Bauhaus Building: Neighbour Bauhaus

    Design Walter Gropius / Built 1925-26
    Commissioned by the municipality of Dessau
    Michael Zinganel, Graz

The Bauhaus Building was built in an area, which had already been earmarked for urban expansion (housing for the middle classes) in the early 20th century. Originally standing alone in a green space, it was only briefly able to uphold its claim as the signature building of a new era. In the 1930s, the National Socialists’ response to the objectionable building, the demolition of which was only narrowly avoided, was a more traditional form of architecture. In the years thereafter, draughtsmen and engineers learnt their trades here. The Bauhaus school was surrounded by old villas, around which the “Red Army” erected high fences: a “no-go” area, where the Bauhaus was an insiders’ tip. Since 1990, the area around the Bauhaus Building has been completely re-evaluated: the settlement of the Anhalt University of Applied Sciences has created a modern campus; every year, more and more tourist buses travel down the Gropiusallee, and the renovation of the Bauhaus’ grounds now visibly lifts the Icon of Modernism above its surroundings. The Bauhaus has a new neighbourhood.

Pictures of the Workshop