WALTER GROPIUS

WALTER ADOLPH GROPIUSWALTER ADOLPH GROPIUS

Walter Adolph Gropius was a German American

architect and educator, who founded the Bauhaus.

The Bauhaus was a German art school that became

a seminal force in architecture and applied art

during the first half of the 20th century.

His central thesis, which served as the school's

guiding principle, was that design (in any of its

forms) should be functional, based on a wedding of

WALTER GROPIUS WALTER GROPIUS WALTER GROPIUS WALTER GROPIUS ---- THEORY OF DESIGNTHEORY OF DESIGNTHEORY OF DESIGNTHEORY OF DESIGN 1

forms) should be functional, based on a wedding of

art and engineering. This concept, expressed in his

own buildings, had a profound influence on modern

architecture.

Gropius was born in Berlin on May 18, 1883.

He studied architecture in Munich and Berlin-Carlottenburg.

After World War I he became director of two Weimar

art schools. Reorganizing them in 1919 as the

Staatliches Bauhaus (State Building School).

Here students received a basic crafts training to gain

an acquaintance with materials and processes.

This method, which led to a heightened awareness of

the realities of production, virtually revolutionized

modern design.


modern design.

When the school was moved to Dessau in 1925,

Gropius designed its buildings. They are marked by

simplicity of shape, elimination of surface

decoration, and the extensive use of glass.

1938-52), he introduced the Bauhaus concepts and

helped to shape a generation of American architects.

Gropius died in Boston on July 5, 1969.

Gropius introduced a new approach to design education that emphasized the principle of uniting art and technology.

He argued for the relative autonomy of fine and applied art.


applied art.

He expressed belief in the necessity for reuniting aesthetic sensibility and utilitarian design. But there was no mention of the design of types for mass production .

It seemed as if it had returned to the roots of Arts and Crafts movement, to William Morris , and to the belief in handicraft as the sole viable guarantee of design quality.

He advocated a workshop–based design education for both design and craftsmen.

He discovered the art form of the steel framed structure

His walls show clearly that they no longer carry and support the building. Instead the role of the wall was restricted to mere screens, stretched between the upright columns of the framework, to keep out rain, cold and noise.

The use of glass walls presented and unusual spectacle to eyes accustomed to the supporting wall.


spectacle to eyes accustomed to the supporting wall.

He started the trend towards transparency and absence of weight.

In the Bauhaus (1925-26), he developed the organisation of large volumes of space.

Significantly, Gropius derived several of his design ideas from the European publication of Frank Lloyd Wright work . the courtyard side of the office block, for example, relies in the elevation of the Mason city hotel (1909 in Iowa).).).).

The Bauhaus The Bauhaus -- evolution of an ideaevolution of an idea

An approach to the vexing problem of industrial

production and artistic expression was proposed by

the founding of the Bauhaus.

The Bauhaus was formed by the fusion of two

existing institutions in Weimer: the old Academy of

Fine Arts and School of Applied Arts founded under

Van De Velde in 1906.

It was the outcome of a continuous effort to reform


It was the outcome of a continuous effort to reform

applied art education in Germany around the turn of

the century.

It was founded with visions of erecting the cathedral

of socialism and the workshops were established in

the manner of cathedral building lodges.

It became a center for artists trying to combine

aesthetic concerns with new industrial materials and

techniques, in what became known as the

International style.

The bridging of the gulf between artistic forms and

industrial production was one of the chief motives of

the Bauhaus. They generally advocated simplicity of

form that was adapted to the object's function.

The Bauhaus brought together architects, painters,

and designers…to formulate goals for the modern

age.

It intended to encompass a wide range of creative


It intended to encompass a wide range of creative

works including ceramics, weaving, painting,

architecture.

Parallel with these courses was the Formlehre (study

of form) – instruction in the basis of formal

arrangement, including composition and the study of

colour, texture, and expression .

Eventually these courses were best taught by men

like Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky and Oscar

Schlemmer.

His worksHis works

The first major project of Gropies and Meyer, the Fagus shoe last factory at Alfred an der Leine, is considered a landmark in the history of modern architecture.

It used elements that later characterized the


It used elements that later characterized the International Style.

Glass curtain walls between expressed steel supports, corners left free of solid masonry, and simple rectangular massing with a flat roof.

The front façade was windowless and clad with limestone resembling brick.

Most important was architecture of the administration block with its transparent staircase, the glass waalled offices with cotinous round the corners, and the roof terraces.

This exemplary modern work was started in 1926 at Dessau.

Gropius’s chief aim was to demarcate each element quite distinctly without isolating one from another, and at the same time to give an architectural unity to the whole.


to the whole.

The plan of the building is a pinwheel reaching out into space like a Mondrian painting.

He expressed elements as rectangular volumes of varying sizes, linked by oblongs containing corridors or smaller rooms.

The lightness of the building is emphasized by glass curtain walls, that are drawn around the corner of the building.

These glass walls flow into one another precisely at the point where the human eye is accustomed to see a supporting column.

The interplay of transparency and the piercing the

space by bridges leads to an interpenetration of

horizontal and vertical planes. This makes it possible

to grasp the whole of the complex from any single

viewpoint.

The Bauhaus complex has no definite frontal façade

Gropius varied his fenestration to accentuate the


Gropius varied his fenestration to accentuate the

largeness or smallness of spaces within, and to admit

various qualities of light according to function.

The glass was laid flush with the facade, reinforcing

the overall volumetric character of a space enclosed

by a skin; at times it was recessed accentuating the

hovering white horizontal floor planes.

Gropius’s most unequivocal work was his “Total Theatre” project.

It was largely designed to satisfy the requirements of a biomechanical stage to


requirements of a biomechanical stage to provide the space for ‘theatre of action’.

Walter Gropius realized that the theatre should create a form of life, which transforms the passive spectator into active participant.

The auditorium should be kept permanently illuminated, a permanent visual link thus maintained between actor and audience....

The objective is to create a great and flexible

instrument which can respond in terms of light and

space to every requirement of the theatre producer

giving his imagination a full play

The shape of the theatre is oval, with two

semicircular turntables touching it tangentially .

The theater makes it possible for the actors to play


The theater makes it possible for the actors to play

during the same performance upon a proscenium

stage, apron stage or within a central arena or all

three simultaneously.

The auditorium is supported upon 12 slender

columns.

Screens are stretched between the 12 columns upon

which 12 films can be projected from the cameras

situated behind them.


Gropius had taken greater interest in the

prefabrication of houses than any other pioneers of

contemporary architecture.

A new building material was introduced in Germany

ferroconcrete which was applied for larger and


ferroconcrete which was applied for larger and

daring structures.

The concept behind prefabrication was that mass

productions methods could be employed which could

be cheaper and result in lower rent.

Gropius produced on the site certain prefabricated

parts, such as standardized beams of reinforced

concrete and cinder blocks for supporting cross walls.

Prefabricated housing projects include the

Weissenhof Housing based on dry construction

using light steel framework, with wall panels of

compressed cork covered with sheets of asbestos

cement.

The packaged House System used wood framed

panels which cladding of narrow boards of same


panels which cladding of narrow boards of same

material .

Here every element was based upon the same

module 3 feet 4 inches. The length of the panels

were multiple of this dimension.

These panels could be assembled horizontally or

vertically to form floors, walls, ceilings or roof,

which was possible through four way steel joint or

connector.

Gropius was interested in the design of large complexes rather than individual houses.

A few houses exist, the first of historic importance being those he designed for members of teaching staff of the Bauhaus in 1925-26.

There were altogether four buildings: one


There were altogether four buildings: one detached house for Gropius and three duplexes (semi detached) for other staff members.

The special needs of an artist’s dwelling such as north-facing studio, were also taken into account: staircase, kitchen, bathroom facing north and the bedrooms and living facing south.

The house Gropius built for himself stand on the crest of a hill in the midst of apple orchard

The structure of the house consists of

traditional light wood frame of England,

sheathed with white painted clapboard

siding.

Rough fieldstone walls, like those

employed in seaside houses.

The big front porch, have given a new


The big front porch, have given a new

spatial significance.

The projecting canopy, spiral staircase

and wooden trellis break up the compact

solid of the house form.

bibliography

Walter Gropius -by Giedion, Sigfried A World History Of ArchitectureModern Architecture since 1900 -by Curtis, William J.R.Modern Architecture -by Frampton, Kenneth Encarta Encyclopedia


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WALTER GROPIUS