7.5 — Bauhaus & The International Style
The Bauhaus (1919–1933) fused art, craft, and industry to shape modern living. Its ideas spread worldwide after the school’s closure, informing the International Style’s glass-and-steel language of clarity, volume, and functionalism.
Founding and Philosophy
Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus in Weimar to unite workshops under a “total work of art” ideal. Curriculum emphasized materials, experimentation, and collaboration between artists and artisans.
Definition: Form Follows Function
The principle that a design’s shape should directly reflect its purpose and use—central to Bauhaus and International Style thinking.
Workshops and Media
- Preliminary Course (Vorkurs): Color, form, and material studies (Johannes Itten, later Josef Albers).
- Metal & Furniture: Marcel Breuer’s tubular steel chairs; Marianne Brandt’s lamps and teapots.
- Textiles: Anni Albers and Gunta Stölzl’s innovative weaves linking art and industry.
- Graphics: Herbert Bayer’s sans-serif typography; unified visual identity.
Architecture at the Bauhaus
- Gropius: Bauhaus Dessau building—glass curtain walls, ribbon windows, and asymmetrical composition.
- Hannes Meyer: Emphasized social housing, collective needs, and functional planning.
- Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (director 1930–1933): Minimal structure, open plans, and “less is more.”
International Style
Codified in the 1932 MoMA exhibition by Philip Johnson and Henry-Russell Hitchcock, the International Style highlighted volume over mass, regularity over symmetry, and avoidance of applied ornament.
- Mies van der Rohe: Barcelona Pavilion (1929); Villa Tugendhat (1930); later Seagram Building (with Philip Johnson, 1958).
- Le Corbusier: “Five Points” (pilotis, roof garden, free plan, ribbon windows, free façade); Villa Savoye as manifesto.
- Gropius & Breuer in the U.S.: Harvard Graduate Center; modern housing experiments.
Materials, Structure, and Space
Steel frames and reinforced concrete liberated walls from structural roles, enabling open plans and glass façades. Standardized components promised efficient, affordable construction.
Design for Everyday Life
From tubular steel furniture to modular kitchens, Bauhaus-affiliated designers sought mass-producible, affordable goods without sacrificing aesthetics—an ethical stance on democratizing design.
Note: Dispersion and Legacy
Nazi closure in 1933 scattered faculty worldwide—Chicago, Harvard, Tel Aviv (“White City”), and beyond—spreading Bauhaus pedagogy and International Style forms across continents.
Critiques and Revisions
Later critics faulted the International Style for austerity and placelessness, prompting regional modernisms and postmodern responses. Yet its clarity, modularity, and glass openness remain foundational to global architecture.
Looking Ahead
Next, Chapter 8.1 explores Dada and Surrealism, where chance, absurdity, and dream logic challenge rational design and modernist order.