I am hosting a Speed Build Contest to celebrate reaching 400 subscribers, and to thank all of my subscribers for their support and encouragement. Check it out if you are interested in participating.

Many of the builders on PMC consider themselves to be modern builders. Whether it is the simplistic glass facades, the open floor plans, the rectilinear forms, or the material choices (among many other elements), the ideas that they try to employ in their projects can all be traced back to this school and what it stood for. Beginning in 1919 in the city of Weimar (pronouced Vi-mar), the school was founded by architect Walter Gropius, with the core idea of reimagining the material world to reflect the unity of all the arts. This was a radical idea in an era of architecture completely absorbed by theory and imitation dictated by the classical styles.



This is what European architecture was all about until the 19th century. I strongly believe that the last great leap in architectural understanding was the Gothic era of the 12th and 13th century, and the rest of the styles (classical, baroque, romanesque, etc.) were merely derivations, and reimaginings of the classical orders, using the same materials. For nearly 600 years, architecture was relatively stagnant. There was this love for the Greek and Roman styles, a longing to reach the greatness of these ancient societies, but it left architecture throughout the western world to be defined by unoriginal ideas. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Baroque styles began to reach the forefront of the architectural world, yet all it really offered was color and distortion of classical forms, with little, if any, true advancements within architecture.


Walter Gropius, using ideas of other fellow modern architects, wanted to focus on the craft of the building rather than saturate it with ornamentation, as previous architectural styles had focused on.. Simplicity in geometry and fully embracing and celebrating modern materials (concrete, steel, etc.) was at the utmost importance to him. He also believed in not just teaching architectural theory, but putting it into practice. He created the idea of teaching in a studio and having the disciplines (arts, sciences, architecture, math, engineering, etc.) all merged together to almost recreate the Renaissance man title that architects once held. Gropius explained this vision for a union of art and design in the Proclamation of the Bauhaus, which described a utopian craft guild combining architecture, sculpture, and painting into a single creative expression.
 
In1925, the school moved to Dessau (after Weimar refused to house the school any longer), a city about 70 miles outside of Berlin. Gropius designed the school and the houses near the campus for the "Master" architects, who were the top ranking professors for the school. The teaching practiced the concept of total architecture, where by every element of a building from the building itself down to the furniture, light fixtures, and door handles could be designed. In the later years of the school, it was under the direction of Mies Van der Rohe, where he put an increase on building practices (where other directors had focused on art, photography, sculpting, and other facets of art). The increasingly unstable political situation in Germany, combined with the perilous financial condition of the Bauhaus, caused Van der Rohe to relocate the school to Berlin in 1930, where it operated on a reduced scale. He ultimately closed the Bauhaus in 1933.


The school itself may not seem that radical of a design today, particularly with architects like Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, and Daniel Libeskind creating these fantastic shapes using computer aided processes, but in an era dominated by the classical ratios, where the primary materials being used were stone and wood, this was a complete affront to the previous ideas. Everything from the simple form, the asymmetrical site plan, and even the lettering of Bauhaus on the south facing stair core, was so radically different. The idea of having a curtain wall system where the walls no longer had to bare the load of the building was a radical and state-of-the-art idea. The radiating effects of this school have echoed around the world, as the heads of the school (Gropius and Van der Rohe, among others) immigrated to America for political asylum and to continue their work. Everything in architecture, from the designs themselves to the teaching practices of architecture, since the era of the Bauhaus has been influenced strongly by the philosophies that this school defined itself by.


The building survived through the war, and the Anhalt University now owns the campus and has a strong architecture and arts departments established here. While the building itself is no longer used for architecture anymore, they still use the lecture hall and a number of the classroom, as well as having a small museum displaying some of the history of the Bauhaus. All the fixtures, doors, windows, and mechanics of the building are all wonderfully restored to their original state. Walter Gropius' office was also recreated, complete with a famous desk and chair designed by Gropius himself.

My interpretation is about as close to a 1:1 scale that i could make it. Ibased it off of a series of images and floor plans of the building to try to get it as accurate as possible. The walls are blocked out, defining classrooms, the open studios, and the various offices. The tallest portion of the building is dedicated to dormitories, which are fully furnished. And this is a continuation of my tribute to the masters of Modernism, with the first being my interpretation of a Le Corbusier design. Let me know what you think this build.

Dimensions: 141 x 118 x 28

Using High Rossferry City Texture Pack
Thank you Darkone55