Walter Gropius

Walter Gropius

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Walter Gropius (*18 May 1883 Berlin, † 5 July 1969 Boston) was a German and later US-American architect, a co-founder of modern design and the founder of Bauhaus. [click here to see Walter Gropius: https://www.google.de/search?q=fagus+werk&biw=1391&bih=700&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiFsdmQx6vKAhUEdw8KHR2gBk0Q_AUIBigB#tbm=isch&q=walter+gropius ]

Bauhaus

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Bauhaus was an art-school based on the idea to bring together pure design and art. Functional buildings should reflect the modern and dynamic society of the time. Gropius worked with materials like glass and steel which gave the buildings not only a modern look but also a clear and defined structure.

Life

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Gropius studied architecture at the Technical University of Munich from 1903-1907 until he changed to the Technische Hochschule in Charlottenburg. This change paved the way for Gropius to work at the office of the architect Peter Behrens in Berlin, through whom he met Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

In 1910 Gropius opened his own architectural office. The Fagus-Werk in Alfeld is one of the first buildings in Germany that introduced the “new architecture”, consisting of new materials like iron and glass.[click here to see the Fagus-Werk: https://www.google.de/search?q=fagus+werk&biw=1391&bih=700&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiFsdmQx6vKAhUEdw8KHR2gBk0Q_AUIBigB ]

Over the next nine years Gropius designed several office and factory buildings in Germany.

During World War I (1914-1918) Gropius served on the Western Front.

In 1919 Gropius founded the Bauhaus in Weimar and was its director. Its aim was the establishment of "building the future" as a total work of art.

As Hitler came to power (1933), Gropius feared attacks on his person and fled into exile in England, where he lived and worked in the Isokon building, he helped to design. [click here to see the Isokon building: https://www.google.de/search?q=isokon+building&biw=1391&bih=700&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwih7PrDyKvKAhVElg8KHQ8IBsgQ_AUIBigB ]

In 1937 he emigrated to Cambridge (Massachusetts) and took a job as a professor of architecture at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University.

One year later Gropius opened his own architectural office in Cambridge. Moreover, he designed a block of flats for the construction exhibition in West Berlin. In the 1960s, he also designed a large housing estate "Gropiusstadt" in West Berlin.

Private Life

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In 1915 Gropius married Alma Mahler. After the divorce in 1923 Gropius married Ilse Frank.

Literature

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Becker, Annette et al. Bauen und Wohnen in Gemeinschaft / Building and Living in Communities: Ideen, Prozesse, Architektur / Ideas, Processes, Architecture. N.p: BIRKHÄUSER, 2015 Bauhaus-Jubiläum 2019: Die Welt neu denken. Web 18.01.2015 <http://bauhaus-online.de/100-jahre-bauhaus> Lebendiges Museum Online. Web 18.01.2016 <https://www.dhm.de/lemo/biografie/walter-gropius>