Walter gropius

A brief on one the German architect "Walter Gropius", his architectural style and his building works(with drawings)

1. WALTER GROPIUS


Born Walter Adolph
Georg Gropius
18 May 1883
Berlin, German
Empire
Died 5 July
1969 (aged 86)
Cambridge,
Massachusetts, Uni
ted States
Nationality German

2. INTRODUCTION :

•Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was
a German architect and founder of the Bauhaus School,who, along with Ludwig
Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright, is widely regarded as one
of the pioneering masters of modern architecture.
•Walter Gropius was drafted August 1914 and served as a sergeant and then as a
lieutenant in the signal corps in the First World War.
• He survived being both buried under rubble and dead bodies, and shot out of the
sky with a dead pilot.
•He was awarded the Iron Crosstwice. Gropius then, like his father and his great-
uncle Martin Gropius before him, became an architect.
• Gropius could not draw, and was dependent on collaborators and partner-
interpreters throughout his career. In school he hired an assistant to complete his
homework for him.
•In 1908, after studying architecture in Munich and Berlin for four semesters,
Gropius joined the office of the renowned architect and industrial designer Peter
Behrens, one of the first members of the utilitarian school.
• His fellow employees at this time included Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Le
Corbusier, and Dietrich Marcks.
•In 1910 Gropius left the firm of Behrens and together with fellow employee Adolf
Meyer established a practice in Berlin

3. BAUHAUS PERIOD:
•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 hisBelgian 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 Moholy-
Nagy, Otto Bartning and Wassily Kandinsky.
•In principle, the Bauhaus represented an opportunity to extend beauty and quality to every
home through well designed industrially produced objects.
•The Bauhaus program was experimental and the emphasis, was theoretical.
• One example product of the Bauhaus was the armchair F 51, designed for the Bauhaus's
directors room in 1920 – nowadays a re-edition in the market, manufactured by the German
company TECTA/Lauenfoerde.
•In 1919, Gropius was involved in the Glass Chain utopian expressionist correspondence under
the pseudonym "Mass.“
•In 1923, Gropius designed his famous door handles, now considered an icon of 20th-century
design and often listed as one of the most influential designs to emerge from Bauhaus.
•Walter Gropius designed the newly constructed school building in 1925 on behalf of the city
of Dessau.
• He also designed large-scale housing projects in Berlin, Karlsruhe and Dessau in 1926–32
that were major contributions to the New Objectivity movement, including a contribution to
the Siemensstadt project in Berlin.

4. CHARACTERISTICS FEATURES :
•Walter Gropius was a German architect who created innovative designs that involved
materials and methods of construction from modern technology available at his time.
•Gropius theory was that all design should be functional as well as aesthetically pleasing.
•Using technology as a basis, he transformed building into a science of precise mathematical
calculations.
• He believed in industrialized and efficient buildings so that his buildings often provided the
evidence of standardization, mass production and prefabrication.
• Gropius also introduced a screen wall system that utilized a structural steel frame to
support the floors and which allowed the external glass walls to cover a surface
uninterrupted.
•Gropius was the founder of the innovative Bauhaus design school in Germany, which the
school then became a dominant force in architecture and the applied arts in the 20th
century.
•The design outcomes of the school greatly influenced architecture, design art and new
media.
•All the Bauhaus designs are recognized as innovative and contemporary, which make them
classic and last until today.
• The designs applied the logic where form follows function and less is more. This philosophy
resulted in clean, simple and modern design. The design produced in Bauhaus style was
frequently used steel, glass, leathers, bent wood and plastic. The colors used are generally
black, white, brown, grey and chromium. Sometimes the primary colors of the furniture are
used irregularly to emphasize and to give entirely the less dark appearance.

5. F51 ARMCHAIR

6. ARCHITECTURAL WORKS :

1. GROPIUS HOUSE:
Architect Walter Gropius



Location Lincoln, Massachusetts
Date 1937
Building
Type
architect's house
Constru
ction Sys
tem
wood frame, vertical
wood siding
Climate temperate
Style Modern

7. Introduction
•After the beginning of World War II in Europe and after walking an interesting
way in the Bauhaus, Walter Gropius decided to open its office in 1928 in
Germany, however the current government did not like their ideas or their
projects so that the work was decreased and the need to leave their country.
•In 1934 the German government requested his transfer to London to try to
accommodate, then the dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Design,
Joseph Hudnut, Gropius visited London and offered him a professorship at the
university.
•Finally decided to go to America, to the city of Lincoln, Massachusetts, where
he established.
•In 1937 would come to the city of Lincoln, which only lead him to his family
and some furniture made in the Bauhaus.
• They sat in a rented house due to his immigration status was given to establish
the economic facilities and thanks to this home designed and directly
influenced the architecture of New England and in collaboration with Marcel
Breuer.
•Walter Gropius died in 1969 and his wife decided to cede the property to the
Society for Historical Preservation of New England Antiquities in 1974, but
remained in the house until his death in 1983.
•Two years after his death, was opened as a Historic House Museum.

8. Concept

•Located on the hill of a mountain, still leading the nature
that surrounds it, the Gropius house was made according to
standards that were raised at the Bauhaus but consistent
with some features of the architecture of New England.
• As for space, simplicity and order prevailed under European
influences, while the geometry-free beauty and decoration
of the architecture of New England were made to see.
•W. Gropius also combines materials such as bricks, stone
slabs and wooden slats with new materials that were used
in the United States as gypsum, industrial handrails, new
laminated glass block and new technologies for facilities.

9. Design

•Gropius House has two levels with stone structure in the basement, wood and brick.
• It can be said that the project is a box or volume settled in stone.
•Ground Floor
oOn this floor access is diagonal, under a porch that welcomes visitors, here Gropius
used hollow glass block to give privacy to the lobby.
oOn the back porch is located one space covering the porch with stone flooring.
o The bathrooms in both the plant and in the top group in the north corner where there
is no just views.
o The spaces such as dining and living area, are next to the center of the house which is
located a stone fireplace.
oFrom this level starts a spiral staircase which reaches the second level terrace. It has:
1.Detail living room
2.Access arcade
3.Two bathrooms
4.Lounge
5.Study
6.Wardrobe
7.Kitchen
8.Room service
9.Spiral staircase
10.Porch

10. •First Floor
oThis plant is accessed from the main staircase to the lobby which leads
to the bedrooms, study and terrace.
oThe bathrooms are in the same corner north and just above the seating
area will find the terrace, which can be accessed from the garden.
o In the back of the house, a pergola performs the function of double
height covered terrace which allows the lighting in the dining room.
o It has:
1.Lobby
2.Three bedrooms
3.Terrace
4.Study
5.Two bathrooms

11. Structure and Materials
•The basement of the house was built in stone, so it uproots a highest
level of the ground level.
• Used for brick walls and wood, they are charging and are mostly lined
or covered with plaster and wood slats on the front.
• Some brick walls were left with apparent view was also considered to
elements such as stone fireplace.
•The materials used were wooden tablets on the walls, brick, steel to
the forges as stairs, pergolas, balustrades, columns and ornamental
porches lined with sheet metal building, the foundation stone and
flooring, as well as laminated glass for the woodwork and glass block to
shed light on some points.
•We can not forget the furniture of the Bauhaus Gropius design because
when you finish building the house, gave them a suitable place inside
the house.

15. PHOTO GALLERY

17. 2. BAUHAUS:
Architect Walter Gropius



Location
Dessau, Germany

Date 1919 to 1925
Building
Type
Art and
architecture
school
Constru
ction Sys
tem
Reinforced
concerte, glass
Climate temperate
Style Modern exemplar

18. Introduction

•Bauhaus, etymologically means, Home Construction, was founded in 1919 in Weimar
(Germany), by Walter Gropius, moved to Dessau in 1925 and disbanded in 1933 in Berlin.
• The spirit and the teachings of this institution can be said to be spread throughout the
world.
•With the move from Weimar to Dessau, the Bauhaus had the opportunity to create a
building that offered the best working conditions to develop their own design, which was
carried out by Walter Gropius himself and opened on December 4, 1926, quickly becoming
icon of early modern movement.
•With the building of the Bauhaus, Gropius implemented its ambition of designing processes
of life, and to unite art, technique and aesthetics in search functionality.
•From the merger of the Academy of Fine Arts and the School of Arts and Crafts, trying to
overcome the divorce between art and industrial production on one side and the other
between art and craft.
• Develop the use of new materials and technology without neglecting the legacy of
craftsmanship.

19. Concept



•After the First World War, the defeated Germany was seeking a solution to the
crisis of values in which he was immersed.
• Intellectuals believed that the political irrationalism had led to violence, should be
imposed now critical rationalism, able to resolve social contradictions.
•Gropius was deeply involved in these approaches, their great show of architectural
rationalism would be the unique Bauhaus building in which are grouped the
characteristics of the Modern Movement: rationally articulated pure volumes
(functionalism), innovative use of new materials such as curtain wall glass facades,
horizontal windows, no decoration, overall design of all elements and, above all, a
conception of space dominated by the interplay between inside and outside
through the glass wall.
•These principles were accepted and were consolidated rapidly internationally with
home workers who Mies van der Rohe, past director of the Bauhaus, raised near
Stuttgart in the Weissenhof Estate.

20. Description

Facades
•The facades are mostly witnesses that the Bauhaus is by far a building typical of
modernity. Although sought, never found a main facade, all were made with
"affection" for the details, all with the intention that it be recognized outside the
function.
•Each facade responds to the demands of the activity taking place inside: the front
of the classroom block is composed of horizontal windows, whose function is to
ensure adequate lighting, the apartments, however, shows individual openings
designed to increase privacy.
•The workshops have a significant glass front, allowing maximum light and view of
the interior from outside.
• Gropius on this facade incorporates the theme of Faguswerk and the factory in
Cologne, setting a glass enclosure that passes the edge of the slab, leaving the
recessed pillars and providing an overhang that lets you remove the buttress of the
corner, thus creating that famous image of transparency angle which is one of the
more typical formal aspects of the Bauhaus.
•The front facade is where the first level is set back to produce the levitation of a
higher volume consists of a curtain wall tension obtaining access to the product of
the contrast of the opaque background volumes.

21. Ceilings
•They were very large flat roofs, back then there was almost no experience
with similar constructions.
•This means that the building of the roofs had several problems.
•The largest of these was his inclination to only one degree of slope, the
following was the drain on the inside, and ultimately missing the drain
with gravel, so the sun radiated directly onto the layers of tar, and as there
were no meetings layers were deformed expansion.
• That is, the roofs of the Bauhaus were never tight.

22. Spaces
•The main entrance of the Bauhaus is divided by three separate doors with red
columns that give access to the stairs and lobby.
Ladder
•The latter is designed in three sections, the wider environment is what leads to
the upper floors, down the sides closer. In front of the stairs we found a large
window that runs from floor to ceiling and as wide as the stairs
Lobby
•Going half the lobby level is reached, a very interesting place for its components.
Something very typical for the building of the Bauhaus, is that almost always when
walking in the corridors or staircases have several options for where to go, the result
of the different sections of the building get some correspondence.
•Climbing the stairs from the lobby not only can go to the workshops and the
administration, but since both sides of the stairs are located around large
windows in every step you can see a new perspective of the interior, but
especially abroad.
Functional spaces
•The building was distributed in three main wings connected by a bridge element,
the form of blade breaks the concept of symmetry and functional efficiency puts
the aesthetic coherence.
• It is characterized by plants and orthogonal sections, usually asymmetric and
lack of decoration on the facades. The interior is light and airy.

23. Vocational education
•Three levels in the northern part that housed classrooms and small laboratories
Laboratories, workshops, dining room and lecture hall
•Three levels at one end are devoted to testing laboratories and workshops. At the opposite
end provided for the student cafeteria, kitchen and lecture hall.
•Aula Magna
oThe lecture hall is like the heart of the Bauhaus because here you can see in a compact
form that was developed in those years and that is where the festivities were.
o This compartment of the building is called the holiday section and is composed of the hall,
the stage and the dining hall.
oThe dining room and the stage was separated by three folding doors, so that whole section
is actually a great space.
•Kitchen and dining
oA window separates the kitchen from the dining room, still a novelty for the time to see
what you are doing the cook.
Accommodation
•Paving cantilevered in front bedroom
•Six levels with 28 rooms of 20 square meters each.
•All have a small balcony, a slab of concrete that juts out into the open space.
•Each floor also had bathrooms and a kitchenette.
•The students had semisubsuelo showers, a laundry room with vending machines and a
gym.

24. •But what is special about the homes was that students had many opportunities to
enjoy the good weather, as well as the balconies, the roof is a large terrace, surrounded
by banks and partly semi-covered.
•This building is also more massive volume, interrupted only in the east and west
facades, respectively, for cantilevered balconies and windows.
Bridge Element
•Besides connecting the various wings, was assigned to offices, the private workshop of
Gropius and a club or play area.
•The bridge embodies the idea of an architecture liberated from the soil, which does not
hinder urban traffic.
Structure
•An iron and concrete structure forms the skeleton of the building ensuring the unity of
the whole and allows the existence of three different facades, built with fragile materials
like glass and innovative.
•The construction is not static as it may seem entirely concrete but it is only the skeleton,
the areas in between are mostly paved with brick floors also.

25. Materials

•The modern movement took advantage of the possibilities of new industrial
materials like reinforced concrete, rolled steel and plate glass in large sizes.
•Apart from these new materials, here the walls have the typical smooth white
plaster, but also have a base with rough plaster and gray.
•This base has an optical effect, because it gives the impression that the building is
still lighter.
•Apart from the plaster and color are the windows to one of the basic elements of
the structure of the facades.
• The windows of the Bauhaus are all steel, not glass drain and simple.
• Never had the color black but dark gray, and gray has the advantage that the
distance does not recognize frames, so that seems to be a large area.
•Thus we see that the Bauhaus worked a lot with effects, whether light or optical
illusions, but also did so with psychology, as depending on these effects are also
influenced by the mood of the people who worked and studied in it.
•The corridors and stairs were Magnesians floors, linoleum offices in different colors,
the walls were made with a lime plaster.

26. •The concrete used in construction was very porous gravel for having too much
while the lining of the shell of the building was too low, which is why this
frame has rusted iron.
• The plaster used in the columns of the bridge that has been seen as concrete
presents a relief as having been worked to hammer, something that was not
usual in works of modernism.
•A detail that shows that not only was a functional building for the location of
the spaces, but also in the sense of practical use, is that right from the start
was scheduled a cleaning of the many windows of the building, consisting of
hooks affirmed on the ceiling from which hang strings could chairs.
•The central heating with radiators scattered around the building is a symbol
that indicates the intention that the Bauhaus had wanted to work with
industry and demonstrate the use of new technological systems.
•In some areas these radiators occupy the space would be devoted to the
exhibition of a painting in the Baroque period, demonstrating the importance
for the Bauhaus movement was the use of industrial elements.

27. BASEMENT PLAN

28. FIRST FLOOR PLAN

29. SECOND FLOOR PLAN

30. ELEVATION

31. ELEVATION

32. SECTIONS

33. VIEW

34. PHOTO GALLERY

36. 3. BAUHAUS ARCHIV-MUSEUM:
Architect:
Walter Gropius
Year(s) of
construction:
1976-1979
Location:
Klingelhöferstra
ße 14
Tiergarten,
Berlin, Germany

37. Introduction
•The building is a late work of the founding architect of the movement of the
Bauhaus, Walter Gropius, who was commissioned specifically to host the
permanent record of it, years after its dissolution.
•At first, the political forces of the city was to be built is strongly opposed to
the building designed by Gropius and it was only after many visits to public
institutions in Berlin and ask many permits that the project was accepted .
•The initiative was delayed quite a while but most are consumed in
bureaucracy. Once the works were commenced following the schedule
without having to stop work at any time through the injection of private
funds.
•As of today the closing of the Bauhaus has become a symbol of Berlin's
history not only because it is contained but also because of the peculiarity of
the building that contains the unique and skylights.

38. Concept

•Walter Gropius dreamed draft a permanent archive Bauhaus for many years before
being commissioned this project.
•Gropius could only imagine the file as an independent entity unrelated to any
other museum because of the innovative nature of the school he founded.
• He believed the project would "capado" by the lack of people outside the school if
the file is formalized as a department of another institution more conservative.
•Years before the file was even a dream Gropius building design ideal to host such
an institution.
•This project served as a basis for building the final but suffered significant changes
due to differences arising from the land transfer locality.

39. Projects

1964
•The original project was created by Gropius to the northern slope of the Rosenhöhe in
Darmstads and had the support of Hans Wingles, founding director of the Bauhaus Archive.
•The site chosen was in full growth and development and city officials felt that it was too
prominent a position to build a new school and not yet defined a profile, showing their
disapproval.
•The design of the complex had a small training H, adapting to the slope of the terrain and
the exhibition space would be illuminated through dome on the roof.
1971
•After attracting interest from Senator Shcwedler Rolf, in 1971 the file was moved to Berlin
with a promise to respect the Senate's draft Gropius.
•The architect was able to choose among three available land, and opted for that was close
to that in contrast to Landwehrkanal Dramstadt was completely flat.
•Necessary modifications to the original project to adapt to its new location, were developed
by Alex Cvijanovic, as the ramp through the complex, in collaboration with the Berlin
architect Hans Bandel, and the adaptation process presented many difficulties and took a
long time, until in 1976 the cornerstone was laid for a building very close to 1964, both
plans in silhouette.
•Due to the simple structure, the construction progressed quickly and was opened in 1979.

40. Description
•The complex consists of two two-story structures that are each nearly equal and parallel to
each other, united by a middle section and communicate with each other by corridors and
sometimes disappear under the structure of the building and see the landscape can emerge.
•The characteristic features of both structures are the rows of 4x4 meters high ceiling of the
bells, closely aligned to the north face, for better lighting.
•The front mounted on a reinforced concrete frame is divided into individual sections
highlighted by dark joints between concrete panels painted white.

Spaces
•In the north lie the administrative sections and work areas in the southern section of the
exhibition halls.
•Exhibition Halls
oIt has 800 square meters to 400 for permanent exhibitions and temporary. The new
exhibition spaces are almost underground. The complex also has a shop, a cafe and space
for support.
oThe roof of the cafe has a shell and is one of the few spaces at ground level, opening into
the plaza in front of the existing museum.

41. Materials

•The ideal of the form, followed by the role in this project, which emphasized the
direct and honest use of materials as a functional design.
•The result was rectilinear architectural forms, of which structural components such
as steel, glass and concrete were used, directly and honestly, without trying to
imitate any other way.
•The colorful metal columns placed at both ends of the ramp are the work of Max
Bill.

42. PLAN-GROUND FLOOR

43. PLAN-FIRST FLOOR

44. SECTION

45. PHOTO GALLERY

47. 4. FAGUS FACTORY:
Architect Walter Gropius



Location
Alfeld an der
Leine, Germany
Date 1911 to 1913
Building
Type
factory
Constru
ction Sys
tem
steel, brick masonry, glass
Climate temperate
Style Early Modern

48. INTRODUCTION

•This shoe lasts factory was the first industrial commission for Walter
Gropius and its design was made in collaboration with whom at that time was
his partner Adolf Meyer.
•At first he thought his promoter Carl Benscheidt work with another architect,
Eduard Werner, but Gropius convinced him to pursue a more artistic project.
•To persuade his client was invited to a conference on monumental art and
industrial construction and in his speech posited that "modern life needed new
building organisms that match the lifestyles of our time."
•Once he was awarded the Walter Gropius Fagus Factory made in different
phases between 1911 and 1925, although the most common picture for the
office sector which was built before the First World War, between 1911 1914.
•As they were constructing each of the buildings of the complex, Gropius and
Meyer took into account not only the function of each one of them but the
overall visual unity.
• With the steady growth of the plant, which had become one of the largest in
Germany, it would be completed only in 1925.
• Benscheidt, father and son, chose the artists of the Bauhaus school of Gropius,
for interior design.

49. CONCEPT


•For the architect as the building had to fit the function for which it was planned
and consistent with a constructive logic based on that function, your image
should not hide but show it as a beautiful and modern architecture should adapt
to the new world machines.
•According to Gropius, without masking the exact shape, with clear contrasts,
sequencing of identical forms and the unity of form and color to form the basis of
the rhythm of architectural creation.
•In this building are embodied these ideas, a prismatic block, three plants with
rectangular and flat base which reinforced concrete structure with brackets
displaced inward frees the exterior walls of any load bearing plant whose clearly
expressed their interest modern commercial and functional.

50. Description And Areas:

•The first building designed by Gropius to the shoe factory was the office and is one of the
most important and characteristic of the complex.
•The building has three floors with a flat roof which together with the replacement of the
walls with large windows, which in turn also made up the corners of the building became one
of the building systems characteristic of the modern movement, especially in high-rise as the
paradigmatic Bunshaft Lever House or the Seagram Building in Mies van der Rohe and Philip
Johnson or Bauhaus building in Dessau also made by Gropius.
•The facade is articulated with narrow brick pillars, slightly recessed, which were placed
between the iron frames sticking out of the building and housed the large windows creating
a light curtain wall of a hitherto unseen, creating an inner space natural light and partly
diluting indoor-outdoor boundaries.
•It is particularly striking resolution of the corners of the block as they converge on two
windows perpendicular to the unique presence in them of the light metal support bar.
•According to Gropius, the factory should be a kind of palace for the workers who were
offered light, air and hygienic atmosphere but also "feel the dignity of the great common
idea, which of course would improve their performance".
•The front door is solved with two beautiful convex corners that create a more fluid
relationship between the facade and the small porch that is set up at the door.
•In 1913 he rebuilt the house and after the First World War were other works that lasted until
1925. The clock input is part of the reform of 1913 and the interior of the building that
contained mainly offices, were completed by mid 20.

51. Production hall
•The two other large buildings in the complex are the production hall and warehouse.
Both were built in 1911 and expanded in 1913.
• The production hall is a one-story building that became the present facade after
enlargement.

Storage
•The store is a four-story building with few openings.
•The design closely followed the original plan of Werner and leaves out many of the
photographs. Besides them, the site contains several small buildings designed by
Gropius and Meyer later.
•Despite its novelty and modernity details the building is severely deteriorated over
time, their iron frames are quickly oxidized and insulating the building was really
poor.

52. Structure:
•The reinforced concrete structure, with supporting displaced inwards, allowed to
free the exterior walls, especially at the corners of the building supporting role.
•The main building, rectangular in shape, was designed as a structural framework
without pillars in the corners, with a front metal grid cut by glass covers, one of the
first examples of "curtain wall", or curtain wall.
•This structure does not seem constructive formal need to clarify a coating
composition, on the contrary, the form and language of architecture are given by
the art.
Building System
•For many years it was thought that the main building was done only with a frame of
concrete or steel because of its glass facade.
•However, during its renovation in the 80's, it became clear that this was not the
case.
•Jürgen Götz, the engineer responsible for the renovation since 1982, describes the
construction system in this way:
"The main building was built over a basement structurally stable. A mixture of cement
uncompressed gravel was used for the walls of the basement and these are unable to
accommodate large single loads. From the basement up, the building was constructed
in plain brickwork, reinforced with wooden floors. The roofs were reinforced formwork
and finishes with a rough plaster on the side of the facility.
The floors were composed of loose boards on sleepers, ie, that the ties were not
established between the floor joists. Therefore, the ceilings in the main building was
not continuous shear and thus could not meet the necessary boost function. "

53. Materials
•Gropius's Fagus factory is where for the first time the walls of a factory was replaced with
glass.
•This novel, for the time, "curtain wall" has a height that spans all three floors of the
building.
•A metal structure of iron bars holding the glass planes that make up those windows and
metal planes contribute to highlight the distribution of plants.
•The narrow columns that articulate the facade and the reception and lower sockets were
made of brick colored stew.

54. PLAN

55. PLAN

57. PHOTO GALLERY