100 years of Bauhaus

The Bauhaus art school aimed to promote social and as such affordable living through the artistic avant-garde.  At the core of the movement was the idea that revolutionary design could bring about a new way of life for a society in the midst of an upheaval.

The ideals of the Bauhaus School shaped more than just design and architecture around the world; they also transformed teaching. And while a university in Weimar, the birthplace of the Bauhaus, still follows the founders’ guiding principles, other institutions based on the same spirit have had to close.

In East Germany this stronghold of modernism was long ostracized. Today the Bauhaus is one of the cultural beacons of unified Germany.

There are many myths on the subject of women in the Bauhaus. Author Theresia Enzensberger points out that where women’s equality is concerned, the school might have been progressive – but the inclusive attitude remained incomplete.

Minimalist design, simplicity and efficiency – how the Bauhaus aimed to change the way we live.

Scarcely any other art school achieved such comprehensive world renown in 20th-century art, architecture and design as the Bauhaus, founded by Walter Gropius in 1919.

We run into the Bauhaus more often than we know – and not just while out shopping for furniture. Some of the design school’s maxims have found their way into everyday speech as well.

Arne Winkelmann, an architecture expert based in Frankfurt am Main, would like to see more a more critical approach to the Bauhaus school: an interview. 

“I never create an image when I want to build a house.“ Thus Mies van der Rohe stated during interview with the Bauwelt magazine in 1964. He did, however, produce a wealth of collages and montages. These spatial compositions are some of the most interesting and most beautiful works of Modernism.

In the southwest of Montreal, on Nun’s Island, a piece of Bauhaus architecture can be found, an iconic former petrol station that now houses the community center La Station.