Bauhaus movement, Germany

UNIVERSIDAD AUTÓNOMA DE SINALOA Facultad De Arquitectura

BAUHAUS LUIS HUMBERTO CORRALES GASTÉLUM JESÚS ANTONIO IRIBE PEÑA

THE BAUHAUS MOVEMENT, GERMANY: 1919 to 1933

By Brian Kievning

Introduction The Bauhaus is synonymous with the greater term modernism. For others, the Bauhaus is a type of font or an architectural design style. For the design student, the Bauhaus Movement is considered one of the most important design movements in the twentieth century. Is considered an art-related movement and school, however upon a closer inspection of the methods and the principles that the Bauhaus was founded on, one will find that the Bauhaus Movement relates not only to the historical roots of technology education and design education, but that these methods are increasingly more relevant today.

Methodology His vision (Walter Gropius) for education was one that encompassed all fields. 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. The Bauhaus embraced what would have been considered technology education combined with both art and creativity.

The pedagogy developed in the period of the Bauhaus remains relevant today and educators can learn a lot from this movement. The Bauhaus provided a foundation of how one studies and evaluates design.

Consequently, this is where a conscience effort was made to explore design as a human activity.

History & timeline overview The school existed in three German cities and functioned with three different directors.

The Bauhaus school was transferred to Berlin, where it operated briefly on a small scale from 1928 until 1933.

This period is considered the Phase of Disintegration.

The Bauhaus was subject to the political influences and scrutiny of the government. It should be understood that the Bauhaus existence was deeply connected to the politics of the time. The school was viewed in a variety of lights based on the government that was in practice. All of these influences worked to create a new consciousness, which influenced the design, architecture and art.

In 1920 the Bauhaus created what has been called its “Basic Course�. This course will be discussed further and should be considered a major piece of the education and methodology at the Bauhaus.

The context The Bauhaus would not have been considered a school for the “industrial arts� as this term was not it existence.

The Bauhaus ideals were breaking away from the craft ideal of the middle ages and coming into concepts of practicality and functionally. In the historical context the over industrialization separated our aesthetic from what we were producing. This is the greater struggle of several movements of the time.

The goal to educate students who will be able to create goods that are personal to the user that the role that use the technological strengths of industry. The role essentially given to the industrial designer is born, and therefore, a unique style of technical education or design education. An education where the craftsman not only uses technology but also uses it in a way that relates to humankind both aesthetically, and ergonomically.

Van de Velde erected the building at Weimar in which the Bauhaus came to be housed. He also espoused many of the key principles, which Gropius and the Bauhaus subsequently followed. He emphasized the need for a reunification of the arts, long before Gropius did, and refused to elevate the "fine arts" above the others. He believed, as did the Bauhaus, in their equal worth.

This was considered a pretty radical doctrine when van de Velde first enunciated it, in 1894.

Founding the bauhaus The Bauhaus was not educating the artist solely or the architect, the Bauhaus worked in educating something unique, and its efforts can best be described as a multidisciplinary approach where the vehicle to achieve that education was the role of the architect.

What the Bauhaus sought to do was to combine both fields together with the faculty of architecture of the technical universities or academies of architecture.

Two goals • The first, this means the integration of all branches of art and craft under the primacy of architecture.

• The second, was a synthesis of aesthetic production around the needs of a broad segment of the population.

The pedagogy - 3 pillars: 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 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.

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.

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.

Bauhaus end-product 1920’3 to 30’s He goes on to describe that the goal was to create competent craftsmen or independent creative artists that were integrated in the community. The goal was an artist-craftsmen who was able to build buildings harmoniously.

In Dessau, the basic practical instruction included learning about materials and tools, devising and building of useful objects in a special workshop created for the basic course. 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.

There were also studies in abstraction of appearance, scheme, and design exercise, which included drawing, painting and building.

The basic course: itten It was made up of exercises as a preparation for follow-up design courses. According to Pestalozzi, was considered a protective figure that follows and stimulates the child’s inherent intelligence. The Basic Course approach constituted the first course in which the sole purpose was to develop and facilitate the creative faculty in the student.

The goal of the Basic Course was to liberate the creative forces of the students. Students were asked to choose a material to work in, like metal or wood.

According to Itten, the undirected manipulation of materials should result in the student's ability to produce structures, forms, patterns and relationships will give him a "sense of accomplishment," and this, in turn, will "show him the power that rests within himself�.

The basic course: content Introduced them to design and form and it spoke to them about light. According to Itten, the most expressive means to create drama in anything is the use and understanding of light. Engineering or architectural design uses these practices to create complex lighting design. This course content is foundational not only to technology education but essential to our understanding of the world.

Bauhaus in America America as a nation, and the world, had progressed past the need for what the Bauhaus represented at the time it existed. It is not the intention to trace the work of the individual throughout the United States. That task would take more research then this paper will allow.

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.

For the technology education teacher Technology educators must be interested in the integration of art and creativity. 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. Educators must be imparting problem-solving skills, as the global community is not in need of workers for the assembly line.

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 remains topical and we will continue to write books about it‌so much of what we call “modern designâ€? originated there, it is the incredible spirit of confidence in a better and brighter future, where art science and technology will really work together for a more livable environment.