Friday April 13--day 3

A Guide to Bauhaus!


Today we had an early start to our morning and traveled by bus to Bauhaus! For those who haven’t been practicing their German, Bau means to construct, and haus means House!This iconic art school/ museum was built by Walter Gropius. As a student at BLS who also takes art history, I was quaking with excitement to see this! I soon learned that the best way to view the building was from an airplane, as the architectural design made it look like a floating building! Alas, we didn’t have an airplane, so we just walked around the perimeter of the concrete skeleton.
​Gropius’ main idea was to have a school that was transparent. A place where everyone can see in the building, in the studios, and what is happening inside with fresh air and circulation. He wanted to make it so that the building was like a small town! If you are a person that tracks your steps on a fit bit, sadly, this architectural design isn’t for you. Gropius made it so that it was functional for the person who lived in it. For example, if you wanted to eat on your porch, he made it so that instead of walking from the kitchen to the living room to the porch- the porch was located right outside of the kitchen! What a time saver!


We also learned about how there were two Bauhaus’s one in Dessau and one in Weimar. Weimar architecture was focused on industrial mass production, instead of using blocks of wood like in Dessau- they would use sheets of wood, plastic, and cloth. We were able to see the difference between both styles through Gropius’ own office and how it was arranged. The Bauhaus is also recognizable for their minimalistic style. One important theme throughout Bauhaus was the use of color. In the main building there are 12 different tones of red blue and yellow, no green or any other mixed colors. A fun fact I enjoyed as that the staircases were often painted with red to lure the visitors upstairs. #bauhaus2022




Here are some fun pictures so you can visualize our morning!
Xoxo,
Eleanor