Walter Gropius was one of the most influential architects and designers of the 20th century. The German-American architect was the founder of the famous Bauhaus school of architecture and design, and one of the leading proponents of the modernist movement in America, Europe and indeed internationally.
Walter Gropius: a biography
Walter Gropius was born in 1883 in Berlin. He studied architecture in Munich and Berlin, and started working for the renowned architect and industrial designer Peter Behrens in 1908. His colleagues at the time included the young Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and the man who would later become known as Le Corbusier. Two years later, Gropius started his own architectural practice in Berlin, and in 1911, he designed the Fagus Factory in Alferd an der Leine together with Alfred Meyer. Gropius became a member of the Deutscher Werkbund in 1910, where he collaborated with architect Henry van de Velde on the institution's efforts to standardise the quality of design and production and to promote individual creativity.
After the First World War, Gropius founded the Bauhaus school in Weimar. He also participated in the design of large-scale housing projects in Frankfurt, Dessau and the Siemensstadt in Berlin. In 1934, Gropius fled from Germany to England, before going on to the United States in 1937. There he designed the Gropius House for himself and his family in Lincoln, Massachusetts, introducing the Bauhaus ideals and the International Style to the country for the first time.
Gropius and his former Bauhaus colleague Marcel Breuer taught together at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Gropius was appointed the head of the Department of Architecture in 1938, a post he held until 1952. In 1946, he founded a practice called The Architects Collaborative, one of the best-known works of which was the Graduate Center at Harvard University.
Bauhaus
Walter Gropius designed the Bauhaus, a school of architecture and design, in Dessau in 1926. The building features an asymmetrical layout, divided according to the various functions contained within it, and extensive glass façades to let light into the studios. The Bauhaus closed in 1932 under the pressure of the Nazi government. The building was restored in 1976. Gropius’ Bauhaus became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1996.
Gropius House
The Gropius House is the architect's own family residence in Massachusetts. Today, the house is open to the public as a museum of Bauhaus architecture and design. In 2000, it was declared a National Historic Landmark. The house is laid out according to functionalist principles and drew significant criticism from nearby neighbours, who initially felt that it did not fit alongside their colonial-style homes. The house contains the largest collection of Bauhaus-related materials outside of Germany.
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