THE
BAUHAUS MOVEMENT — GERMANY, 1919-1930 —
INTRODUCCIÓN The German word Bauhaus essentially means “House of Building or Building School”. For some, the Bauhaus is synonymous with the greater term modernism. For others, the Bauhaus is a type of font or an architectural design style. In light of all the different understandings of what the Bauhaus is, there is something more important, the ideologies and methods that were taught there. The technology educator will also find that the multidisciplinary education like that of the Bauhaus will provide their students with an invaluable educational experience needed to succeed in an ever-changing world.
METHODOLOGY During its brief existence, from the 1920’s through 1930’s the Bauhaus developed a style that has impacted virtually every aspect of the applied arts. A man named Walter Gropius fueled the primary and founding vision of the Bauhaus. Under his leadership and direction the Bauhaus Movement and school should be considered an antecedent of technology education. Educators who seek to unlock ingenuity, and creativity in their students can look to the Bauhaus as an educational model.
From a historical point of view the separation of crafts, technology, design and art is a recent phenomenon. The period of the Bauhaus sought to combine these elements. The Bauhaus has had a profound impact on architecture, graphic design, interior design, industrial design, and typography and has addressed how we engage the technology we use. It should be understood that this combination of the crafts, technology, art, and design is referred to as a multidisciplinary approach.
Johannes Itten was responsible for carrying out the preparatory course, by which had great influence on the postulates of the bauhaus, his pedagogical approach was based on intuition and the method, or in recognition of the objective and the subjective experience, together with Kandinsky, they sought to re-introduce the spirituality to the art.
Walter Gropius Founder of the Bauhaus Gropius's career advanced in the postwar period. Henry van de Velde, the master of the Grand-Ducal Saxon School of Arts and Crafts in Weimar was asked to step down in 1915 due to his Belgian nationality. His recommendation for Gropius to succeed him led eventually to Gropius's appointment as master of the school in 1919. It was this academy which Gropius transformed into the world famous Bauhaus, attracting a faculty that included Paul Klee, Johannes Itten, Josef Albers, Herbert Bayer, László MoholyNagy, Otto Bartning and Wassily Kandinsky.
The school existed in three German cities and functioned with three different directors. The Founding Phase lasted from the period of 1919 until 1923 and was led by Walter Gropius in the city of Weimar. The Period of Consolidation lasted from 1923 until 1928. In 1925, at a critical juncture for the Bauhaus, after loosing the support of the Weimar government, the Bauhaus moved to Dessau. In 1928, Gropius resigned and architect Hannes Meyer took his place as second director. The Bauhaus school was transferred to Berlin, where it operated briefly on a small scale from 1928 until 19. This period is considered the Phase of Disintegration. In 1930, Architect Mies van der Rohe becomes the third, and final director, of the Bauhaus. 1933 the Berlin Bauhaus closed. The most important phase of the Bauhaus was the Founding Phase. the Founding Phase for the Bauhaus began within the Weimar Republic, at the end of the First World War. The Bauhaus was subject to the political influences and scrutiny of the government. The Bauhaus existence was deeply connected to the politics of the time.
Hannes Meyer The second director
Walter Gropius The first director and founder
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe lastly for a short period
Johannes Itten
Paul Klee
Wassily Kandisky
In 1920 the Bauhaus created what has been called its “Basic Course”. First instructor of the Basic course was a painter named Johannes Itten. The course dealt with design principles and the nature of materials. Johannes Itten taught that “outward scientific research and technology must be balanced by inward looking and thinking” Laslo Moholy-Nagy also directed the basic course, along with other historic figures such as Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee and Joseph Albers.
Henry Van de Velde One of the Bauhaus antecedents was Henry van de Velde. He created the Arts and Crafts School, the predecessor of the Bauhaus, and was the guiding spirit of that school for the eight or more years of its existence in Weimar. Van de Velde, laid the foundation for the Bauhaus, in both a physical and a doctrinal sense. He emphasized the need for a reunification of the arts, and refused to elevate the "fine arts" above the others. According to van de Veld, “The function of the handicrafts was to produce models for industrial mass-production because the instrument of the future . This was considered a pretty radical doctrine when van de Velde first enunciated it, in 1894.
TWO GOALS The Bauhaus concentrated on two main goals above all others. The first goal was aesthetic synthesis. This means the integration of all branches of art and craft under the primacy of architecture. The second goal according to Wick, from Teaching at the Bauhaus, was a synthesis of aesthetic production around the needs of a broad segment of the population. The opposite would have been designing for a proletariat or socially privileged section of the population. Under Gropius it was stated that every student must learn a craft with the goal of architecture as the vehicle to a unified school. This merger of technology was to create the University of Design. It is important to note that during this time the protagonists for this change were architects: Bartning, Behrens, Fischer, Gropius, Schumacher and Riemerschmid. It was felt that the separation of architecture from painting, sculpture, and arts and craft was a disadvantage for all disciplines including architecture and the artistic disciplines. Essentially architecture would unite all disciplines to educate students to serve the greater populations of society using industry and the tools of production. These same goals are found in technology education, and impact the roles of the architect, engineer and industrial designer.
THE PEDAGOGY 3 PILLARS
In examining the pedagogy of the Bauhaus one would see a large catalog of offerings but would not find a true teaching plan. Every student was instructed to learn a craft. The craft was the foremost pillar, drawing and painting was the second pillar, and science and theory form the last pillar of the pedagogy of the Bauhaus. Gropius believed in the concept of double qualification. The Bauhaus was filled with different workshops. Workshops existed for joinery and fitting, there was a metal workshop, a ceramics workshop, weaving and wallpapers, places for exhibition design, graphic design and typography, and for teaching architecture & urban planning. This concept was the true reform of the Bauhaus. The Bauhaus had regular teaching in the handicrafts, integrated with artistic teachings that were obligatory for all Bauhaus students according to the statutes of 1929, and that concluded with a Journeyman’s Exam. The handicrafts department and the council of masters administered this exam. This joining of the crafts with the handicrafts was an essential piece of his unified school along with working and learning. Gropius’s pedagogy relied on a respect for the manual labor. These skills gave the student mastery of their technical skills. In addition to a foundation of the crafts, the Bauhaus also relied heavily on painting and drawing. Students were instructed in ornamental exercises using the basic forms of circle, square, and triangle exercises. One can still see the use of drawing and painting, however, at this point it moved away from exercises in ornamental design to the unadorned functionalism of the modern movement. These exercises where key in the development of the creative mind of the student. This part of the educational plan was designed to develop the mind of the students and their ingenuity. This is an important piece needed in technology education programs. Often we expect students to be able to design something without the ability to think and express their ideas. The Bauhaus realized the need for students to be able to express their ideas and painting and drawing was not “art class” but a means to communicate in a visual world. The last pillar alongside training in the crafts and drawing, according to the program of 1919, was in science and theory. Students were educated in the natural sciences and technology. To Gropius, that meant the science of materials and the physical and chemical theory of color. It is interesting to note that art history was also an important piece at the Bauhaus. The historical study did not include an examination of styles, like an artistic academy, but a practical exploration of techniques. Anatomy was observed from a living model for design application. In addition, business and accounting were taught as well with the purpose of counteracting the notion that the “artist” was free from the economic considerations. The Bauhaus wanted their students as a part of society, as participants in the economy, and as partners in negotiations and contracts. This idea was taken from the German Werkbund. This attitude towards technology is the same as the modern technology educator. We strive to put our ideas into real practice and provide a learning environment that shows the whole process. In addition the practice to incorporate theory could be applied to anything. Frankly, any educator who desires to team teach alongside a science teacher, or a physics teacher is looking for mor practicle theory. These were the rules that students needed to know to function in a growing technological society.
Education at the Bauhaus took place according to a plan determined by Walter Gropius. In the preliminary course, students received basic training in the properties of colours, forms and materials. The core of the advanced courses was the work in the workshops, directed in Weimar by a master of form and a master of works. All of this served as preparation for the building apprenticeship, which stood at the centre of the curriculum. Some of the most important artists of the day taught at the Bauhaus. In addition to the artistic disciplines, subjects such as geometry, mathematics and business management were also taught.
BAUHAUS ENDPRODUCT 1920’3 -30’s
Wick (2000) described the type of students the Bauhaus was trying to educate. In 1925 the Bauhaus focused on the training of artistically talented individuals to become creative designers in the crafts, industry and architecture. When the Bauhaus moved to Dessau, the structure of the program remained true to what had been taught at the Bauhaus in Weimar, but further progressed towards the technical. This meant that students were exploring the orientation, designation, and terminology of form. Students were exploring organic and functional relationships along with the exploration of construction and structure. With any institution of learning like a college one can observe phases of instruction. Under Mies Van der Rohe the Bauhaus idea underwent a final reinterpretation.
The teacher, according to Pestalozzi, was considered a protective figure that follows and stimulates the child’s inherent intelligence. The goal of the Basic Course was to liberate the creative forces of the students. Convention was looked down upon and searching for a student’s own unique contribution was encouraged Students were asked to choose a material to work in, like metal or wood. Imagination and creative ability, according to Itten, must first be liberated and strengthened by the environment and the program.
The Bauhaus design activities were thought of with three basic aspects. First, was the material: the “stuff” to-be transformed. Second, was the "forming" method. Thirdly, the decision-making process, called the design, which directs the forming of the material to be converted into a meaningful product. These three aspects constitute the transformation process, and a form of technology education. The issue of play is always at the root of technology education programs. The need for the student to engage what they are learning is an important to the success of the student It is fascinating that it is present in Bauhaus and they recognized that overcoming fear was a point we needed to educate.
BAUHAUS IN AMERICA Once the school was closed in 1933, by the Nazi’s, many of the leaders of the Bauhaus, including Gropius, fled in exile to America. Of the many figures at the Bauhaus, Gropius, Mies van der Rohe, Moholy-Nagy and Albers were some of the “big names” that were regarded highly. It was said that Gropius’ teaching paved the way for at least two trends in the history of North American architecturThe first trend is, “that students should realize how inexhaustible the means of creation if they make use of the innumerable products of our age and to encourage young people to find their own solutions to these problems.e and design education. It is also interesting to consider that at the time the Bauhaus ended the Ohio state committee on coordination and development of 1934, in their Ohio Prospectus, which was considered a prototype of the growth of industrial arts, consisted of units in planning in communication, metals, textiles, transportation, woods, graphic arts, ceramics, personnel, foods, leather craft, and jewelry for industrial arts courses. According to the prospectus, this broadened what traditionally considered industrial arts from woodworking, drafting and metalworking.
Workshops - pottery and sculpture
Workshops - graphic design and textile
Workshops - painting and murals
Workshops - woodworking
Ceramics Workshop
Technology educators must be interested in the integration of art and creativity. From a historical point of view the separation of crafts, technology, design and art is a recent phenomenon. The period of the Bauhaus sought to combine these elements. The modern technology education teacher should learn what the Bauhaus has to offer and continue to draw inspiration from their methods. The pedagogy developed in the period of the Bauhaus remains relevant today and educators can learn a great deal from this movement. The Bauhaus provided a foundation of how to study and evaluate design, and this is where one first explores design as a human activity. The more one investigates and evaluates this movement they will find the roots of what every technology educator must be willing to integrate. The Bauhaus was a multidisciplinary approach to education, where students learned by doing. They used architecture as a vehicle to educate students how to interact and create for humans. The Bauhaus approach has long been honored and accepted, but no further steps have been introduced to give the field a new impetus. It is still today the "proper" approach for the education of the designer.
Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa FACULTAD DE ARQUITECTURA
Compresión de documentos de arquitectura en Ingles
4° Semester Group: 1 Arce Méndez Daniela Isabel Castro Arredondo Linda López Aguirre Jorge Javier Monarres Espinoza Ana Carolina Pérez Beltrán Kristel