The New Bauhaus Masters’ Houses, Dessau

… continuing from our earlier post on the original Bauhaus Masters’ Houses,

The first house we saw when coming from the School was the new Director’s House (Direktonenhaus) where the information desk is situated.  Why are there new Masters’ Houses ?

After the Bauhauslers moved out in 1932/1933, the school was closed by the Nazis, and the Houses were altered.  As the home of the Director, the Gropius building was large, had a garage and rooms for servants’ quarters, all surrounded by a tall white wall.

Dessau lost three-fifths of its buildings during World War II, being the headquarters for an important aircraft manufacturer, Junkers.  The Gropius House and the Moholy-Nagy House were destroyed on March 7, 1945, although the basement and garage remained.  The city, then in East Germany, sold the houses to Junkerswerke, a company that worked with the Bauhaus School and Marcel Breuer to develop tubular steel furniture before the war.

In 1956, the Emmer family purchased the site intending to rebuild the original house on the remaining footprint, but the planning office rejected this, and they were only allowed to build in a traditional style with a pitched roof.

The Haus Emmer had been on this site for almost 60 years with an internal layout almost exactly to Gropius’ ideal. It was only demolished in 2010 to allow for the new building to take its place.

A competition was held which was won by the Berlin architecture firm Bruno Fioretti Marquez.  The design deliberately avoided a historically accurate reconstruction.  Instead, the goal was to evoke the original design through a playful approach based on fuzzy memory – “architecture of imprecision”.

The new building was completed in 2014.  When visiting the surviving and the new houses, it has been said that the visitors will become aware of the differences between historical structures and reinterpretations while taking into account the imprecision of memories.  We think the choice of this design reflects Germany’s view of its past history.

In the cubic design of the new houses, the style of the old masters’ houses are found again, but the bare walls and ghostly translucent window express the destruction and the void left by the real houses.

The residential design of Gropius has now evolved into an open space that is used for exhibitions.

Last but not least, is the restored Trinkhalle – which was the first thing we saw as we approached the Masters’ House site.  It was originally a 1932 modification by Mies van der Rohe of the wall built by Walter Gropius around his own residence. The so-called “pump room” was a refreshment stand which broke the monotony of the austere white wall that blocked the view of a group of elegant old buildings.  The original Trinkhalle was demolished in the 60’s, and rebuilt in 2016.

Today, the Masters’ Houses are used by the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation.  We were able to visit all the houses on this site except two that were used as residences for visiting artists around the year.  To see more images of the Masters’ Houses, use this link to Google Arts and Culture’s Model Houses for the Modern Age site.

 

 

 

The Original Bauhaus Masters’ Houses, Dessau

This is our third post on the Bauhaus site in Dessau. Our visit was made during the centenary year (2019) of the founding of the Bauhaus School of Design.

For this post, try a 2020 collaboration by the brothers Eno – Mixing Colours

A lot of the academic-sounding text in these Bauhaus posts were partially taken from our purchased books, pamphlets we picked up on site, as well as the copious volumes of writings on the internet, particularly https://www.bauhaus-dessau.de/en/index.html.

In 1926, in addition to the Bauhaus school building, the city of Dessau commissioned Walter Gropius to construct three pairs of identical semi-detached houses for the Bauhaus instructors (Meisterhaus, each housing 2 families) and a detached house for the director (Direktorenhaus).

These were built in a small pine wood on the street now known as the Ebertallee. The houses are about 10 minutes walk from the Bauhaus Building (our earlier post is here).

The semi-detached houses take the form of interlocking cubic structures of various heights, flat-roofed while vertical strip windows on the sides let light into the staircases.  The light-colored have generously-sized terraces and balconies and feature colorful accents on large, black-framed windows, the undersides of the balconies, and the drainpipes.  The equality of each duplex was guaranteed by simply rotating the design for the first segment and then building the second half at a ninety-degree angle.

Although they were designed in the 1920’s, they still look modern to our eyes – are they the timeless classics that the media adores ? and have we (the masses) been conditioned to recognize them as such ?

Gropius planned to build the complex based on a modular principle, using industrially prefabricated components. In view of the technical resources available at the time, apparently his plan was only partially realized.

With their white, cubic structures and complex connections between exteriors and interiors the houses showed the way forward for modern architecture and testified to the debate about standardization in housing construction.

The list of residents reads like a ‘Who’s Who’ of modernists: László Moholy-Nagy and Lyonel Feininger in one house, Georg Muche and Oskar Schlemmer in another, Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee in the third.  Walter Gropius occupied the Director’s House – the first house one sees when coming from the school’s direction.

For the color design of the interiors, artists such as Klee and Kandinsky developed own ideas that were closely related to their works.  Klee and Kandinsky used their white-walled homes as blank canvases for the color experiments, painting their interior spaces in almost two hundred colors, that came to light only upon restoration.  The dusty pink/purple room below was Paul Klee’s bedroom !  I (Chris) am a long-time fan of Klee’s work – in the 80’s, I bought a postcard of a painting by him with this color scheme. So this visit was particularly meaningful.

The Kandinsky/Klee Master House was reopened to visitors on 18 April 2019 after extensive restoration.  It was quite an experience for us to be able to walk through the life of Bauhaus masters in the surroundings they created for themselves. We watched all the videos running in the houses, which documented their activities.

All of the houses were fitted with built-in space-saving closets, wardrobes and cupboards, and modern (at the time) household appliances. The furnishings complied with the requirements for optimum day light exposure, ventilation, easy-to-clean surfaces and ergonomic working height.  Much of these modern simple comforts are taken for granted by us now but it must have been quite revolutionary in the 1920’s.

Gropius was interested in reforming the household. Notably, the toilet is separate from the bathroom.  The kitchen where meals are prepared is separated from the dish-washing area, and the dining room.

Others who lived here later, include Hannes Meyer (the next director after Gropius), Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (the third director), Josef Albers, Hinnerk Scheper and Alfred Arndt.

This ensemble of Masters’ houses is the epitome of the artists’ colony of the 20th century.

The Director’s House and the Moholy-Nagy/Feininger were destroyed during World War II.  See the rebuilding of these two houses on our next post.

The Bauhaus Building, Dessau

Our second stop in Dessau is the Bauhaus school building itself.

Let some 70’s Krautrock accompany you on this post.

A lot of the academic-sounding text in these Bauhaus posts were partially taken from our purchased books, pamphlets we picked up on site, as well as the copious volumes of writings on the internet – e.g., https://www.bauhaus-dessau.de/en/index.html.  New York Times had an excellent article on the school, click here.

In 1925, the Staatliches Bauhaus moved from Weimar to Dessau and the building designed by the school’s founder Walter Gropius was inaugurated on December 4, 1926.

The sculptural composition of the Bauhaus Building comprises several volumes which Gropius planned according to their functions. Unlike traditional 19th century academy buildings, which consisted of a compact symmetric structure, the Bauhaus Building plan in the form a pinwheel conveys the impression of movement.

The Building has a skeleton of load-bearing reinforced concrete (clearly visible) and a skin of glass, which provided it with the modern signature sense of transparency, openness, and lightness.  We are looking at the mother of all boxy glass buildings of the 20th century.

By moving all supporting columns into the interiors, thus dispensing with any kind of dominating corner shape, the workshop wing is enclosed by panels of glass (Gropius was allegedly inspired by shoji screens).

Instead of installing glass panes floor by floor, the design relies on a grid system which is suspended from the roof of the building like a curtain – hence the term “curtain wall.”

Opened windows in a curtain wall – you won’t find many, if any, nowadays.

The five-storey studio building accommodated 28 students and junior masters.

The three-storey north wing rendered white is distinguished by horizontal bands of windows and was used by the vocational school.

The administration occupied the lower level and the Bauhaus’s architectural department the upper level of the two-storey bridge which connects the north wing and the Bauhaus.

Among the workshops and design studios, there was a spacious souvenir shop.

We hung around the very early-mid century cafe on the ground floor and mingled with the non-tourists.

We were able to walk through several floors of classrooms (seminarraum) and studios, and peered into empty workshops.

While it looked empty, there were names on doors and people working in offices. This Bauhaus Building is a living, working museum.

The Bauhaus and its sites in Weimar and Dessau have been included on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 1996. Not only for its architecture, the award also applies to the Bauhaus as an institution.

Its conceptual thinking aimed to shape a complete modernism in which social and societal aspects played a role, as did all facets of housing and the way of living. The Bauhaus thus represents not only a milestone in architecture and art, but also a revolutionary contribution to the history of ideas of the twentieth century.

The Building is a built manifesto of the Bauhaus idea.

Our next post is about the houses built for the school masters.

 

The brand new Bauhaus Museum Dessau (in 2019)

Since it was not possible to do much traveling in 2020, we do not have many photos left to share from last year.

Going back …, 2019 was the centenary year of the founding of the Bauhaus school in Germany.  We took a pilgrimage tour of the three German cities where the Bauhaus school existed: Dessau, Weimar and Berlin.  So … this is our first post about this trip in Germany.

From my (Chris) favorite German label, Kompakt:

The school was operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts, architecture and the fine arts.

Our tour began in Dessau, a town 80 miles southwest of Berlin, in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, where the school was situated between 1925 and 1932. We were greeted by this installation at the Dessau bahnhof – notice the tiles behind the installation which were laid at angle, lending it more dynamism.

The first stop is the brand new Bauhaus Museum Dessau which was opened by Angela Merkel on September 8, 2019 to commemorate the centenary.  We visited it on September 29, 2019.

The museum was built by addenda architects (González Hinz Zabala) from Barcelona. Their design was selected from 831 submissions in an open international competition held in late 2015. The concept is that of a floating concrete block (“black box”) in a glass shell.  The upper floor provides optimum climatic conditions for storage and display of the collection while the ground floor is open and transparent, offering a forum for talks, dances, and performances.

There was a cafe and shop as well as a semicircular wooden “Arena” by American artist sculptor Rita Mcbride, where events can be held for a number of spectators.

The Bauhaus school became famous for its approach to design, which attempted to unify the principles of mass production with individual artistic vision and strove to combine aesthetics with everyday function.

This brand new museum will select for exhibitions from the collection of the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, brimming with more than 49,000 items. While some of the items in the exhibition are one-off experimental works, many items are now part of everyday life.

Previously the foundation did not have such display opportunities for the vast collection.

The Wassily Chair (below), also known as the Model B3 chair, was designed by Hungarian-born designer Marcel Breuer between 1925-1926.  Also shown is one of his chrome nesting tables.

The permanent exhibition – Versuchsstätte Bauhaus – features over 1,000 exhibits and tells the story of the famous school in Dessau.

This table lamp (“MT8”) designed by German designer Wilhelm Wagenfeld and Swiss designer Carl Jakob Jucker, became known as the Bauhaus Lamp, embodying the principle that “form follows function”.

The exhibition aims to show Bauhaus as a vibrant place where people taught and learned, conducted artistic experiments and worked on industrial prototypes.

According to their website (click here), the exhibition does not “focus on the famed design icons and the masters, but rather the school and the students: the reality of learning and teaching between the poles of creative design and industrial prototype production, artistic experiment and economic pressure, educational institution and emancipatory aspiration.”

On display were snapshots and movies about the students’ daily lives, at work and at play.

There is a massive wall of names, photos, pins and interconnecting strings which graphically display the gatherings, networks, and influences of artists, craftsmen and architects of the 20th century.

The connections illustrate the historical conditions, visions, working procedures, methods, movers and shakers of the time.

New York artist Lucy Raven won the invitation competition “Kunst am Bau” with her concept of “Lichtspielhaus” – a dynamic lighting installation made of glass in different colors, which interacts with the architecture of the building.

The back of the museum faces a park. The previous building was destroyed in World War II. Dessau was heavily bombed on 7 March 1945, six weeks before American troops occupied the town.

“Bauhaus” graphic in a pedestrian subway near the bahnhof.

Next stop – the school in Dessau.