Happy 130th Birthday to Bauhaus Founder and Acclaimed Modernist, Walter Gropius
On May 18th, we celebrate the 130th birthday of one of the most highly regarded modern architects of the 20th century, Walter Gropius. Gropius’ contribution to architecture is that of an architect, philosopher and educator. He was the founder of the Bauhaus, the German “School of Building” that embraced a “total art” in the arts’ production and influence in the social context. This “laboratory” was an effort to incorporate the elements of art, architecture, graphic design, interior design, industrial design, and typography in its design, development and production.
More after the break.
Heike Hanada with Benedict Tonon to Design the New Bauhaus Museum in Weimar
Klassik Stiftung Weimar, host of the competition for the New Bauhaus Museum in Weimer, has announced that Berlin-based architect with Professor Benedict Tonon, has been selected as the winning proposal. Last March, ArchDaily announced the shortlist for the New Bauhaus Museum in Weimer design competition. The jury had provided the four finalists with recommendations to improve their proposals in preparation for the VOF Procedure (Contracting Regulations for the Awarding of Professional Services).
Thuringian Minister of Culture and Foundation Board Chairman Christoph Matschie congratulated the winner: “The Bauhaus is now finally being provided with a fitting location at its Weimar cradle. Once again, the Bauhaus will become a symbol of reawakening in the time to come. The building of the museum is providing animportant impulse for the entire development of the city of Weimar.”
Follow us after the break for more on the winning proposal.
‘Six Architects’ posters by Andrea Gallo
We saw this incredible set of posters from iconic architects created by artist Andrea Gallo and felt the need to share them with you. They will be available for sale soon, so we look forward to buy one and decorate our office! Which one would you get? Check the posters of Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, Louis Kahn, Alvar Aalto and Walter Gropius after the break.
AD Classics: Dessau Bauhaus / Walter Gropius
Interested in creating a new form of design found at the intersection of architecture, art, industrial design, typography, graphic design, and interior design, Walter Gropius was inspired to create an institution known as the Bauhaus at Dessau, with an emerging style that would forever influence architecture.
Initially a school in Weimar, growing political resentment forced the move to Dessau. Gropius took this as an opportunity to build a school that reflected his hopes for the education that would be had within it’s walls. The style of the Dessau facilities hints at the more futuristic style of Gropius in 1914, also showing similarities to the International style more than the Neo-classic style.
More on the Bauhaus after the break.
Second International Bauhaus Summer School
The second international Summer School run by the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation invites young students from various disciplines to take part in an idea contest held in Dessau from 21 to 30 July 2010. The format has been established successfully last summer, and will continue this year under the heading ‘Home is Everywhere’.
Based on Martin Wagner’s vision of a flexible living in the ‘Growing House’, the title of an exhibition held in 1932, the participants shall develop fantasies for a multi-local living in Dessau-Roßlau, they will work of the following themes: ‘Garden shead XXL’, ‘Home comforts on the move’, Boarding house’, and ‘Global home Platte’. The Summer School is aimed at students of architecture and town planning, but also of other disci-plines such as the humanities, mathematics, and art.
The Summer School fee of 300 Euro includes accommodation. For further information and en-rolment please visit summerschool@bauhaus-dessau.de or www.bauhaus-dessau.de.
Bauhaus 1919-1933, an exhibition at MoMA
The Museum of Modern Art presents Bauhaus 1919 -1933: Workshops for Modernity from November 8, 2009, to January 18, 2010. The Bauhaus school in Germany -the most famous and influential school of avant-garde art in the twentieth century – brought together artists, architects, and designers in an extraordinary conversation about the nature of art in the modern age. Aiming to rethink the very form of contemporary life, the students and faculty of the Bauhaus made the school the venue for a dazzling array of experiments in the visual arts that had a transformative effect on the 1920s and 1930s and profoundly shaped our contemporary visual world.
The exhibition brings together over 400 works that reflect the extraordinarily broad range of the school ‘s productions,including industrial design, furniture, architecture, graphics, photography, textiles, ceramics, theater and costume design, painting, and sculpture. It includes works by famous faculty members and well-known students including Anni Albers, Josef Albers, Herbert Bayer, Marianne Brandt, Marcel Breuer, Lyonel Feininger, Walter Gropius, Vasily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, László Moholy-Nagy, Lucia Moholy, Lilly Reich, Oskar Schlemmer, and Gunta Stölzl, as well as less well-known, but equally innovative, artists.
More information here.
11th International Bauhaus Colloquium as the highlight of Bauhaus Anniversary Week
On April 2-5, architectural theoreticians from around the globe will be coming to Weimar to debate the political and ethical challenges of globalization and how architecture responds to them.
In three plenary sessions 23 renowned international scientists will present their viewpoints. Among those invited are Philip Ursprung (Universität Zürich), M. Christine Boyer (Princeton University), Wolfgang Pehnt (Universität Bochum), Stanford Anderson (MIT), Philipp Oswalt (Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau) and Bill Hillier (University College London). The mornings are reserved for five workshops with a total of thirty presentations. The organizers wish to promote successful dialogue between established scientists and emerging scholars with this format.
The Bauhaus Colloquia, held in regular intervals since 1976, are the oldest and most esteemed conferences on architectural theory in the German-speaking world. Organized by the Chair of Theory and History of Modern Architecture at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, the colloquium is directed by Prof. Dr. Kari Jormakka and Prof. Dr. Gerd Zimmermann.
Opening Lectures on April 2, 2009, 10 a.m. at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Audimax, Steubenstraße 6, 99423 Weimar.
For more information, full program and registration, click here.
Celebrating 90 Years of Bauhaus
The legendary Bauhaus movement turns 90 this year and the anniversary is being marked by exhibitions from Tokyo to New York. The school was founded by a young architect, Walter Gropius, who wanted to shape products for the future and create a more just society.
Read the full article in Spiegel Online, here.
