HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE

1883-1969

THE CHRONOLOGICAL CONTEXT OF GROPIUS’ ARCHITECTURE

Chronological context in Architecture- Modernism to Postmodernism -

1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s

First generationmodernists

Second generation modernists

Third generationmodernists

The pioneers of modernism.They each treated form, space,structure, materials and ornament innovel ways.

These were the architects of ‘highmodernism’- the universalInternational Style- as well as thefashionable Art Deco period.

These were the architects ofPostmodernism.They reacted against the orthodoxy ofhigh modernism.

Peter Behrens - Berlin Walter Gropius Frank Gehry

Auguste Perret - Paris Le Corbusier Philip Johnson

C. R. Mackintosh - Glasgow Mies van der Rohe Charles Moore

Otto Wagner - Vienna Gerrit Reitveld I. M. Pei

Adolf Loos - Vienna William Van Allen Michael Greaves

Louis Sullivan - Chicago Napier Art Deco architects Louis Kahn

Frank Lloyd Wright - Chicago and mid-western states of USA Robert Venturi

About him Born in Berlin, his father was an architect. Educated in private elementary school. 1903 he left school and went to the Technical

University in Munich to study architecture. 1904-1905 he served in the military, then went

back to school. 1907 he left school without completion and went

back to Berlin because of the death of his brother.

1907-1910 he worked for Peter Brehens, a leading figure in the Werkbund Movement. He left Brehens when he thought he had learned all he could from him and started his own practice.

1919 he founded the Bauhaus school. 1925 he moved with the Bauhaus to Dessau. 1928 he left the Bauhaus and went to Berlin to start his own

practice. 1934 moved to England and worked with Maxwell Fry, one of the

only Modernist architects who were Britain. He pioneered Modernist buildings in Third World countries. Gropius worked with him for three years. 1937 began professorship of architecture at Harvard University where he met Marcel Breuer.

1945 joined a group of young architects known as The Architectural Collaborative (TAC).

He was an advocate of industrialized building carrying with it a belief in teamwork and an acceptance of standardization and prefabrication.

Invented the screen wall system that utilized a structural steel frame to support the floors and allowed the external glass wall to continue without interruption

GEOGRAPHICAL CONTEXT:Walter Gropius was a German designer and architect whose

teaching and practice were based originally in Berlin and Dessau,

Germany.He migrated to the USA in 1937 and taught and practiced in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Dessau

Cambridge

Historical context: Walter Gropius was a major pioneer of the modern

movement. Through his teaching he became one of the most influential designers of the 20th century.

Gropius was a second generation modernist and a contemporary of his fellow German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, both of whom were architecture students of Peter Behrens from 1908-10.

In 1919 Walter Gropius established the Bauhaus, which became the most famous and influential design school of the 20th century. The creation of the Bauhaus was an extension of the Deutscher Werkbund, a group of German architects, designers and industrialists who sought to merge artistic design and creation with industrial mass-production to produce affordable, high quality, machine-made products and appliances.

In 1928 Gropius resigned as director of the Bauhaus and in 1937 he emigrated to the United States (Mies van der Rohe, the third and last Bauhaus director, had already emigrated there in 1933 after the Nazi’s closed the Bauhaus.)

Gropius lectured at Harvard University in Cambridge Massachusetts and he later established The Architects Collaborative (TAC), a major architectural firm, one of their significant buildings being the former Pan Am Building, (now the MetLife Building) 1958-63, (recently voted by New Yorkers as the building they most wanted demolished!)

Gropius always adopted a collaborative approach to design. While studying under Peter Behrens he met Adolf Meyer with whom he worked on the design and construction of their first significant building, the Fagus Shoe-last Factory, 1911-13, and at the Bauhaus. He employed the most radical and innovative artist-designers to staff the Bauhaus, including Marcel Breuer who he continued working with in the United States.

HIS PHYLOSOPHY:

HIS PHYLOSOPHY:

TWO SIGNIFICANT GROPIUS BUILDINGS.

The Fagus Shoe-last Factory,Alfeld, Germany, 1911-13

The Bauhaus Building,Dessau, Germany, 1925-

26

FEATURES OF THE FAGUS FACTORY:

The skeletal frame enables the walls

to become transparent screens to

admit sun, air and light for workers.A clear expression of industrial

materials: steel, brick, plate glass.

Monumental rectangular form,clean lines, standardised

elements,no ornament, a machine

aesthetic.The corner stairwell exploits thestructural potential of reinforcedconcrete. The cantilevered stairs

andlandings hang freely in space and

arescreened by a structurally

independenttransparent skin of glass.

GLASS SCREEN WAS USED ALL OVER THE WALLS TO HAVE PROPER VIEW FROM INSIDE

WALLS ARE NO LONGER SUPPORTERS OF THE BUILDING BUT SIMPLE CURTAIN WALL PROJECTING AGAINST WEATHER.

IT WAS DOMINATION OF VOIDS OVER SOLIDS.

GLASS AND WALLS ARE JOINED CLEANLY AT CORNERS.

ELEVATION

PLAN

PLAN OF MAIN OFFICE BUILDING

THE BAUHAUS SCHOOL IN DESSAU

(1925 TO 1926)

■ metal frames ■ asymmetrical composition ■ horizontal windows■ flat roofs

■ transparency ■ internal skeletal structures ■ cantilevered elements ■ white walls

■ open, fluid space ■ functionalist, purist, industrial, machine aesthetic ■ standardised, modular

components■ lightweight, floating effect ■ exposed, utilitarian fixtures

STYLISTIC FEATURES OF BAUHAUS BUILDING:

■ glass ‘curtain’ walls

■ windows flush with wall plane

Accommodation5 stories +

basement,28 student

apartmentswith kitchenettes,gymnasium,

laundry,lockers, bathrooms.

Communal area1 story plus

basement,houses divisible

diningand theatre space.

The bridge2 stories raised on stilts,lower level contains

mastersoffices, upper level

housesthe architecture

department.

Workshop wing 3 stories plus basement, contains

printing,dying, sculpture, carpentry, weaving,

mural,metal workshops, exhibition spaces.

Technical School3 stories plus

basement,houses classrooms,

library,administrative offices.

FORM AND FUNCTION :

GROPIUS HOUSE, LINCOLN , MA

(1937)

LIVING ROOM-Contains a fireplace for its practical value as well as the psychological effect an open fire has on making you feel safe and comfortable.

The top shelf of the bookcase contains only books written by Gropius or ones he had collaborated on, so he would have copies on hand to sign and give to his guests.

Dining room –While the Gropius’s entertained in the living room, a maid would be behind the drape preparing the dining room for dinner. Using museum lighting, Walter created a dramatic scene with the light illuminating just to the edge of the table . The guest would be in darkness while the crystal and tableware sparkled.

FRONT ENTRY –

• Curved staircase faces away from the entry signifying the upstairs as a private place.

• By removing the closet door, the closet is incorporated as a design element, as a way to introduce color and texture that would change with the seasons.

• Floor is a cork tile which is sound absorbing, durable, functional, and elegant.

EXAMPLES OF BAUHAUS DESIGN

.

Joost Schmidt, BauhausExhibition poster, 1923

El Lissitzky, typography, 1924

Wilhelm Wagenfeld, lamp, 1924

Marianne Brundt, teapot, 1924

Marcel Breuer, Wassily Chair, 1923

Mies van der Rohe, D42 Armchair, 1927

HIS INTERESTS:

HIS INTERESTS:

HIS INTERESTS:

HIS INTERESTS:

HIS INTERESTS:

FAMOUS QUOTES:

REFERENCES: The Society for the Preservation of New England

Antiquities. “Gropius House”. www.spnea.org. 20th Century Desinger Data Publisher. “Marcel Breuer”.

www.r20thcentury.com /bios/designers. cfm?article_id=39.

BBC Education. “Walter Gropius”. www.bbc.co.uk/history/programmes/centurions/gropius/gropbiog.html.

 He first came to the attention of American architectsafter he founded the renowned Bauhaus Design School (1919-33) in Weimar. The school became synonymous with functional design and noted for itsavant-garde art and architecture. Gropius's work was also featured in the "International Exhibition of Modern Architecture" (1932), New York, and identified - along with J.J.P Oud, Mies van der Rohe, Erich Mendelsohn, Alvar Aalto, and Richard Neutra - as a leading exponent of the International Style of modern architecture. Like his fellow modernists, Gropius's main concern was to create "modern" buildings for "modern man": meaning, a functional type of building, without any old fashioned historical decoration with Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance or Neoclassical motifs. He therefore designed geometric-style buildings, devoid of all ornamentation, but with creative elements inserted at key points in otherwise repetitive designs. Based on his teaching success at the Bauhaus school, and the innovative quality of his own designs - including the Fagus Factory (1911-25) in Alfeld on the Leine, his Pavilion for the Werkbund Exhibition at Cologne in 1914, and the Bauhaus Complex (1925) at Dessau - he was invited to come to Harvard University to head the Graduate School of Design just before World War II. In America, he continued both his academic and practicing career, in which he was a leading architect for a full half century before his death in 1969. An important contributor to American art of the mid-20th century, his famous designs, most of which were executed in partnership with other architects, included: Gropius House, Massachusetts (1937); Harvard Graduate Center (1949-50); the Pan Am Building, New York (1958-63); and John F. Kennedy Federal Office Building, Boston (1963-66). Until his late 30s, he was married to Alma Mahler (1879–1964), widow of Gustav Mahler.

Gropius studied architecture at technical colleges in Munich (1903-4) and Berlin (1905-7),

In 1908, after studying architecture in Munich and Berlin for four semesters, Gropius joined the office of the renowned architect and industrial designer Peter Behrens

he toured Italy, Spain and England for a year, before joining the architectural office of Peter Behrens (1868-1940),  one of the first members of the modernist school, and a founder of the Deutscher werkbund (1907-33).

Gropius's fellow employees, were Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Dietrich Marcks and Le Corbusier.

In 1910, Gropius left to set up his own firm in Berlin, in partnership with Adolf Meyer (1881-1929).

Two of their most successful commissions included the Fagus Werk (1911-13), a factory in Alfeld on the Leine in Germany, whose design was strongly influenced by Peter Behrens's AEG Turbine factory;

and the model factory building for the German Labour League Exhibition (1914) in Cologne, influenced, it is said, by the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959), whose revolutionary designs later impressed several Bauhaus instructors. In 1913, he published an article on "The Development of Industrial

Buildings," featuring photos of factories and grain elevators in North America, which had a significant influence on other European modernists, like Le Corbusier and Mendelson.

AEG Turbine factory;

In 1934, Gropius emigrated to England and then on to the USA in 1937. He worked there as a professor for architecture at the Graduate School of Design of Harvard University. In 1938, he organised the exhibition Bauhaus 1919–1928 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York together with Herbert Bayer.

From 1938 to 1941, Gropius maintained an office partnership with Marcel Breuer. He became an American citizen in 1944.

In 1959, the American Institute of Architects awarded its Gold Medal to Gropius, and in 1964 gave its Architectural Firm Award to The Architects Collaborative.

In 1969, gropius died. We want to create the purely organic building, boldly

emanating its inner laws, free of untruths or ornamentation.” (Walter Gropius)

The Deutscher Werkbund (German Association of Craftsmen) is a German association of artists, architects, designers, and industrialists, established in 1907.

The Werkbund became an important element in the development of modern architecture and industrial design, particularly in the later creation of the Bauhaus school of design.

Its initial purpose was to establish a partnership of product manufacturers with design professionals to improve the competitiveness of German companies in global markets.

The Werkbund was less an artistic movement than a state-sponsored effort to integrate traditional crafts and industrial mass-production techniques, to put Germany on a competitive footing with England and the United States. 

In 1919, after serving as an officer during the war, he succeeded the BelgianArt Noveau architect Henry van de Velde (1863-1957) as the head of the Grand-Ducal Saxon School of Arts and Crafts in Weimar, which Gropius rapidly transformed into the world renowned Bauhaus, attracting outstanding teachers like Paul Klee (1879-1940), Johannes Itten (1888-1967), Josef Albers (1888-1976), Herbert Bayer (1900-85), Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946), Otto Bartning (1883-1959), El Lissitzsky (1890-1941) and Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944). The school was associated with a number of modernist design movements in Europe, including De Stijl and Elementarism(Van Doesburg), Neo-Plasticism (Mondrian) and Constructivism (Lissitzky). For comprehensive details, see: Bauhaus Design School.

In 1923, Gropius designed his famous "door handles", see today as an icon of 20th-century design and often cited as one of the most influential items ofapplied art produced by Bauhaus. (See also: Crafts: History & Types.) Also, when the Bauhaus relocated from Weimar to Dessau, Gropius himself designed and built the school building and faculty housing. It is probably his best known design. In addition, during the period 1926-1932, he completed several large-scale housing designs in Berlin, Karlsruhe and Dessau. In 1929-30, he designed part of a housing colony in Berlin-Siemensstadt.

Emigrates to the United States In 1934, following the enforced closure of the Bauhaus by the Nazis, the previous year, Gropius discreetly

left Germany, via Italy, for exile in England, where he worked as part of the Isokon design group until 1937, when he emigrated to America. He promptly built his own house - Gropius House - in Lincoln, Massachusetts, which soon became famous as an early example of International Modernism, albeit one which sensibly included a number of New England architectural features. In 1938 he took up his post as Head of the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, which he kept until his retirement in 1952: his Bauhaus protege Marcel Breuer also joined the faculty.

Note: Another ex-Bauhaus designer who emigrated to America was Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946), who founded the short-lived New Bauhaus School (1937-8) in Chicago, before setting up his own school which he ran until his death.

In 1944, Gropius became a citizen of the United States, and in 1945, together with six of of his ex-pupils from Harvard, set up The Architects' Collaborative(TAC), based in Cambridge. Other founder members included Jean B. Fletcher, Norman C. Fletcher, Sarah P. Harkness, John C. Harkness, Louis A. MacMillen, Robert S. MacMillan, and Benjamin C. Thompson. TAC would become one of the most well-known and respected architectural firms in the world. Gropius himself, although a supremely talented designer, always preferred teamwork. Thus even at TAC, he preferred to be known merely as a member, one among equals.