BAUHAUS

• BAUHAUS WAS DERIVED FROM THE GERMAN WORD

‘BAU’ MEANING BUILDING AND THE WORD ‘HAUS’
MEANING HOUSE. TOGETHER THE WORD MEANS
BUILDING HOUSE.
• IT WAS INTRODUCED BY WALTER GROUPIS IN 1919.
• IT IS A MODERNIST STYLE CHARACTERIZED BY THE
ABSENCE OF ORNAMENTATION AND BY HARMONY
BETWEEN THE FUNCTION OF A BUILDING OR AN OBJECT
AND ITS DESIGN
• THE MOVEMENT TEACHES “ TRUTH TO MATERIALS” AS A
CORE TENET WHICH MEANS THAT MATERIAL SHOULD BE
USED IN ITS MOST APPROPRIATE AND HONEST FORM AND
ITS NATURE SHOULD NOT BE CHANGED.

• THE BAUHAUS MOVEMENT TRANSFORMED THE DESIGN

AND PRODUCTION OF MODERN FURNITURE BY
INCORPORATING THE USE OF STEEL AS FRAMES AND
SUPPORTS FOR TABLES, CHAIRS, SOFAS AND EVEN LAMPS.

• THE USE OF MACHINE-MADE, MASS-PRODUCED STEEL

TUBING CREATED SIMPLE FORMS THAT REQUIRED LITTLE
HANDCRAFTING AND CONTRIBUTED TO THE STREAMLINED,
MODERN LOOK OF BAUHAUS FURNITURE.
• THE BAUHAUS SCHOOL FOUNDED BY GROPIUS WAS
ONE OF THE FIRST TO TEACH STUDENTS MODERN
DESIGN. THE SCHOOL CLOSED IN THE 1930S UNDER
PRESSURE FROM THE NAZIS, BUT THE MOVEMENT
STILL INFLUENCES MODERNIST ARCHITECTURE AND
MODERN DESIGN TODAY.

• WHILE BAUHAUS HAS INFLUENCES IN ART, INDUSTRY

AND TECHNOLOGY, IT HAS BEEN MOST INFLUENTIAL
IN MODERN FURNITURE DESIGN. BAUHAUS BRIDGES
THE GAP BETWEEN ART AND INDUSTRY, DESIGN AND
FUNCTIONALITY.
BAUHAUS MOVEMENT
 THE BAUHAUS MOVEMENT, GERMANY
• The German word Bauhaus essentially means “House of Building or Building School”.
• A movement in the twentieth century.
• The school was first opened in 1919 by architect Walter Gropius, and over the years
existed in three different German cities: Weimar (1919-1925), Dessau (1925- 1932)
and Berlin (1932-1933).

GOALS
• modernization process could be mastered by means of design’.
• The integration of all branches of art and craft under the primacy of architecture.
• A synthesis of aesthetic production around the needs of a broad segment of the population.
 vision
• The Bauhaus vision was to embrace the new technological
developments unifying art, craft, and technology. It was primarily
focused on clean geometric forms and balanced visual
compositions.
THEY FOCUS ON
• Architecture
• Industrial design
• Graphic design
• Fine art
• Photography
• New media.
 The greatest achievements

• Interior, product, and graphic design.

For example:
• Marcel Breuer created many furniture
designs at the Bauhaus that have become
classics, including the first tubular-steel
chair.
• He said that, unlike heavily upholstered
furniture, his simple, machine- made
chairs were "airy, penetrable," and easy to
move.
BAUHAUS MOVEMENT
OBJECTIVES
OF BAUHAUS
• One of the main objectives of Bauhaus was to unify art, craft and technology
• The machine was considered a positive element, and therefore industrial and product design
were important components
• The Bauhaus had a profound influence upon subsequent developments in art, architecture,
graphic design, interior design, industrial design and typography.
• Between 1919 and 1933 the German school art and design called the Bauhaus was producing
designs which were truly made for mass production but it was thirty years later that industry
caught up with this thinking and was able to manufacture the designs for products such has
furniture and lighting cheaply enough and in large quantities .
• Many of the designs we now regard as design classics originate from the Bauhaus
FUNCTIONAL
TECHNIQUES
1. Simplicity 6. Consistency 10. Subtlety

2. Symmetry 7. Unity 11.Continuity

3. Angularity 8. Organization 12. Regularity

4. Abstraction 9. Economy 13. Sharpness

5. Monochromaticity
INTERIOR

Random bit of ceiling that makes quite

• Staircases in Paul clear the sympathy between the Bauhaus
klee’s house in and other avante-gardes of the early 20th
Dessau. century
• Drawings by Herbert Bayer in the
stairway of the main building of the
Bauhaus Weimar. Made for the Bauhuas
Exhibition in 1923.
PRODUCT DESIGNING
BAUHAUS DOOR KNOB
Arguably the most famous piece
designed by Walter Gropius, the
Bauhaus doorknobs geometric forms
and industrial flourishes, such as
exposed screws, set the tone for what
the Bauhaus aesthetic was about
BAUHAUS LAMP
Probably the most iconic piece of
lighting to come out of the Bauhaus,
William Wagenfeld’s lamp, constructed
of precisely cut glass and metal, is
among the first objects to emerge
under the Bauhaus’ technology-
focused regime,
 BAUHAUS WASILLY
CHAIR
Of all the chairs to come out
of the Bauhaus, this is the
one that commonly comes
to mind. Designed my
Marcel Breuer, the Wasilly
Chair is a mix of steel and
leather, using no more
BARCELONA CHAIR material than is absolutely
needed, while providing
• Designed in 1929 by future Bauhaus head Ldwig
Mies van Rohe and partner Lily Reich, the gentle, maximum comfort. It’s a
swooping lines Barcelona chaif served as a precursor design you’ll still find in
of what was to come with the mid-century modem homes today.
furniture movement.
BAUHAUS CHARACTERISTICS
 FORM FOLLOWS
FUNCTION
The American architect Louis
Sullivan was the first to use the
famous expression ‘form follows
function’. This became one of the
fundamental ideas of modernism
and Bauhaus. It means that in
design, a form should always be
applied because of its function
instead of its aesthetic appeal.
Utility came first and excessive
ornamentations were avoided.
 TRUE MATERIALS
According to the teachers at
Bauhaus, materials should reflect
the true nature of objects and
buildings. Honesty as a designer
was most important. This meant
they didn’t modify or hide
materials for the sake of aesthetics.
There was no need to hide the
construction of an object or
building, such as steel or a beam,
because it was just an integral part
of the design.
 MINIMALIST STYLE
The minimalist style of Bauhaus
art, architecture and design
reflected these ideas of
functionality and true materials.
Influenced by movements such
as Modernism and De Stijl,
Bauhaus artists favoured linear
and geometrical forms, while
floral or curvilinear shapes were
avoided. Only line, shape and
colours mattered. Anything else
was unnecessary and could,
therefore, be reduced.
 GESAMTKUNSTWERK
Walter Gropius, the founder of
Bauhaus, was the first to apply the
notion of ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’ - a
synthesis of arts - to modern
times. Gesamtkunstwerk
combines multiple art forms such
as fine and decorative arts unified
through architecture in the case of
Bauhaus. A building was not just
an empty carcass for the Bauhaus
school, it was just one part of the
design, and everything inside
added to the overall concept.
 UNITING AND
TECHNOLOGY
5. Uniting art and technology
In 1923, Bauhaus organised an exhibition that shifted the Bauhaus
ideology. This exhibition was called ‘Art & Technology: A New Unity’.
From then on, there was a new emphasises on technology. Bauhaus
workshops were used as laboratories in which prototypes of products,
suitable for mass production and typical for their time, were carefully
developed and improved. The artists embraced the new possibilities of
modern technologies.
Bauhaus has been a revolutionary movement, changing art, design and
architecture forever. Important Bauhaus objects can be still found on
the market today, whether you are looking for the famous Wassily chair
by Marcel Breuer, the Barcelona chair by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe or
Josef Hartwig’s iconic Chess Piece. Bauhaus objects, as important pieces
of art history, still look surprisingly contemporary today. Find your very
own piece of Bauhaus furniture in our