Bauhaus
The Bauhaus was a German design school founded by Walter Gropius in 1919 with the aim of improving the way people thought of German design. It was the first design school that incorporated arts and craft with fine arts but still in a modernist style. The Bauhaus was closed down in 1933 under its own leadership due to pressure from the Nazi regime. The students of the Bauhaus worked under the rule of form follows function i.e. the aesthetics and looks of a product are not as important as making it practical, this resulted in very minimalist looking designs. One of the main aims of the Bauhaus was to mix art and technology, this meant that a lot of there work incorporated new technology such as steam-bending woods.
The Bauhaus Building in Dessau
(UNESCO World Heritage Site)
The Bauhaus's students influenced design for decades after its closer in 1933, many of the students had fled or been exiled from Nazi Germany ending up scattered all over western Europe. In 2004 Tel Aviv was given world heritage status by the UN due to the large amount of Bauhaus styled buildings in the area.
One of the biggest and most noteworthy contributions to come from the Bauhaus was in the field on future design. Designer Marcel Breuer came up with some of the best examples of future design with his wassily chair. Made from tubular steel and leather the chair was a beacon of all the Bauhaus stood for, it was simple to make with only few parts and the manufacturers used new materials and manufacture techniques, inspired by the handlebars of a bicycle, to make it.
Wassily Chair Designed by Marcel Breuer
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