The Bauhaus: The House of Construction

The Bauhaus was a school for art, design and architecture founded in Weimar, Germany with a core objective “to reimagine the material world to reflect the unity of all the arts.” The Bauhaus intended to create products that were simple in design which as a result could be easily mass produced. The works produced by the Bauhaus were entirely diverse as there was no distinct “style.” Students began with a preliminary course that taught the basic Bauhaus theory and then were allowed to enter into specialized workshops. Throughout the years, it moved to Dessau and then Berlin and ending with the closure by Nazi soldiers. As a result of its existence, the Bauhaus had a major impact on art, design, and architecture trends throughout the rest of the century.

The ideology of the Bauhaus was conceived when Walter Gropius, a German architect, sought for a unification of the arts through craft. Gropius wanted to end the division between industry and art by training students equally in both crafts and fine arts. In 1919, the Weimar Academy of Arts and the Weimar School of Arts and Crafts merged together into what is known as the Bauhaus, or “house of construction.” Walter Gropius was appointed director and described the school as “a utopian craft guild combining architecture, sculpture, and painting into a single creative expression” in his Proclamation of the Bauhaus. Gropius soon developed a curriculum in which he combined elements of both fine arts and design education which would turn out artisans and designers effective in creating useful and beautiful objects. Gropius employed some of the most outstanding and well known artists of the 20th century. The curriculum began with a mandatory six month preliminary course taught by visual artists Johannes Itten, Josef Albers, Laszlo Moholy Nagy, Paul Klee, and Vasily Kandinsky. This introductory course prepared students for more specialized studies by immersing students in the study of materials, color theory, and formal relationships.

After passing the six month preliminary course, the students chose to refine their skills in any of the advanced workshops, which included carpentry, metalwork, pottery, sculpture, stained glass, wall painting, weaving, graphic arts, typography, and stagecraft. The advanced workshops were almost always taught by two instructors, an artist and a craftsman. The artist, also known as the Form Master, emphasized theory and design, while the craftsman was responsible for teaching the proper techniques and technical processes. The student received a journeyman’s diploma after completing three years of this advanced workshop instruction.