Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Walter Gropius
Walter Gropius was born in 1883 in Berlin. He became an architect like his father and great uncle. Walter Gropius studied at the Technical Universities in Munich and Berlin. Gropius could not draw, and was dependent on collaborators and partner-interpreters throughout his career. He joined the office of Peter Behrens in 1910 and three years later established a practice with Adolph Meyer.
After serving in the First World War, Gropius became involved with several groups of radical artists that sprang up in Berlin in the winter of 1918. In March 1919 he was elected chairman of the Working Council for Art and a month later was appointed Director of the Bauhaus.
Walter Gropius believed that all design should be functional as well as aesthetically pleasing. His Bauhaus school pioneered a functional, severely simple architectural style, featuring the elimination of surface decoration and extensive use of glass. Walter Gropius gave up his position as director in 1927 but the Bauhaus existed until 1933.
When Gropius left the Bauhaus he resumed private practice in Berlin. Eventually, he was forced to leave Germany for the United States, where he became a professor at Harvard University. From 1938 to 1941, he worked on a series of houses with Marcel Breuer and in 1945 he founded "The Architect's Collaborative", a design team that embodied his belief in the value of teamwork.
Gropius's first large building, the Fagus Shoe-Last Factory in Alfred on the Leine in 1911 was materialized due to his connection with Peter Behrens and in cooperation with Adolf Meyer as had been the case with most of his early structures.
Gropius created innovative designs that borrowed materials and methods of construction from modern technology. This advocacy of industrialized building carried with it a belief in team work and an acceptance of standardization and prefabrication. Using technology as a basis, he transformed building into a science of precise mathematical calculations.
An important theorist and teacher, Gropius introduced a screen wall system that utilized a structural steel frame to support the floors and which allowed the external glass walls to continue without interruption.
Gropius died in Boston, Massachusetts in 1969.
After serving in the First World War, Gropius became involved with several groups of radical artists that sprang up in Berlin in the winter of 1918. In March 1919 he was elected chairman of the Working Council for Art and a month later was appointed Director of the Bauhaus.
Walter Gropius believed that all design should be functional as well as aesthetically pleasing. His Bauhaus school pioneered a functional, severely simple architectural style, featuring the elimination of surface decoration and extensive use of glass. Walter Gropius gave up his position as director in 1927 but the Bauhaus existed until 1933.
When Gropius left the Bauhaus he resumed private practice in Berlin. Eventually, he was forced to leave Germany for the United States, where he became a professor at Harvard University. From 1938 to 1941, he worked on a series of houses with Marcel Breuer and in 1945 he founded "The Architect's Collaborative", a design team that embodied his belief in the value of teamwork.
Gropius's first large building, the Fagus Shoe-Last Factory in Alfred on the Leine in 1911 was materialized due to his connection with Peter Behrens and in cooperation with Adolf Meyer as had been the case with most of his early structures.
Gropius created innovative designs that borrowed materials and methods of construction from modern technology. This advocacy of industrialized building carried with it a belief in team work and an acceptance of standardization and prefabrication. Using technology as a basis, he transformed building into a science of precise mathematical calculations.
An important theorist and teacher, Gropius introduced a screen wall system that utilized a structural steel frame to support the floors and which allowed the external glass walls to continue without interruption.
Gropius died in Boston, Massachusetts in 1969.
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