House of Building: A History and Explaination

(i told y'all it was coming and it is here! the source of my aesthetic coming straight out of Germany. It is a little tweaked from the original which was also an essay from my HUM2250 class. Have fun reading!)  

House of Building

Rising out of the ashes of post-World War One Germany, the artistic movement is known as Bauhaus, or ‘House of Building’, has created a massive influence on future modern movements to come. To truly understand the movement, and what created its significance, we're gonna dig deep into the history of Germany in the early twentieth century and the world around it during this time of war, poverty, governmental changes, and class division. This call to the crafts and unity in the arts is a symptom of The Great War and has a direct correlation to the ideologies of the school and the art it produced.

Founded in 1919 by architect, Walter Gropius, who merged two pre-existing art schools in Germany to create the foundation of the infamous Bauhaus. Gropius’s philosophy in creating the school was to bring all arts together as one and teach NOT in isolation but in UNITY, such as a workshop. Tired of class distinction not only in civilization but in the arts and the arrogant aura that traditional artists had, Gropius, aimed to break down the wall separating the craftsman and the artist and bring them together to be taught at one school. The crafts that Gropius mentioned where acts such as architecture, painting, and sculpture. Over the years new crafts would be added to the school, such as tapestry, woodworking, and photography. Gropius’s ideologies on class distinction came from the end of World War One, and the drastic changes happening in Germany’s political history. World War One raged from 1914-1918 (you already knew that) and left Germany in shambles, its economy wrecked, and it’s people frazzled. During these years Germany faced two revolutions, one throwing away Marxism, and the other renaming her as a Republic instead of an Empire. Civil war tore itself through the country in the name of defending social class between the Monarchist right and the Socialist left. Socialism victored over the Right in April of 1919 and gave the World War One Veteran, Walter Gropius, a spark of hope and optimism to write the Bauhaus Manifesto, published in the April 1919. Most of the Bauhaus students were also veterans of The Great War and subsequently connected to the message Gropius presented in the Bauhaus Manifesto.

“Let us then create a new guild of craftsmen without the class distinctions that raise an

arrogant barrier between craftsman and artist! Together let us desire, conceive, and create the

new structure of the future, which will embrace architecture and sculpture and painting in one

unity and which will one day rise toward heaven from the hands of a million workers like the

crystal symbol of a new faith.” (Gropius)


In a country facing class division in every place, Bauhaus was a place where the mission was to demolish those walls between the arts and attempt to teach a new and modern way of creating. Even the city in which Bauhaus was built, Weimar, had a 10km border around it to keep out the Left, in the times of civil war, just years before the building of the art school. This unique time in Germany allowed the need for inexpensive, yet functional items to manifest into a call back to the fundamentals of art and craft.


Modernism had already made a presence in Germany after her defeat in World War One. The WREKT economy made simple, stylish, and functional architecture appealing due to its inexpensive nature. One of the many influences of the creation of Bauhaus was William Morris, a late 19th Century designer who preached that art should be practical and be useful to society. Morris’s argument for form and function is seen here where he is quoted to have said ““Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.”” (Denzer) This aim for functionality played a big role in the modernist way of crafting in Bauhaus. The Haus am Horn, an experimental residential house, was created for the first Bauhaus exhibition. Haus am Horn presented an economical way to give a home functionality and modern design.









The original plans for the house (pictured left) show a large living center in the middle with multiple rooms placed around the perimeter. The finished house (pictured right) shows the minimalist, simple design of the exterior of the home! After the exhibition in 1919, the Haus am Horn gained a significant amount of attention and word was spread that the plans would be used for cheaper housing in Germany, but such plans nEVER went through. (Which is super sad because I mean fucking look at that thing. It's dope.) Although never used, it proved to be an influential stepping stone to put Bauhaus on the map for modernist architecture. Gropius, when asked about the Haus am Horn stated “the greatest comfort with the greatest economy by the application of the best craftsmanship and the best distribution of space in form, size, and articulation." (Weber) It not only was a new design but was not so radically different as to be off putting to the citizens in the area. It was a house of practicality and that is what made it a success.

Bauhaus not only was influential in modernist architecture but in every aspect of design. Its ideologies and demand for functionality presented in a minimalist fashion is what drew in talented students and faculty from all over the globe. A former student, Herbert Bayer, who in time came back to teach at Bauhaus , designed a typeface called Universal Bayer. (Pictured below on the left) One font that reduced the redundancy of having two alphabets, one upper case and one lower. Though never manufactured, it is a famous example of Bauhaus’s modern, simplistic, and functional practices.








Club Chair, (pictured above on the right) is a classic piece of Bauhaus furniture. Using new technology to produce a s e a m l e s s  metal frame, that does not compromise the design but actually, makes the frame stronger. It is another example of Bauhaus’s philosophy towards art shining through. This model of the chair became popular many years later one an Italian furniture company began mass producing it. These examples show that a movement cannot exist in a vacuum. Without Germany’s unique history these artworks would never gain the traction needed to exist. Even the buildings Bauhaus operated out of are feats of modernism made only of concrete, glass, and steel. The original building (shown on the left) functioned for the school until Gropius designed a new building (pictured on the right) in Dessau. The school moved due to political pressure put on Bauhaus from the community. One can see that the font on the new building seems to be a similar version of Herbert Bayer’s Universal Bayer.









Bauhaus was unable to remain open in 1930’s Germany due to the Nazi party (S A D) gaining power in the German government, the Bundestag. Most of the faculty and student population were Jewish. Despite the closure, the school would reopen in the late twentieth century in Berlin. It is still in operation today. Gropius created a radically new philosophy in art that has permeated through, not only, Germany, but the WORLD for the last century. The call to bridge the gap between the bourgeois art and the functionality of crafts. Its influence is still easily seen in all forms of art and design. With contemporary architecture using not only the works that came out of the Bauhaus period, like the works mentioned earlier but the ideologies and philosophies that created the foundation. It is said that Bauhaus’s influence traveled with its faculty after its closure in the 1930s. They went all around the globe and began teaching and opening more art institutes using Bauhaus’s philosophy as the backbone of their teachings. With this ideology being taught globally throughout the twentieth century it has made Bauhaus the catch all term for modernist styled art. This applies to contemporary artists who did not even attend the school, like Eileen Gray, for example, who is famous for modernist furniture.


Bauhaus, or yah know the House of Building. Building not only massively influential art that has transcended the last century, but building an art movement out of the times. An unforgiving love for art that refused to be warped by political agenda or by cultural stigmas. Staying true to the spirit of the times in post World War One Germany. An art movement that switched the perspective on how we view the arts and crafts as no longer only for aesthetics but for a place for functionality. These ideas that have withstood time are what have proved Bauhaus to be one of the dopest movements of all time.

Works Cited

"Bauhaus."Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 14 Feb. 2017. Web. 10 Mar. 2017.




"Bauhaus Movement, Artists and Major Works."The Art Story. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2017.




Gropius. "Bauhaus Manifesto ." N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2017.




"The Bauhaus and the contradictions of artistic utopia - artnet Magazine."The Bauhaus and the contradictions of artistic utopia - artnet Magazine. N.p., 28 Jan. 2010. Web. 10 Mar. 2017.




"The Bauhaus Group."Google Books. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2017.