100 Years Later, the Bauhaus Continues to Influence Design

 

 

 

We take modernism in all its stripes for granted, whether it is watered down for the masses and sold at a Target or Ikea store, or a soaring testament to corporate power like New York’s Seagram building.

 

A hundred years ago, a group of artists and designers believed that true design is an artistic and purpose-driven philosophy about humanity.

 

The Bauhaus School began in 1919 in Dessau, Germany and continued in fits and starts through 1933, when finally, the Nazis made it too difficult for the school to continue.

 

 

A vision of the future, 1925-1927: at top, the Bauhaus building in Dessau, Germany, designed by Walter Gropius. Below, Gropius’ utopian vision was that students and teachers would collaborate on new ideas and physical expressions, “functional design.”

 

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“Our guiding principle was that design is neither an intellectual nor a material affair, it is simply an integral part of the stuff of life, necessary for everyone in a civilized society.”

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At its core, the Bauhaus was borne of a philosophy that argued for a more harmonious marriage between aesthetics and modern manufacturing.

 

“Our guiding principle was that design is neither an intellectual nor a material affair,” said Walter Gropius, found of the Bauhaus movement. “It is simply an integral part of the stuff of life, necessary for everyone in a civilized society.”

 

The founders even went so far as to believe that the movement could and would change the way we interact with everyday objects – the precursor to the philosophy that form must follow function.

 

 

 

 

From top: a set of nesting tables by Marcel Breuer (1927); a cradle by Peter Keler (1922); a tea trolley by Aalvar Alto (1936); and Marcel Breuer’s Wassily chair (1925-6).

In fact, their belief was more that there should be no distinction between the two; resulting in some of the most remarkable design works of the 20^th century.

 

With the centenary anniversary, cities are celebrating Bauhaus with dozens of events, workshops, and exhibitions, including the newly restored Bauhaus school in Dessau Germany.

 

 

The famous Bauhaus signet or logo, designed in 1922 by Oscar Schlemmer; below, the mobile Bauhaus school or  Wohnmaschine (“living house”) designed by Berlin-based architect Van Bo Le-Mentzel is currently touring the world, from Berlin to Hong Kong.

And while the Bauhaus school only lasted a decade or more, its philosophy continued to influence 20^th century design, informing artists and designers from Scandinavia to Switzerland, the United States to Tel Aviv (in fact, Tel Aviv’s White City has the highest concentration of Bauhaus architecture in the world.)

 

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“We want to create the purely organic building, boldly emanating its inner laws, free of untruths or ornamentation.”

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The school produced such talents as Anni Albers, Marcel Breuer, Wassily Kandinsky, and Paul Kee, among many others. These were Gropius’ “new guild of craftsmen,” those who created works that did not have the “class snobbery” of other movements.

 

 

 

From top,  László Moholy-Nagy’s Segments (1921); a lecture hall in the Municipal Library of Vybork, Russia, designed by Alvar Aalto, (1935) with his iconic Artek 60 stools; and a gouache by Anni Albers for an unexecuted wall hanging (1926).

Nowhere did Gropius see this as more of an imperative than in architecture, despite the fact that the school did not offer architecture classes until 1927.

 

“We want to create the purely organic building, boldly emanating its inner laws, free of untruths or ornamentation,” said Gropius. His statement could easily be viewed as a mantra for post-war modernism.

 

After it was driven underground by the Nazis, a diaspora of architects and designers spread out across the world, creating some of modernism’s most influential and iconic design.

 

WATCH | Bauhaus at 100 – Celebrating a Century of Art and Design, courtesy of Sothebys (watch full-screen)

 

 

The Centenary Celebration of Bauhaus

Click here to find out what’s happening in cities around the world.

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