The Bauhaus Movement / An art school in Germany became the progenitor of modernism in architecture
Bauhaus Emblem
The city of Tel Aviv, Israel, has been designated a World Heritage site by UNSECO on the grounds of having more than 4,000 Bauhaus-style buildings built from 1933 onward.
Walter Gropius
A prolific architect, the founder of the Bauhaus art school and Movement was a pioneer of modernist architecture. He was also a proponent of the "International Style" (a staple of Bauhaus architecture), inspired by the newfangled surge of liberalism in the nascent Weimar Republic.
The Bauhaus Motto
The key tenet of the Bauhaus movement was "form follows function", i.e. they designed prioritising functionality over appearance, as seen in this chess set, originally designed by Josef Hartwig. The set is fit for purpose, made with minimalist forms but very little embellishment or creativity.
Headquarters
Over the years, the Bauhaus art school was under leadership of various leaders. As mentioned, it was founded by Walter Gropius, who was later supplanted by Hannes Meyer (1928) and then Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1930) up until its forcible closure in 1933 following Nazi repression. Through the course of its existence, the movement was quartered in three locations: Weimar (until 1925), Dessau (logo pictured; until 1932), and finally, Berlin.
Bauhaus vs the Nazis
The Nazi party was not keen on the existence of the Bauhaus movement, looking on it as a "centre of communist intellectualism". The school's presence in Germany by 1933 was fleeting, though Bauhaus émigrés continued to disseminate their beliefs all around the world, where they influenced the mode of architecture well past their expulsion from their country of origin; indeed, their legacy remains in much of modern architecture, as we will see in the next exhibit.
Tel Aviv: the Bauhaus Abundance
The city of Tel Aviv, Israel, was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site for one of its quarters — which came to be known as "White City" — comprised of some 4,000 Bauhaus-style buildings. In fact, this manner of building was imported into Western Europe, the USA, Canada, Israel, and undoubtedly many more parts of the world, where the architects made a lasting impression on the cities' skylines...
Bauhaus Museum, Dessau
Just yesterday, the Bauhaus Museum in Dessau was opened by the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, the occasion being the 100-year anniversary of the founding of the Bauhaus school of art. It was built in Dessau — notable as being the city of the Bauhaus's second headquarters. There are two further museums, indeed in the other two cities the movement was quartered in (Weimar and Berlin).
More examples of "form follows function"
A modest and simplistic chair design with only the necessary amount of backrest and leg.
Bicycle in simple style
Typical bicycles don't have an awful lot of form to compromise on, though this standard red Bauhaus bike spares zero decorative details. Nothing is superfluous, nothing is overly detailed... it just works.
End
Though the original Staatliches Bauhaus of Germany no longer exists, the history and culture it left still do; there are many examples of production by this school of art, originally a humble institution, which now pervades modern design.
