On the first day of our south Germany excursion we visited the Bauhaus. This was one of the founding schools of modern design. This building, done by Walter Gropius, shows the type of design produced here. The modern movement was a search for an international style; Here you can see the stripping down of ornament and the very basic exterior colors.
These windows were operable by pulling a small chain. The building was built much more for looks than function. Walter Gropius was mainly concerned with getting the design work out to the public; So in designing this facility he ignored many rules that would have allowed the building to function better as a school/workshop.
This is one of the Master's Houses, houses where the senior members of the faculty were allowed to live. They were designed in the same international style as the Bauhaus School. I was surprised at the small sizes of the rooms, although when put into perspective these buildings must have been cutting edge for their time period (1920's).
I'm a bit tipsy so I'm probably going to ramble, but I definitely think Bauhaus was about stripping down the ornamentation as well as the size to create for a more universal, equal, function. The small size of the room, for instance, would determine what that homeowner would have within the house, keeping the belongings restricted but important. What I enjoy about it is that the modernist design can be adaptable for everyone's functions, both present and future. Modernism was and is ahead of it's time.
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