Building theory

The statement 'The ultimate goal of all artistic activity is the building' was included in the Bauhaus programme of 1919. However, it was only possible to develop a regular course of study for architects from 1927 on. Until then, the students gained their experience in architecture in the private architecture office of Walter Gropius. Gropius and Adolf Meyer gave courses on architectural design and organised planning seminars in cooperation with the building trades school in Weimar. Through Gropius’s office, all of the Bauhaus workshops were included in the design of buildings including Sommerfeld House in Berlin in 1920–1921, the renovation of the municipal theatre in Jena in 1921–1922 and the prototype Haus am Horn in Weimar in 1923. Plans for a Bauhaus housing estate remained unrealised in Weimar due to the problematic economic situation. Using methods that were sometimes new and oriented towards typologies and standardisation, they designed not only a new architecture but also a new way of life.

The buildings designed in Gropius’s office and realised from 1925 – especially the Bauhaus Building and the Masters' Houses – characterise the situation during the Dessau years. In 1927, Walter Gropius offered the Swiss architect Hannes Meyer the opportunity to take charge of the department of architecture. That same year, Meyer began developing his theory, which united all the architecture-related subjects – draughtsmanship, design, construction, project planning and town planning. For both Walter Gropius and Hannes Meyer, architecture essentially meant the 'design of life processes'.