Bauhaus-Archive / Museum of Design

The Bauhaus-Archive / Museum of Design in Berlin houses the world’s largest collection of items devoted to the history of the Bauhaus. The building is a late work by Walter Gropius, who bequeathed his entire private archive to the museum. Still the focal point of the museum’s extensive holdings, it encompasses plans, photographs and objects of all genres including numerous established classics such as Wilhelm Wagenfeld’s table lamp, Bauhaus Lamp, Marianne Brandt’s Tea Infuser and Strainer MT 49 and Marcel Breuer’s tubular-steel Wassily Chair.

The Bauhaus-Archive was founded in 1960 in Darmstadt, on the Mathildenhöhe, where the art historian Hans Maria Wingler began assembling a collection and organizing initial exhibitions. The spaces at the Mathildenhöhe soon proved to be too small for the rapidly growing collection. In 1964, Walter Gropius developed plans for a museum and exhibition building at Darmstadt’s Rosenhöhe. Due of a lack of local political support, the Bauhaus-Archive moved instead to Berlin in 1971, two years after Gropius’s death, where the city financed the museum’s construction. Gropius’s plans were modified by his former associate Alex Cvijanovic (The Architects Collaborative) and Hans Bandel and then built between 1976 and 1979 on the Landwehr Canal near the southern edge of the Tiergarten.

The signature of the Bauhaus founder is unmistakable in this striking building. The objective severity, the austere use of color and the steelframe construction recall classic examples of modern architecture. The characteristic sawtooth roofs, which Gropius borrowed from industrial structures, bring daylight into the exhibition spaces. The building is accessed by an elongated ramp with a hairpin bend at the end that allows it to continue inside, traversing the entire building complex.

To mark the centenary celebrations of the Bauhaus in 2019, the Bauhaus-Archive is being refurbished in keeping with its status as a protected historical monument and extended by new building designed by Staab Architects. The transparent, five-story tall tower will be used for the purposes of cultural education. The existing structure will be used in the future as an event location and archive. During the construction work, visitors to exhibitions and events are welcome at the temporary bauhaus-archiv. The progress of the extension can be followed in the construction site information center the bauhaus view and via a webcam.