Bauhaus Architecture: Origins and Characteristics of Bauhaus

Bauhaus architecture is a school of design and architecture founded by architect Walter Gropius in 1919, in Weimar, Germany. The school was founded to unite fine arts (like painting and sculpture) with applied arts (like industrial design or building design). While the Bauhaus school became non-operational in 1933, the Bauhaus movement continued, birthing a new form of architecture that produced simple designs that are beautiful, functional, and can be mass-produced. Bauhaus architecture’s characteristics include functional shapes, abstract shapes used sparingly for décor, simple color schemes, holistic design, and basic industrial materials like concrete, steel, and glass.

Bauhaus style was born in the Staatliches Bauhaus, a German art school that functioned from 1919 to 1934. Here’s a brief overview of the school’s evolution and eventually closing:

• Inception: Architect Walter Gropius, who founded the school, was upset by the rapid industrialization of the era without any thought for artistic quality or humanity, and the large rift between the fine arts (like painting and sculpture) and the applied arts (also called arts and crafts during the time; things like furniture design, graphic design, and architecture). A merger of two Grand-Ducal Saxon Academy of Fine Art and the Grand Ducal Saxon School of Arts and Crafts resulted in the birth of the architecture school, with Gropius leading the charge as director.
• Faculty: Notable faculty of the Bauhaus school included Marcel Breuer, László Moholy-Nagy, Paul Klee, Marianne Brandt, Johannes Itten, Oskar Schlemmer, Herbert Bayer, Josef Albers, Anni Albers, Georg Muche, and Wassily Kandinsky.
• Evolution: Over the next 14 years, the school went through several relocations and school buildings (from Weimar to Dessau to Berlin) and several directors (from Gropius to Hannes Meyer to Ludwig Mies van der Rohe), and its goals and tenants fluctuated with each change. However, at its core, the Bauhaus school’s driving force was its aim to reintegrate art and industrialization.
• Closure: The school was forced to close during World War II in 1933 by the Nazi regime. After the school’s closure, some Bauhaus students and faculty fled the city, leading to the spread of the style throughout the world, from the United States to the Middle East.
• Global impact: A New Bauhaus school was founded in Chicago (later becoming the Institute of Design, part of the Illinois Institute of Technology); Walter Gropius went on to accept a teaching position at the Harvard Graduate School of Design; several Bauhaus artists designed and built over 4,000 Bauhaus buildings (called the White City) in Tel Aviv, Israel, and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003. The Bauhaus style remains one of the most influential design schools of the twentieth century and a vital piece of art history.

Modern Bauhaus architecture is characterized by:

1. Functional Shapes.

Bauhaus design features little to no embellishment or ornamentation, instead drawing attention to the streamlined design. For example, many Bauhaus buildings have flat roofs to create a simple, geometric look. Tubular chairs—simple chairs held up by an angular length of steel tubing—are another quintessential example of Bauhaus interior design’s beautiful functionality: functional and straightforward, with geometric shapes and few extraneous details. Another popular characteristic of Bauhaus design is abstract shapes, used sparingly in decoration, and a functional option for mass production.

2. Simple Color Schemes.

Bauhaus design aims for cohesion and simplicity, so architectural color schemes are often limited to basic industrial colors like white, gray, and beige. In interior design, primary colors are often used—tones of red, yellow, or blue—sometimes all together but more often in focused, deliberate ways (such as a single red wall, or a yellow chair).

3. Industrial Materials.

Since the Bauhaus movement focuses on simplicity and industrialism, it most often tries to incorporate the fewest different materials possible, all of which are considered industrial, modern materials. These materials include glass (especially in ribbon windows or glass curtain walls), concrete (especially in building design, and steel (especially in appliances and objects like lamps and chairs).

4. Balanced Asymmetry.

Bauhaus architecture and design aimed for visual balance through asymmetry. (Symmetry was considered too industrial without any artistic heart.) As a result, Bauhaus designers worked to unite and balance buildings and rooms by incorporating the same elements throughout (for instance, the same materials and shapes, or repeating colors) without making both sides the same. A landmark example of this is the Bauhaus building in Dessau, which includes several different shapes and angles while remaining cohesive with white paint and extensive window designs.

5. Holistic Design.

Among the essential tenets of Bauhaus design is integrating the school’s techniques into every element of life, including city design, street corners, building architecture, furniture design, appliances, eating utensils, and typography. This holistic, integrated approach requires the designer to keep the school’s tenets at the forefront of every choice they make when designing a room or building look in the Bauhaus style.

Bauhaus influences are still evident in our current design trends:

• It ushered in the “modern” wave. Before and during the Bauhaus school’s rise, design trends were highly decorative and ornate, including Victorian style, colonial style, and art deco. Bauhaus revolutionized the design field of the day by aiming for simple, functional buildings and furniture. These influences carried on through modernist architecture and are still seen throughout modern art and design, especially in Scandanavian minimalism, mid-century modern design, apartment buildings, and office spaces.
• It popularized industrial materials. The Bauhaus school likely influenced the glass, steel, and concrete materials that have become a staple of modern interior design. Before Bauhaus, these materials were considered aesthetically displeasing or utilitarian; the school reimagined these materials as sleek, simple, and beautiful in their functionality. Ribbon windows and glass curtain walls often indicate the Bauhaus influence, as do the tubular chairs (inspired by the Bauhaus-designed Wassily chair) often used to decorate offices.
• It influenced modern course instruction. The Bauhaus school had a unique syllabus design. Students started their first year in introductory classes called the vorkurs (or “preliminary course”), which covered subjects like color theory and design principles. After the preliminary course, students would move on to more advanced technical courses like glassmaking or furniture design. This class structure has been adopted by many schools of architecture and design around the world. In 1994, the German federal government founded the nonprofit Bauhaus-Dessau Foundation to support students of experimental design.

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