WALTER GROPIUS

(b. Berlin, Germany 1883; d. Boston, Massachusetts 1969)

Walter Gropius was born in Berlin

in 1883 and married Alma Mahler,
the widow of Gustav Mahler. The
son of an architect, he studied at
the Technical Universities in
Munich and Berlin. He joined the
office of Peter Behrens in 1910
and three years later established
a practice with Adolf Meyer. For
his early commissions he
borrowed from the Industrial
Classicism introduced by Behrens.

After serving in the war, Gropius became involved with several groups of
radical artists that sprang up in Berlin in the winter of 1918. In March
1919 he was elected chairman of the Working Council for Art and a
month later was appointed Director of the Bauhaus.

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As war became eminent, Gropius left the Bauhaus and resumed private
practice in Berlin. Eventually, he was forced to leave Germany for the
United States, where he became a professor at Harvard University. From
1938 to 1941, he worked on a series of houses with Marcel Breuer and in
1945 he founded "The Architect's Collaborative", a design team that
embodied(rappresentato) his belief(fede) in the value(valore) of
teamwork.

Gropius created innovative designs that borrowed(adotta) materials and

methods of construction from modern technology. This
advocacy(pressione) of industrialized building carried(trasmesso) with it
a belief in team work and an acceptance of standardization and
prefabrication. Using technology as a basis, he transformed building into
a science of precise mathematical calculations.

An important theorist and teacher, Gropius

introduced a screen wall(coperture portante)
system that utilized a structural steel frame to
support the floors and which allowed(consente) the
external glass walls to continue without
interruption. Gropius died in Boston,Massachusetts
in 1969 Door handles (1923).

Important buildings

¾ Monument to the March Dead (1920) in

Weimar, Germany.

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 THE FAGUS FACTORY

¾ In Germany his Fagus factory buildings

(1910–11) at Alfeld, with their glass walls,
metal spandrels, and discerning use of
purely industrial features, were among the
most advanced works in Europe

THE GROPIUS HOUSE

¾ was the family residence of noted

architect Walter Gropius (1883-
1969) at 68 Baker Bridge Road,
Lincoln, Massachusetts. It is now
owned by Historic New England and
is open to the public Wednesday
through Sunday (June 1-October
15, and weekends (October 16-May
31). An admission fee is charged.

THE HARVARD GRADUATE CENTER

¾ was commissioned of The

Architects Collaborative by
Harvard University in 1948. The
first modern building on the
campus, it was also the first
endorsement of the modern style
by a major university and was seen
in the national and architectural
presses as a turning point in the
acceptance of the aesthetic in the
U.S.