NaoualCohen_16-03-2016_Historyofdesign_BAUHAUS

Bauhaus :

   Bauhaus, commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was an art school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicised and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term—literally "construction house"—was understood as meaning "School of Building".

The Bauhaus was first founded by Walter Gropius in Weimar. In spite of its name, and the fact that its founder was an architect, the Bauhaus during the first years of its existence did not have an architecture department. Nonetheless, it was founded with the idea of creating a "total" work of art in which all arts, including architecture, would eventually be brought together. The Bauhaus style later became one of the most influential currents in modern design, Modernist architecture and art, design and architectural education. The Bauhaus had a profound influence upon subsequent developments in art, architecture, graphic design, interior design, industrial design, and typography.

The school existed in three German cities: Weimar from 1919 to 1925, Dessau from 1925 to 1932 and Berlin from 1932 to 1933, under three different architect-directors: Walter Gropius from 1919 to 1928, Hannes Meyer from 1928 to 1930 and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe from 1930 until 1933, when the school was closed by its own leadership under pressure from the Nazi regime. The Nazi government claimed that it was a centre of communist intellectualism. Though the school was closed, the staff continued to spread its idealistic precepts as they left Germany and emigrated all over the world.

The changes of venue and leadership resulted in a constant shifting of focus, technique, instructors, and politics. For instance: the pottery shop was discontinued when the school moved from Weimar to Dessau, even though it had been an important revenue source; when Mies van der Rohe took over the school in 1930, he transformed it into a private school, and would not allow any supporters of Hannes Meyer to attend it.

STEPS:

Direct by walter gropius from 1919 to 1925

Direct by Hannes Meyer from 1928 to 1930 

Direct by Ludwing Mies van der Rohe from 1930 to 1933

industrialisation and changes produced to working class and craftmans

Grand Ducal school of arts and crafts and the weimar Academy of Fine Art

reconciliation of the fine arts and the applied arts

*design conscience

*importance of all steps in design

*rationalist/simplified shapes

Werkbund exhibition, 1914, Walter Gropius & Adolf Meyer, Cologne, Germany 

• The Deutshe Wekbund ( German Association of Craftsman ) is a German association of artists, architects, designers, and industrialists, established in 1970 to establish a partnership of product manufactures with design professionals.
• the Wekbund state-sponsored effort to integrate traditional crafts and industrial mass-production techniques.

Manifesto of the staatiches Bauhaus in Weimar 1919

• the ultimate goal of all art is the building
• architects, painters and sculptors must learn a new way of seeing and understanding the composite character of the building
• the unproductive « artist » will no longer be condemned to the imperfect practice of art because his skill is now preserved in craftsmanship, where he may achieve excellence 
• architects, sculptors, painters : all must return to craftsmanship 

Keys features of Bauhaus at Weimar

• influence of expression
• in search of a new craft overall design of the applied arts 
• progressive politicization because of the environment 
• the influence of the stijl alienates Bauhaus expressionism and approaches productivism with some Neoplasticist’s features.
• Begin his international fame

Keys features of Bauhaus at Dessau

• clearly politicked 
• dichotomy between working for the company or for the user 
• greater importance of architecture 
• abandonment of craftsmanship 
• international resonance
• resistance to the rise nazism 
• abrupt end despite is well known reputation