12.3.

4 Bauhaus, Dessau
AREA: 8,500 sq.m
DISCIPLINES
 Industrial Design
 Product Design
 Graphic Design
 Furniture Design
 Interior Design
 Textile Design
 Architectural Design

TIMELINE
 1919: The school was started in Weimar by Walter Gropius in a derelict factory.
 1920: Ceramic workshop, wood-carving and book-binding set-up.
 1922: Institution of housing cooperative established.
 1925: The design school moved to its iconic campus in Dessau.
 1925: Bauhaus GmbH started to market products designed at the institute.
 1927: Architecture course started.
 1929: A construction studio is run for a few years.
 1929: Metalworks, wall-painting and carpentry are merged to form Interiors
Department.
 1930: The school had to be relocated to Berlin.
 1931: The workshops and architecture department are merged to become the building
and interior design department.
 1933: The school was decommissioned due to political pressure.
 1996: UNESCO adds the institute building to the World Heritage Sites List.

THE INSTITUTION
The Bauhaus was founded in 1919 in the city of Weimar by German architect Walter
Gropius, but relocated to a new campus at Dessau in 1925. Its core objective was a radical
concept: to reimagine the material world to reflect the unity of all the arts. The Bauhaus
had a goal of creating objects through a unity of artistic work across all fields. The various
departments of the Bauhaus were segregated in name only, and cross-pollination was the
written rule. The institute had a craft-based curriculum that would turn out artisans and
designers capable of creating useful and beautiful objects appropriate to this new system of
living. While maintaining the emphasis on craft, the institute repositioned the goals of the
school in 1923, stressing the importance of designing for mass production.
 The curriculum commenced with a preliminary course that immersed the students,
who came from a diverse range of social and educational backgrounds, in the study of
materials, color theory, and formal relationships in preparation for more specialized
studies. Following their immersion in Bauhaus theory, students entered specialized
workshops, which included metalworking, cabinetmaking, weaving, pottery, typography, and
wall painting. The format of education at Bauhaus was very successful and soon other schools
picked up programs similar to the one at Bauhaus. In fact, most design programs in current
schools have been developed from the initial mode of teaching practiced at Bauhaus.

The school aimed to give a new direction to the existing practices in design. It aimed
to make the designer aware of his social responsibility. It exhorted the designer to design for
the masses. It picked up the idea of industrially mass produced designs which could reach
the maximum number of people. It blended technology with art and also tried to blur the
distinction between the artist and craftsman. The institute also tried to merge the various
disciplines for the designer, with a view that designers should approach their design
issues holistically. The institute sought to be a pioneer for future design practices and the
building was designed which exemplified the spirit embodied by the institution.

The increasingly unstable political situation in Germany, combined with the perilous
financial condition of the Bauhaus, caused the institute to relocate to Berlin in 1930, where
it operated on a reduced scale and ultimately shutdown in 1933. Between 1919 and 1933,
the Bauhaus School, revolutionized architectural and aesthetic concepts and
practices. During the turbulent and often dangerous years of World War II, many of the key
figures of the Bauhaus emigrated to the United States and other countries, where their work
and their teaching philosophies influenced generations of young architects and designers.
The Bauhaus movement is said to have defined the way of living for the modern world.

ARCHITECTURAL OBSERVATIONS
 The campus building at Dessau contained many features that later became hallmarks
of modernist architecture, including steel-frame construction, a glass curtain wall,
and an asymmetrical, pinwheel plan, throughout which studios, classrooms and
administrative spaces were distributed for maximum efficiency and spatial logic.
 The buildings were designed from the basic starting point of a geometric shape and
then more intricate details were added after.
 The Bauhaus style, was characterized by the absence of ornamentation and by
harmony between the function of an object and its design. These principles were
entailed in the design of the building as well.
 The glass curtain wall suspended in front of the load-bearing framework defines the
exterior of the workshop wing and openly shows the constructive elements.
 Glass was used for creating the impression of lightness.
 The parts of the Bauhaus building were taken spearately according to their functions
and each was designed differently.
 There is no central viewpoint and the observer must therefore move around the whole
building.
 The entire complex is rendered and painted mainly in light tones, creating an
attractive contrast to the window frames, which are dark.
 The interiors aims to differentiate between supporting and masking elements through
the use of colour, aimed to accentuate the construction of the building.
 The basic structure of the Bauhaus consists of a clear and carefully thought-out system
of connecting wings, which correspond to the internal operating system of the school.
 The technical construction of the building demonstrated the latest technological
development of the time.
 Walls were used with the sole function of acting as screening partitions.
 Due to improved technology, window areas was maximised.
 LEGEND
STUDENT STUDENT ADMININSTRATION FACULTY INSTITUTE CLASSROOM
INFORMAL FORMAL AREA AREA AREA AREA

Ground Floor Plan (N.T.S)

First Floor Plan (N.T.S)

Second Floor Plan (N.T.S)
 Simple geometric shapes, compositions and colors define the characteristic style
of Bauhaus.

The building appearance from aerial point of view was also considered,
acknowledging the importance of the recent development of air-plane at the time.
Externally the building is meant to be experienced by walking around, instead of creating
a single point of focus.

The simple shapes, colours and minimal appearance is also used for the
interior designing.
The entrance was designed in a simple fashion, which was quite unusual at the time.

The access passage cuts across the campus with the administrative block bridging over it.