Bauhaus by Walter Gropius | Architecture Enthusiast |
Architecture Enthusiast Presents: Bauhaus by Walter Gropius
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The Bauhaus Building was built in 1925 in Dessau Germany by Walter Gropius. The Bauhaus is an icon of the modern movement: a sleek steel, concrete, and glass structure designed to house the most progressive school of art and architecture of the time.
The campus features an asymmetric pinwheel plan, with dedicated areas for teaching, an auditorium and offices, and housing for students and faculty distributed throughout three wings connected by bridges.
Gropius relied on innovative engineering technologies to create a large skeleton of steel and reinforced concrete, brickwork, and mullioned steel windows. He achieved variation in the façades through restrained color difference between walls and the bold use of steel-framed glass to form curtain walls, one of the earliest examples of this characteristic feature of modernist architecture.
The building, constructed in the international style, consists of five functionally structured parts, arranged additively in several wings. The reinforced concrete-frame structures were arranged on a flat site in such a way that there is no "front" in the customary sense. In one of these wings was the " School of Arts and Crafts" (later to become a technical school), the workshop wing with its distinctive glass curtain wall and Atelierhaus. The wall's design evoked industrial innovation of a factory building rather than the tradition and civic elevation of an academic institution. The Atelierhaus contained the dormitory studios for the students. The north wing of the crafts school and the workshop wing are connected by a two-story bridge. This was intended for administrative rooms and the building office of Gropius (later the Bauhaus architecture department). In a flat building between the workshop section and the Atelierhaus are the auditorium and stage as well as the Bauhaus cafeteria.
Apart from the then novel functional division of buildings, the most extraordinary feature of the complex, which caused quite a stir in those days, is the glass curtain of the workshop wing. The support columns were set inward to allow for an uninterrupted glass facade to stretch over all three floors as well as the entire length of the building. The impression is one of transparency, lightness and flatness. This novel, transparent monumental design overcame all prevailing ideas of aesthetics.
The absence of ornamentation consistently defines the entire complex. The "open" facade creates a new, also from an educational perspective, effective relationship between the inside and outside, giving the impression of freedom and clarity. However, the delicate glass facade with its steel frame caused major problems in terms of sun protection and building climate control. In summer, the building heated up considerably due to direct sunlight. A necessary sun protection system consisting of curtains destroyed the intended transparency. In winter the building cooled down very quickly due to the single pane glass and required extensive heating. Ventilation is provided by mechanically controlled slatted windows, which are very elaborate in detail.
Particularly striking is the protruding five-story building section, which is known as the Prellerhaus. After its completion in 1926, the 28 studios were used by young masters and students as living and working space.
Walter Gropius used elements that would later become characteristic and determine the style: The entire building was organized according to function. The purpose of the building determined its form; its aesthetics resulted from its functionality. The facade design also foreshadowed its later usage. The revolutionary steel skeleton construction - load-bearing
UNESCO named the campus a World Heritage Site in 1996, and today it is open to the public as a museum and research center owned and managed by the Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau.
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Bauhaus by Walter Gropius | Architecture Enthusiast |
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