The Bauhaus building, Dessau

The Bauhaus school building, predominantly white in colour with a large field in front.
Bauhaus school building.
(Image credit: T. Franzen)

The Bauhaus movement needs no introduction; and its importance for architecture, as well as the arts and crafts is indisputable. The German school was founded in 1919 by architect Walter Gropius in Weimar as a college of design, before moving in 1925 to its especially designed home in Dessau, created by Gropius himself.

The school’s progressive teachings sought to unite art and production, a philosophy clearly reflected on its own Gropius-designed home. The building soon became a recognisable icon of classical modernism, symbolising the movement through its decoration-free, clean style, and a special use of primary colour designed by Hinnerk Scheper.

The school produced innovative work and a wide range of forward-thinking designers in the field of art, architecture, graphic design, typography and industrial and interior design, until it closed in 1933.

The creation of a row of houses, called the Masters’ Houses and planned to be the homes of the School’s Director and its professors and guests, was one of the campus’ most important additions, transferring the Bauhaus teachings to the residential typology.

The houses, which have been occupied since by most of the top professors of the Bauhaus community, like Gropius himself, Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and Georg Muche, were designed as showcases of the pioneering, Bauhaus way of architectural design for living.

Today the School, as well as the houses, have been fully renovated to their original state, and are currently open to all the design-loving visitors. Additionally, the School is the home of the Bauhaus Foundation, dedicated to the research and teaching and experimental design, focusing on contemporary urban challenges and aiming to pass on the Bauhaus heritage to the future generations of architects, artists and designers.

The Bauhaus school building. A four storey rectangular building with BAUHAUS written downwards on the building's front.

Bauhaus school building.

(Image credit: T. Franzen)

A close-up of four upper level balconies.

Bauhaus studio accommodation building.

(Image credit: T. Franzen)

A street level view of the glass/steel facade of a building.

Bauhaus school building.

(Image credit: T. Franzen)

A two storey white building with a pathway, greenery and trees surrounding it.

Master’s houses.

(Image credit: T. Franzen)

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Bauhaus Dessau website

ADDRESS

Gropiusallee 38
06846 Dessau

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Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture & Environment Director at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books, such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson, 2018), Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020) and House London (2022).