The First Bauhaus

In Weimar all the artists try to propose advanced kinds of novelties.

Oskar Schlemmer is the author of the logo.

On the left the scheme represents the teaching process: it consists in three major ideas

The teaching method

VORLEHRE

It is the basic course (6 months) where the elementary notions of form are taught, together with some materiesudien. It is the preparatory teaching for all students in the introductory phase. The development of the spirit for the new society runs parallelly to the learning of the expression of the basic forms. In this phase the student learns the Gropiusian ideology based on the union of technique and art

WORKSHOPS

Level of specialization: it reports a series of seminars, experiences where students study different subjects (dealing with ceramics, textile, wood, iron, and other materials, but also graphics). They teach a series of practical and theoretical knowledges.

It is important to notice that until the 20s the discipline of architecture was never taught at the Bauhaus. In 1920, the Masters’ council introduced in the educational plan also the Technical drawing course, held by Gropius for theory and Meyer for practice.

Mies revolutioned this implant: if Gropius and Meyer intended the workshops as the necessary passage to the study of architecture, Mies van der Rohe completely overthrew the teaching system, making preparatory course and workshops not necessary for the student who wants to approach architecture directly

BAU

The core of the diagram is the arrival point of the instruction in the Bauhaus, the Bau.

The teachers

All the teachings have two professors:

• The artist – who teaches the theory

• The craftsman – who teaches the practice

Klee and Kandinsky

Paul Klee held a "formal figurative teaching" that consisted in the study of proportions, reflected images, primary shapes and colors, based on the analysis of his paintings. In 1922 a course on colour theory was added.

Kandinsky held since 1922 a course on analytical drawing and chromatic composition, following the principles of analysis and synthesis and giving importance to the effects of color in the overlaps between them and in their perception.

Under the direction of Hannes Meyer, Paul Klee and Vassily Kandinskij managed to obtain the opportunity to conduct painting courses. The results had a surrealist imprint, influenced by Klee’s technique.

Johannes Itten

In the early years of the Bauhaus, until 1923, it was entrusted to Johannes Itten, who made it an instrument of initiation of students to lifestyles, ways of dressing, body care and nutrition according to a model veined with utopia and provocation, starting from a theosophical approach and the influence of oriental philosophies. The relationship among his students was physical, participating in collective dances, listening to contemporary music, in some kind of rituals that were fundamental as part of the public activities of the first Bauhaus.

The impact of the lectures, which reflected on the study of the primary shapes and colours circle-square-triangle and red-blue-yellow, was remarkable. Klee and Kandinsky themselves were influenced.

Together with Georg Muche, he spread the practices of Mazdaznan within the school: precise respiratory and sexual practices, vegetarian nutrition with sporadic fasts and belief that the white race is the superior. As the tension between Gropius and Itten grew, Itten decided to drop out of school in 1923.

The polyhedric figure of the artist can use different forms of applied art and train his photographic and cinematographic sensibility.

HAUS SOMMERFELD

The German entrepreneur Adolf Sommerfeld was the promoter of the Bauhaus as well as the owner of a timber company. Gropius was called to design a residence on land owned by the family using teak wood obtained from the dismantling of an old ship.

He transformed the project into a concrete experimentation of the principles expressed in the manifesto. Indeed, the principles followed in the design were those of the theory of the circle-square-triangle fundamental forms, with a still strong influence of Expressionism.

It is not an authorial architecture but a COLLECTIVE RESULT. The representation and the construction of the house is transformed into the communication of the didactic procedure of the Bauhaus.

What is interesting is that wood, a traditional material, is the used for this first experience of the Bauhaus, a modern movement.

The structure is very simple, what is unique is the craftsman’s' work conducted in the interior. Everything has been designed on the desks of the schools, involving also the students. Adolf Meyer and Gropius themselves took care of the architectural design, the student Theodor Fischer assumed the direction of the works, the interior furnishings were managed by the students Dörte Helm, Marcel Breuer, Josef Albers who created respectively a tent, armchairs and a stained glass window. Woodcarving, Doors, Wooden Staircase were cared by Joost Schmidt.

The exposition of 1923

1922 and 1923 were crucial years for the movement of the Bauhaus as its first results were shown to the public. At the same time, they are the last years in Weimar, since in 1924 the new elections will declare the success of the Nazi party.

What was crucial for Gropius and the other professors was to present the Bauhaus in the exhibition of 1923, that was accurately documented.

The production for the event was incredibly rich. Some examples:

- a postcard was designed, by a Joost Schmidt who experimented with the typography

- Bayer designed a special font used in the first catalogue of the Bauhaus

The products are extremely diverse, reflecting the diverse nature of the workshops and the specialization of the students in the use of different materials.

- Marcel Breuer - later a professor at the Bauhaus - was the author of the Wooden chair, redesigning the experience of the stoel. It is the rood-blauwe chair (n the right) that mixes the necessarium to the comodum.

The exibition Bauhaus-ausstellung shows also the experimentation on architecture.

Haus am Horn

The house was built in Weimar, designed by Georg Muche, and today is a museum.

It is a rectangular building in an experimental attempt to transform the ideas of the Bauhaus into a residential architecture.

The main innovation was the lack of corridors: all the functions are displayed around the living room, a central nucleus, completely without windows, in a choice aimed at a better arrangement of the spaces and structuring of the internal connections. This way, the kitchen was in communication with the dining room, bedroom with bathroom, kitchen with the children’s room. The interior furnishings were designed and made by the students of the Bauhaus. The designer Alma Buscher dedicated herself to the design of writing walls and cubic-constructions for the children’s room, while the kitchen was one of the most modern with appliances and smooth surfaces that can be easily cleaned. It is Benita Koch-Otte who created its design with a very important experiment on the composable kitchen. The house is not conceived as a pilot building for the development of others, but the expression of the work and principles of the Bauhaus.

Some products of these years

1. Monument to the March Dead - Gropius

It is a sculptural architecture in reinforced concrete

2. The Schach is a chess table. Produced by the laboratory of wood by Josef Hartwig

3. Gunta Stolzl produces carpets and textiles. The motives are not just inspired to the oriental culture but also to the tapestry production of the occidental antiquity.

4. Another famous object in the history of design is the tishlampe by Bayer. It demonstrates how modern design found its maturity in the Bauhaus.

Another crucial step in the work of the Bauhaus is the graphic and editorial design, connected with the graphics destined to books and journals. It is not a matter of style but of communication of the methodology of the school. It is a matter of visual arts and architecture. The design of the detail is fundamental, starting from the choice of the font.

Abstraction has space in each process, and is an abstraction of conceptual importance. It was imported immediately into the new kinds of form-finding: films and photography. Machines are invented to produce a dynamic forms, responding to the ideology of the Bauhaus and the new avantgardes. An example is the one created by Lazslo Moholy Nagy: Lichtraum.

The end of the First Bauhaus: the arrival to Dessau

1924-25 are the last years in Weimar: the results of the elections made the movement to remain without the support of public fundings. Finally, after migrating to different german cities such as Frankfurt and Hamburg, Gropius decided to set the movement in Dessau. As soon as the Bauhaus moves, also the production evolves.

Today, in the region of Dessau, there are still many architectures made by the protagonists of the movement. The production progressively evolves until reaching the central core, the concept of the Bau, that till now has only been experimented and never crystallized.

Not only the architecture, but also the communication develops. The language is different: for example, the new logo of the Bauhaus is a visually-strong sign, reported on the building, and accentuated in its presence by the shadow it creates. The communication passes also through the photography: pictures of the students or pictures taken from the window.