Architecture

In 1930, Hans Scharoun designed the Haus Schminke for Fritz Schminke who was the owner of a noodles' factory in Loebau, Saxony, Germany. The realization was both at the same time, fancy and functionally adequate.

In 1925, the Deutscher Werkbund (German Work Federation) commissioned Ludwig Mies van der Rohe to organise the exhibition “Die Wohnung” (the flat). The show, opened in 1927, was organised into four sections with the Weissenhof Estate being the most significant field of experimentation for new materials and construction methods.

The 1922 project design for a triangular twenty-storey office building in the shape of a glazed “crystal honeycomb” (Wabe) was Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s spectacular contribution to a high-profile competition inviting ideas for Berlin’s first high-rise at Friedrichstraße railway station.

In their design for the Palace of the League of Nations, Hannes Meyer and Hans Wittwer were guided by the nature and goals of the League of Nations, founded in 1920.

In Tugendhat House, which was commissioned by Grete and Fritz Tugendhat, Mies van der Rohe incorporates, among other things, design elements from the Barcelona Pavilion.

The L-shaped house has a special position in Mies van der Rohe’s oeuvre. This is the only courthouse-style building that Mies was able to realise in the 1930s.

Lange House, which was designed as an ensemble together with Esters House, shows characteristics of both traditional architecture and avant-garde ambitions.

The cooperative children’s home in Mümliswil was the only commission that former Bauhaus director Hannes Meyer was able to realize in his native Switzerland after his stay in the Soviet Union. In 1939 he ultimately travelled further to Mexico.

The Fagus Factory, begun in 1911 in Alfeld, Lower Saxony, is regarded as one of the earliest examples of modernist architecture. It is the first factory building by the future founder of the Bauhaus, Walter Gropius, in collaboration with Adolf Meyer. Since 2011, it has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The “German Pavilion” for the 1929 World Exhibition in Barcelona is a prime example of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's “flowing spaces” and is one of the Bauhaus architect’s most famous buildings ever.

The historic Employment Office by Walter Gropius from 1929 now stands on Dessau’s August-Bebel Square. Unemployment and the placement of jobs was a new mass phenomenon of the industrial society.

The Turbine Hall, designed by Peter Behrens for AEG in 1908/09, evokes associations with a Greek temple.

In 1926/27, Hannes Meyer and Hans Wittwer, who later built the ADGB school (Federal School for the German Trade Unions) in Bernau near Berlin together, experimented with constructivist forms and functionalist methods. These formed the basis for their competition designs for the Petersschule (St. Peter’s school) in Basel.

Sommerfeld House in Berlin was built for the industrialist Adolf Sommerfeld during the early, expressionistic phase of the Bauhaus and is regarded as its first collective project. Almost all of the workshops of the Bauhaus Weimar were involved in making the interior fittings and fixtures.

The Trinkhalle (Drinking Hall) was built at the Sieben Säulen crossing in Dessau, directly at the Masters’ House settlement, in 1932.

The Steel House, next to House Fieger, was commissioned by the municipality of Dessau and built during the first phase of the construction of the Törten Estate. It was completed in spring 1927.

The reconstructed Gropius and Moholy-Nagy Master’s Houses in Dessau were re-opened three years ago. We take a brief look at the originals and their reconstructions.

As part of his graduation thesis, Rossig designed the layout of a linear city that was to interconnect existing cities with the facilities of “a collectivised agriculture”.

On 4 December 1926, more than 1,000 guests from Germany and abroad came to the central German industrial city of Dessau, joined by 100 representatives of Germany’s largest newspapers. There, the new Bauhaus building – a landmark of New Architecture and one of the 20th century’s most important buildings – was inaugurated with an opening ceremony over two days.

The houses with balcony access were part of a larger plan for expansion of the Dessau-Törten housing estate and the first joint project of the Bauhaus architecture department under Hannes Meyer.

The Kornhaus is a Dessau destination restaurant with a special quality. It is located directly on the Elbe River and is the only Bauhaus structure built on a waterfront property.

In 1923, Walter Gropius had an exemplary study designed (which later became known as the director’s office), in order to demonstrate the cooperation between the workshops. The geometric illustration of the space, where all objects relate to the square, was drawn by Herbert Bayer.

Built from 1926 to 1928, the Dessau-Törten Estate was designed to create affordable living space for the growing population. A key element for Gropius was the rationalisation of all construction processes under the primary consideration of reducing costs.

The Federal School of the German Trade Union Federation in Bernau, designed by Hannes Meyer, Hans Wittwer and the building department at the Bauhaus in Dessau, is still regarded today as a paradigmatic example of functional architecture. All the interiors were designed by the Bauhaus workshops in Dessau.