LUCA LOVES ... BAUHAUS. Celebrating the 100th anniversary of an iconic school.

Apr 28

Apr 28 LUCA LOVES ... BAUHAUS. Celebrating the 100th anniversary of an iconic school.

“The ultimate goal of all art is the building!” That’s how Walter Gropius, the founder of the school Staatliches Bauhaus in Weimar (later Dessau and Berlin) started the manifesto of the school’s Leitbild in April 1919. The German architect is regarded as one of the masters of modern architecture. His vision of bringing art, architecture and craftsmanship together was a new, holistic approach that unified all disciplines and focused on creativity. “Architects, sculptors, painters—we all must return to craftsmanship! For there is no such thing as ‘art by profession’. There is no essential difference between the artist and the artisan.”

LUCA, Luxembourg Center for Architecture, is currently honouring Bauhaus with the conference cycle “Bauhaus 1919 - 1920” to review this pioneering period. Today, many achievements in the building culture are rooted in innovative projects of that time such as the first show house, the “Haus am Horn”, which reflected a new living culture in a new political era too during the Weimarer Republik. The completely different ground plan, the modern and functional furniture, modern heating - the concept was revolutionary.

Furthermore fairly new at Bauhaus compared to other schools was the support of female students entering mostly male dominated fields such as architecture. Although we must make a note that it was just a start and young women still had a harder time entering architecture than their male fellows and were more foreseen to join the weaving classes. However, the Bauhaus movement in the early 20th century, which is connected to many big names such as architect and industrial designer Mies van der Rohe, artists Wassily and Nina Kandinsky, scene builder and painter Oscar Schlemmer, set an example in many ways. Also its iconic interior design pieces - Marcel Breuer’s Slatted Chair, Wilhelm Wagenfels’ Table Lamp, Alma Siedhoff-Buscher’s toys for kids, Walter Gropius’ tableware in collaboration with Rosenthal to name but a very few - are timeless beauties. Furniture brands such as Knoll and Thonet market Bauhaus pieces, mainly chairs, until today, their style is mostly characterised by the combination of steel with leather or fabrics.

The conferences at LUCA are organised over lunchtime, starting at 12:30 p.m., on 22 May and 19 June after the first presentation was held successfully a few days ago, on 24 April. Tickets are available for 12€, lunch sandwich and my favourite (and local!) sparkling water Rosport Bleu included. Speaker: Maribel Casas, architect, doctor of art history and associate researcher at LHAC (Laboratory of History of Contemporary Architecture, Ecole Nationale Superieure d'Architecture de Nancy).

For more information visit: http://www.luca.lu/news/bauhaus-1919-2019-inscrivez-vous