Inspiration and Architecture Design History: Bauhaus

Most people today are aware of the Bauhaus, or have at least heard the name before.

Regardless of how familiar you are or not one thing is for sure: You can learn a lot (and be even more inspired by) some of the classic movements of design and architecture and I hope to provide you with some Bauhaus basics – big names, main ideology, and some famous projects.

Ready to be educated and inspired?

A Quick History

The school was founded in Weimar, Germany in 1919. Although it would only remain open for 14 years before closing under pressure from the Nazi government, the Bauhaus was able to revolutionize the way design was taught and executed.

It would become an integral contributor to the Modernist movement, and would primarily work towards the marriage of form to function; unnecessary decoration was rejected, and objects were made to be easily mass-produced. Bauhaus is distinct for it’s emphasis on design as a “craft” rather than an “art.”

Here are some designers and pieces associated with Bauhaus:

Walter Gropius was the founder of the Bauhaus and accomplished contributor to International Style/Modernist architecture; would eventually emigrate to the UK, and then to Massachusetts to serve on Harvard’s design faculty.

Bauhaus’ second campus in Dessau, 1926:

Gropius’ contribution to Berlin’s Interbau housing development, 1957. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (surname is ‘Mies’, not ‘van der Rohe’).

Third and final director of the school; later moved to Chicago, and would have an enormous impact on American architecture – he was one of the main designers to help popularize rectangular, glass-walled skyscrapers with exposed structures. Known for the aphorism “less is more.”