Bauhaus architecture is now being rebranded or re-marketed as Bauhaus architecture. It was happening completely independently in a very surprising location. And it's now become a strong marketing ploy to bring people to snuck into your modern architecture by calling it Bauhaus. I think this actually brings us full circle because in fact nationalism and the Bauhaus was always entwined in one way or another. In 1919, when it was set up in 1923, when art and technology and new unity was sort of the way forwards for the way of the Bau House.
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Bauhaus which began in 1919 in Weimar, Germany, as a school for arts and crafts combined, and went on to be famous around the world. Under its first director, Walter Gropius, the Bauhaus moved to Dessau and extended its range to architecture and became associated with a series of white, angular, flat-roofed buildings reproduced from Shanghai to Chicago, aimed for modern living. The school closed after only 14 years while at a third location, Berlin, under pressure from the Nazis, yet its students and teachers continued to spread its ethos in exile, making it even more influential.
The image above is of the Bauhaus Building, Dessau, designed by Gropius and built in 1925-6
With
Robin Schuldenfrei
Tangen Reader in 20th Century Modernism at The Courtauld Institute of Art
Alan Powers
History Leader at the London School of Architecture
And
Michael White
Professor of the History of Art at the University of York
Producer: Simon Tillotson