• Walter Gropius was a German architect who created innovative designs that involved materials and methods of

construction from modern technology available at his time.

• Gropius theory was that all design should be functional as well as aesthetically pleasing. Using technology as a basis,
he transformed building into a science of precise mathematical calculations.
• He believed in industrialized and efficient buildings so that his buildings often provided the evidence of
standardization, mass production and prefabrication. Gropius also introduced a screen wall system that utilized a
structural steel frame to support the floors and which allowed the external glass walls to cover a surface
uninterrupted.
• Gropius created innovative designs that borrowed materials and methods of construction from modern technology.
This advocacy of industrialized building carried with it a belief in team work and an acceptance of standardization and
prefabrication. His designs married function and design and are known for stark, un-ornamented construction and lots
of glass.
• Almost all his buildings have a slight horizontal emphasis-balanced by verticals together with the rectangular windows
moving towards squares and large areas of plain walls always well-proportioned create a feeling of classic repose and
simplicity.
• Simple geometry. Use of modern materials like steel and glass, smooth surfaces, primary colors, linear and horizontal
elements.
Gropius house- Lincoln , massachusettes
• Theres an extensive use of timber reinforced with some steel members. Lends a different and softer character to
the building.
• Timber cladding was hung vertically.
• Inconsistent use of elements like spiral staircase to roof terrace and sun lounge.
• The plan is without corridors and essentially a compact functional solution to the requirements of modern house
planning.
• The elevation, facade, is the result of that plan and not the starting point. Hence, no artificial symmetry, but a
free functional arrangement of the succession of rooms, short, time-saving passages of communication, moving
space for children, clear separation between the living, the sleeping, and the housekeeping parts of the house,
and finally, proper utilization of the ground and especially the sunny aspect.
• The bedrooms need morning sun (facing east) the living rooms have southern to western light, and the northside
is left to storerooms, kitchens, staircases and bathrooms."
 Ground floor plan

First floor plan

 FAGUS FACTORY

built in Alfeld an der Leine, Lower Saxony, Germany

• For the architect as the building had to fit the function for which it was planned and consistent with a constructive
logic based on that function.
• According to Gropius, without masking the exact shape, with clear contrasts, sequencing of identical forms and the
unity of colour was to form the basis of the rhythm of architectural creation.
• In this building are embodied these ideas, a prismatic block, three plants with rectangular and flat base with
reinforced concrete structure with supporting displaced inwards, allowed to free the exterior walls, especially at the
corners of the building.

• The first building designed by Gropius was the office and is one of the most important and characteristic of the
complex.
• The building has three floors with a flat roof which together with the replacement of the walls with large windows,
which in turn also made up the corners of the building became one of the building systems characteristic of the
modern movement.
• The facade is articulated with narrow brick pillars, slightly recessed, which were placed between the iron frames
sticking out of the building and housed the large windows creating a light curtain wall of a hitherto unseen, creating
an inner space natural light and partly diluting indoor-outdoor boundaries.
• According to Gropius, the factory should be a kind of palace for the workers who were offered light, air and hygienic
atmosphere but also "feel the dignity of the great common idea, which of course would improve their performance".
• Gropius's Fagus factory is where for the first time the walls of a factory was replaced with glass. This novel, for the
time, "curtain wall" has a height that spans all three floors of the building.
• A metal structure of iron bars holding the glass planes that make up those windows and metal planes contribute to
highlight the distribution of plants.
• The narrow columns that articulate the facade and the reception and lower sockets were made of brick colored stew.
 Bauhaus Dessau, germany

• Gropius developed ideas that he had already applied at the construction of the
Fagus factory .
• The glass facade or curtain wall is the central design element which defines the
buildings aesthetics.
• It is suspended in front of the load-bearing framework and openly shows the
constructive elements.
• Gropius allowed the glass surface to overlap, thereby creating the impression of
lightness. However, The students were too cold in summer and too hot in winter
and the curtain wall had to be supplemented by textile curtains.
• Another important design element, is the separation of the building parts
according to their functions. Wings of the buildings are arranged asymmetrically.
There is no central viewpoint.
• The different blocks of the complex comprise the workshop wing with the glazed
curtain wall, student house with studios for the students and its incisive exposed
balconies, the block for the vocational school, a bridge between workshops and
vocational school which houses the administration and the event area, a place for
meetings and events which connects the workshop wing to the student house.
• It consists of three bridges. The school and workshop are connected through a
two-story bridge which spans the approach road from Dessau.
• The dorms and the school building are connected through a wing where the
assembly hall and the dining room are located. With a stage in between.
• The basic structure of the Bauhaus consists of a clear and carefully thought-out
system of connecting wings which correspond to the internal operating system of
the school.