Bauhaus

The Bauhaus began with an utopian definition: "The building of the future" was to combine all the arts in ideal unity. This required a new type of artist beyond academic specialisation, for whom the Bauhaus would offer adequate education. In order to reach this goal, the founder, Walter Gropius, saw the necessity to develop new teaching methods and was convinced that the base for any art was to be found in handcraft: "the school will gradually turn into a workshop". Indeed, artists and craftsmen directed classes and production together at the Bauhaus in Weimar. This was intended to remove any distinction between fine arts and applied arts...

The Bauhaus, founded in Weimar 1919 by Walter Gropius, was Germany's most famous and most avant-garde art and design school. || The Bauhaus Building in Dessau was constructed based on designs by Walter Gropius in 1925/26 when the political situation in Weimar forced the school to move to Dessau. || It was this building's architecture as well as the Bauhaus' significance for architecture and design in the 20th century that motivated the UNESCO to add the Bauhaus Building and the Master Houses close by to their World Heritage List in December 1996. || The Bauhaus Dessau Foundation is a centre for experimental design, research and teaching. The key concept in all areas of the Foundation’s work is the critical reflection of Modernism – the discourse of Modernism, which forms a bridge between the historical Bauhaus and the Bauhaus as it is today...

A principle of the Bauhaus was to serve the development of contemporary housing, from the most basic household equipment to the complete house. Walter Gropius, the director of the Bauhaus, was convinced, "that houses and their furnishings must have a meaningful relation to each other and aims to derive the form of every object from its natural functions and limitations, by means of systematic experimentation..."