Gropius room
The Gropius room , also known as the director 's room , is an interior space in the Bauhaus University Weimar that served as Walter Gropius' director 's room at the State Bauhaus from 1923 to 1925 . The room was designed as a “total work of art” for the Bauhaus exhibition of 1923; today it is a reconstruction from 1999.
description
The room is on the first floor of the university building and has a cube shape with an edge length of five meters. The cube was set up in what was originally a rectangular room, from which it was separated by a partition. Inside the cube there is an imaginary cube with an edge length of 3.15 meters, which is formed by a square carpet, a wall covering on the entrance door and the arrangement of the furniture. Its height is characterized by a light construction with rod-shaped festoon lamps as an expressive design element at the time. This imaginary cube in the cube serves as a quiet zone. The cube principle continues in the furniture. Functionally, the room consists of three areas. These are the entrance area with meander shelves, the communication area with seating and the director's workplace with a desk and a shelf.
history
The room was created for the Bauhaus exhibition of 1923, at which Walter Gropius wanted to present the implementation of a room concept. Gropius' original plan to implement the spatial concept in the exhibition rooms in the Weimar City Palace could not be realized. The possibility of implementation was given to him in the east wing of the main building of the Bauhaus school. The execution of the room was carried out by masters and students from various Bauhaus workshops. The carpet and the wall hangings were designed by the weaving mill, the carpet being made by the Bauhaus student Benita Otte . The color design of the walls was done by the wall painting workshop, the furniture was made by the joinery.
After the Bauhaus moved to Dessau in 1925, the room was forgotten for decades. In the course of the renovation of its main building, the Bauhaus University Weimar reconstructed the former director's room true to the original in 1999. This was a contribution to the 80th anniversary of the Bauhaus and also to the 1999 European City of Culture year in Weimar.
Gropius room pavilion
For the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus in 2019, the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Studies at the Bauhaus University Weimar created the Gropius Zimmer Pavilion , which is located outside in front of the main building. The pavilion is an open frame made of steel profiles, which, like the Gropius room, forms a cube with an edge length of five meters. Inside the freely accessible construction there is some suggested furniture. According to one description, the pavilion is the conceptual abstract of the director's room as the heart of the historic Bauhaus.
meaning
The Gropius room is considered to be the first holistic room composition of the modern era . It was created at the end of the first phase of the young Bauhaus, which was characterized by Expressionism . During this time the transition to constructivist and functionally determined design was already noticeable. Walter Gropius, as Bauhaus director, was instrumental in driving this change of direction. In the Gropius room, he wanted to try out material, artistic and mathematical space. The room is also an example of Bauhaus work at the end of the Weimar era, which was still characterized by the ideal of handicrafts .
literature
- Klaus-Jürgen Winkler, Gerhard Oschmann: The Gropius Room , Weimar, 2008
- Christian Eckhardt: The Gropius room in: Bauhaus walk in Weimar on the trail of the early Bauhaus. , Pp. 46-47
Web links
- Photo of the Gropius room at gropiuszimmer.de
- Detail photo of the Gropius room at Spiegel Online
- Description of the Gropius room at designklassiker.com
- Isometric director's room , Weimar at bauhaus100.de