Classical Architecture In The Bauhaus

The first decades of the 20th century in modernism was characterised by enormous social and political changes with a radically changing lifestyle. Technology, manufacturing, science and art was the driving force. The Bauhaus movement was one of the most influential modern design movements of the 20th century reaching its peak between the two world wars. It was founded in 1919 in the city of Weimar in Germany by architect Walter Gropius. Although the Bauhaus was founded by an architect, it did not actually have architecture department during its early years. Instead, Gropius wanted to focus on a study of art that would eventually encompass many different aspects of design, and tying them all together. The word Bauhaus

The Bauhaus was established in Weimar in 1919, with the architect Walter Gropius as its founder and first director (Harrison and Wood 1993, p. 338). The school was founded on Gropius’s principle of the importance of combining and unifying all the artistic and technical realms; a separation, which had been to the detriment of existing art schooling (Girard 2003, p. 6-­‐7). Gropius wanted to combine art and technology or “culture and civilisation” (Droste 2012, p. 15). The Bauhaus consisted of workshops with two distinct instructors, a “craft master” who was a

Question 1. Choose an architect or practice whose work is covered by or relevant to this course and discuss critically one or more of their design projects or drawings or urban proposals as precedent case-studies. Selectively situate this work in relation to their body of work, and against the practices and concerns of the period. Focus on the architectural qualities of a specific key aspect of the design of the projects. Selectively consider how they might relate to the historical situation, cultural values, theoretical concerns and design practices of the time. This may involve a selective analysis of compositional design practices, material fabrication production and the experiential reception of built outcomes of the projects.

The Neoclassical architecture consisted in the mid-1800s to the early 1900s. One of the earliest phases of the neoclassical architecture grew alongside with the Baroque Period. The architecture is generally evident in England, where there are buildings like the St Paul’s Cathedral, The Royal Observatory, and The Royal Chelsea Hospital. Large-scale structures, Ionic pillars, and huge Renaissance-style noodles represent the Neoclassical architecture. Many took inspirations from simple shapes like spheres, cubes, and cylinders so they could provide a more abstract classicism. Two well-known architects of the neoclassical period were the British architect Robert Adam and American architect Thomas Jefferson.

According to article “Graphic Incognito”, writer Mark Owens says that modernism exported to America through Bauhaus, which was a European movement that came around World War 2. The movement in America took shape in the 1980s with the influence of a new cultural era that was personified in different mediums, especially in music. He argues that certain modernist design tactics were adopted by suburban kids raised during the Reagan era in the early 1980s that were in the post- punk, hardcore, underground music scene. First of all, he begins his essay with a quote from Paul Rand about how “timeless principles” were the only hope to achieve a style of quality in one’s work.

The Bauhaus movement began shortly after the world war 1 in 1919 to re imagine the materialistic good to reflect how we perceive art works. It was a movement initiated by a German architect named Walter Groupius.The Bauhaus movement embraced and emphasized on the simplicity and the basis of a design. (Griffith 2007) The idea behind the movement was to design and manufacture beautiful and practical products using simple and economical techniques. The ideology of the school was not only to reflect society but improve it by combining simplistic beauty with productivity. (Naylor 1968) The Bauhaus implied form follows function which is created by a cross platform of functional craftsmanship in every field whilst experimenting and using different materials.

Writers, painters, and other artists produced some of the greatest work in the nation's history. During the 1920s, the main styles of architecture that emerged were Art Deco and Modern architecture. The Art Deco development began in Paris, however rapidly spread around Europe and over to America. The style was created at Bauhaus, a school in Germany that got to be acclaimed for its approach to the motif.

The “Five Points of Modern Architecture” was a manifesto for architecture written in 1926 by Charles-Edouard Jeanerette – better known as Le Corbusier - emphasizing what he believed were five principles that any building meant to be modern should have. One building which exemplifies each of these points is Corbusier’s own Villa Savoye, built 1929-31 in Poissy, France. Corbusier’s first point of modern architecture is known as inclusion of ‘pilotis’. Pilotis refers to Corbusier’s innovative idea of a vertical support system used to hold the horizontal planes of a structure. In Villa Savoye, this can be clearly seen in both interior and exterior by the rounded pillars holding up the floors and roof, essentially elevating the home and

Barr submitted the concept of what was to become of the museum. It had to be organized as a multi-departmental structure each devoted for Architecture and Design, Photography, Film and Video, and they should stand side by side with traditional arts such as Painting and Sculpture. Architect Philip Johnson built on this idea. The multi-departmental structure seemed to best fit with the burgeoning International Style, a modernist architectural movement from which Philip Johnson belonged. In this architecture, buildings are designed with simple geometric lines and clean, precise surfaces and with minimum decoration. Walls are made almost entirely of glass, known as curtain walls—a signature Johnson was known for—that are used to give the building a light and airy appearance.

There is often some confusion when people start talking about the post-modernism and modernism in architecture in terms of  their philosophical terminology differences. Modern architecture is known for its minimalism (Linder, 2004); buildings were functional and economical rather than comfortable and beautifully decorated. The post-modernism architecture, however, is called a “neo-eclectic, significantly assuming the role of a regeneration of period styles for designing houses, and a never-ending variety of forms and characteristics, asymmetrical designs for commercial buildings” (Fullerton Heritage, 2008). An example of these two polar opposites, “Less is more” made by Mies van der Rohe in 1928 (Blake, 1976) and "Less is a bore" made by

A reflection of the International Style and the Bauhaus movement, Mid-Century architecture was typically used residentially in the hope of bringing Modernism into the post-war suburbs.

The contrast between the cinder block wall and the glass facade is striking. They imply a

The Bauhaus was set up in 1919 in Weimar by Walter Gropius (1883–1969). In 1925, the Bauhaus moved from Weimar to Dessau, where a new building is designed by Gropius. In this essay, I am going to discuss about the opinions made by many writers on Gropius’s mindset and intention in building the new Bauhaus. The architectural aspects and interior space planning of the Bauhaus have become the identifications of the modernist architecture as well as legend in the history of design and design education.

The Bauhaus school was founded in 1919 in Weimar by German architect Walter Gropius (1883 - 1969). In 1923, Walter Gropius introduced the agreement between “creative artists and the industrial world”. The Bauhaus is most famous for the idea of combining forms and functions. They combined both fine arts and design elements to create a curriculum that trained artists and designers to be capable of producing both functional and aesthetic work. One of the main goals was to bring design and technology together. During the Bauhaus period, Fine art and craft were combined together and aimed toward problem solving for an innovative, modern and industrial society. Nowadays, the Bauhaus legacy continues in modern designs, such as minimalism, or design brands like IKEA. In this essay, I will analyze Bauhaus’s influence on modern design, including architecture and furniture design by exploring different examples from different periods of time.

The Bauhaus was created by Walter Gropius in the city of Weimar. He was a German architect