The Bauhaus School and its Influence.

The Bauhaus School or, Staatliches Bauhaus, was an art school in Germany that sought to combine Art, Craft and technology. It was famous for its approach to design that it publicised and taught.The goal of the School was to create a purer, practical, functional and clean form of design without unnecessary decoration. It operated from 1919 - 1933.

While researching this i realised that anything i see that i consider classically modern like graphic design, fashion, apps and architecture ect, almost always came from a design from this School. 

Curiculum Wheel of the Bauhaus School.

The school existed in 3 German cities, Weimar ( 1919-1925 ), Dessau (1925 - 1932) and Berlin (1932-1933) And each time under three different directors, all architects, the school ironically did not have an architecture department.  The Bauhaus was founded by Walter Gropius and he ran it from 1919 - 1925, then Hannes Mayer who took over the school from 1928 - 1930 and finally Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe from 1930 - 1933. Each ran things slightly differently, for example the pottery shop was closed when the school moved to Dessau from Weimar, even thought it had been a very important revenue source. Another example would be when Mies Van Der Rohe took over in 1930 he turned the school into a private one, and would not allow any supporters of Hannes Meyer to attend it. Like so many things, the bauhaus felt the pressure of the Nazies, they were seen as the centre of degenerative thought and socialist sympathy,  and so the school closed its doors in 1933. 
Many of the more known students and teachers, Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer, László Moholy-Nagy moved to London and the USA to become professors, tutors and scholars.

Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee went on to be regarded as two of the most important artists of the 20th Century.


By bringing together fine art and craft in the shared goal of problem - solving it leveled the hierarchy of the arts, placing crafts on par with fine arts like sculpture or paintings. The Bauhaus style reflected the ideas of the influential English Designer, William Morris, who i looked at last year. I know that Morris argued that art should meet the needs of society and that there should be no distinction between form and function. 


these are images i found that i use/ people i know today that were originally Bauhaus designs and were clearly influenced by them.

I would also argue that Apple is influenced by Bauhaus, one quote from Steve jobs is "Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works" This quote, to me, shows specifically how much Jobs and apple as a whole was influenced by Bauhaus.

The Bauhaus is widely regarded as one of the greatest influences of the modern era. Famous for its “uncluttered and clinical”. Apple products from the beginning took this concept to heart. The design of each product needed to be beautiful yet simple. But, most importantly, if the product didn’t work, or was too complicated for the user, then the beauty didn’t matter. The function and the form go hand in hand. 

EXAMPLE:

The Ipod revolutionalised the music industry, it was not the first portable MP3 player but it was siple and effective. Bauhaus looked at stripping down an object to the bare eddentials but still maintaining its beauty. 

Another Example why i think apple was influenced by bauhaus are these lamps, created by Wagenfeld, and compare them to the fourth generation imac, they are so so so similar.