went through three
directors. First, Walter Gropius who resigned because he was
tired of running the school. Second, Hannes Meyer, an
extreme functionalist, who was dismissed because the Dessau
government did not like his politicization of the school. And
third, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who ran the school as an
academy with his authoritarian dictatorship over the students.
In 1932 the Parliament of Dessau changed and once again the
Bauhaus were forced to move. Mies van der Rohe took the
school to Berlin where it stayed until 1933 when the National
Socialist government closed its door for being a hot-bed of
cultural-bolshevism.

Bauhaus Ideology
The school had three aims at its inception and
throughout its life:

To encourage the individual artisans and craftsmen to

work cooperatively and combine all of their skills.
To elevate the status of crafts, chairs, lamps, teapots, etc.,
to the same level enjoyed by fine arts, painting,
sculpting, etc..
To maintain contact with the leaders of industry and craft
in an attempt to eventually gain independence from
government support by selling designs to industry.

Walter Gropius
(1883-1969)
Born in Berlin, his father was an architect.
Educated in private elementary school.
1903 he left school and went to the Technical University in
Munich to study architecture.
1904-1905 he served in the military, then went back to school.
1907 he left school without completion and went back to
Berlin because of the death of his brother.
1907-1910 he worked for Peter Brehens, a leading figure in
the Werkbund Movement. He left Brehens when he thought he
had learned all he could from him and started his own practice.

1919 he founded the Bauhaus school.

1925 he moved with the Bauhaus to Dessau.
1928 he left the Bauhaus and went to Berlin to start his own practice.
1934 moved to England and worked with Maxwell Fry, one of the only
Modernist architects who were Britain. He pioneered Modernist
buildings in Third World countries. Gropius worked with him for three
years. 1937 began professorship of architecture at Harvard University
where he met Marcel Breuer.
1945 joined a group of young architects known as The Architectural
Collaborative (TAC).
He was an advocate of industrialized building carrying with it a belief in
teamwork and an acceptance of standardization and prefabrication.
Invented the screen wall system that utilized a structural steel frame to
support the floors and allowed the external glass wall to continue
without interruption

The Bauhaus School in Dessau

(1925 to 1926)

Bauhaus Masters House,

Dessau (1926)

Gropius House, Lincoln , MA

(1937)

Dining room
drape could be closed
for entertaining.
While the Gropiuses
entertained in the
living room, a maid
would be behind the
drape preparing the
dining room for dinner.
Using museum
lighting, Walter
created a dramatic
scene with the light
illuminating just to the
edge of the table.The
guest would be in
darkness while the
crystal and tableware
sparkled.

Living roomContains a fireplace

for its practical value
as well as the
psychological effect
an open fire has on
making you feel safe.
The top shelf of the
bookcase contains
only books written
by Gropius or ones
he had collaborated
on, so he would have
copies on hand to
sign and give to his
guests.

Front entry - Curved

staircase faces away
from the entry
signifying the upstairs
as a private place. By
removing the closet
door, the closet is
incorporated as a
design element, as a
way to introduce
color and texture that
would change with
the seasons. Floor is
a cork tile which is
sound absorbing,
durable, functional,
and elegant.

Harvard Graduate Center

(1950)
A group of
eight buildings
arranged
around large
and small
courtyards,
which houses
dormitories,
common
rooms, and a
250 capacity
meeting hall.

Marcel Breuer (1902-1981)

Born in Hungary.
1920-1924 studied under Gropius.
During his student years he designed furniture for the Bauhaus
model house.
1925-designed furniture for the new Bauhaus campus in Dessau
and became head of furniture workshop.
1928- started private practice in Berlin.
1937-moved to America and worked as an architect with Gropius.
1937-1947 taught at Harvard University.
1946-1976 had his own practice in New York, until he retired.

 Breuers buildings can be distinguished by his

attention to detail and clarity of expression.
He is considered on of the last true functionalist
architects.
He helped shift the bias of the Bauhaus from Arts
& Crafts to Arts & Technology.
Many pieces of furniture designed by him are still
in production.

Slatted chair 1922

Frame made of
stained maple,
back and seat are
from horsehair.
In 1921 Reitveldt
exibited to the
Bauhaus and
influenced
Breuers design.

Wassily Chair 1925

Created from the inspiration of
the shape and form of his
bicycle handlebars. Was designed
and made for Kadinsky. Frame
was made of polished, bent,
nickelled tubular steel. Seat
came in canvas, fabric or leather.
Breuer made a whole line of
tubular steel furniture because of
it many qualities. It is affordable
for the masses, hygienic, and
provides comfort without the
need for springs.

Typists table 1928

 From 1932 to 1934

Breuer designed a
range of furniture
made from flat
bands of steel and
aluminum. This
furniture was more
popular in the
1970s then it was
when it was
originally designed.

 Lounge chair

 Breuer took his earlier metal designs and made five

pieces of plywood furniture. He was influenced by an
exhibition in 1933 of plywood furniture designed by
Alvar Alto.

Robin Days Polyprop Chair

Breuer Buildings

1960

1961

Washington D.C. 1963/68

Whitney Museum of American Art,

New York, NY 1966

Whitney Museum entrance

1967

1977

References

20th Century Desinger Data Publisher. Marcel Breuer. www.r20thcentury.com

/bios/designers.
cfm?article_id=39.
BBC Education. Walter Gropius. www.bbc.co.uk/history/programmes/centurions/gropius/gropbiog
.html.
Design Technology. Marcel Lajos Breuer. www.design technology.org/Marcel Breuer.html.
Flores, G. Bauhaus. History of the Bauhaus. people.ucsc.edu/~gflores/bauhaus/history.html.
Huovio, Ilkka. Bauhaus: The New Man The New Technology. www.uiah.fi/presentation/ history/
ebauh.html..
Morgan, Ann. & Naylor, Colin. Contemporary Architects, 2nd edition. Cicago:Saint James Press, 1987.
Accessed via www.marcelbreuer.org.
Rowland, Anna. Bauhaus Source Book. New York:Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1990.
Sharp, Dennis. Illustrated Encyclopedia of Architects and Architecture. New York:Quatro Publishing,
1991. Accessed via www.greatbuildings.com.
The Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities. Gropius House. www.spnea.org.