The Bauhaus, founded by Walter Gropius in 1919, was a German art school in which the idea of creating a ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’ (”total work of art”) led to a special approach to design. By studying different aspects of the fine arts and various crafts, students of the Bauhaus gained a deep understanding of the synthesis of aesthetics and the production of everyday objects. Due to a change of government in 1924, the school was forced to move from Weimar to Dessau in 1925.
Building a museum on a subject, banished from Weimar by national socialists, in a place of national socialist significance, is a gesture of great importance. Due to the neighbouring ‘Gauforum’ the new museum had to be a monumental and massive design, created by Heike Hanada and Benedict Tonon. In order to break the heavy facade, horizontal lines are dividing up the concrete block, lighting it up and almost making it seem weightless. The new museum opened in 2019 for the 100 year anniversary of the Bauhaus.
Location
Weimar, Germany
