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Modern Architecture IV

Walter Gropius
Walter Gropius
• Concepts of Walter Gropius
– Gropius believed that all design should be approached through a study of the problems
that needed to be addressed
– Therefore he consequently followed the modernist principle that functionality should
dictate form.
– He applied these beliefs to wider social issues, designing affordable housing in the
interwar period and seeking to improve physical conditions for factory workers through his
architecture.
– Gropius also experimented with innovative building and assembly techniques using
prefabricated units and new materials such as reinforced concrete.
– Similar ideas were later utilised to create cheap, mass produced housing in the 1940s
(known as prefabs).
– Gropius is credited with the introduction of modernist architecture to the United States
through his design of the Gropius House and his teaching at Harvard University.
– Gropius's buildings were in stark contrast to previous architectural styles and were
characterised by their cubic design, flat roofs and large expanses of glass
– He also merged interior and exterior spaces.
– Use of modern materials such as steel, cement, and glass;
– The idea that form follows function--a building's design should be dictated by its purpose
and not any decorative style.
Walter Gropius
• ‘We want to create the purely organic building, boldly emanating its inner laws, free of
untruths or ornamentation.' - Walter Gropius
• Bauhaus school was closed when the Nazi government came to power, forcing many of its
scholars to emigrate to the United States, where they continued to serve as leaders of the
architecture/design world (such that the "Bauhaus age" actually stretched decades beyond
the school's closure)
• Gropius emigrated to United States accepting an offer to teach in Harward University.
• In 1946, Gropius founded the young architects’ association The Architects Collaborative
(TAC), a manifestation of his life-long belief in the significance of teamwork, which he had
already successfully introduced at the Bauhaus.
• One work produced by this office is the Graduate Centre of Harvard University in Cambridge
(1949–1950).
• The Harvard Graduate Center is the first modern building on the campus, it was also the first
endorsement of the modern style by a major university and was seen in the national and
architectural presses as a turning point in the acceptance of the aesthetic in the United
States.
• The Architects Collaborative (TAC), a modernist firm headed by Walter Gropius and seven
younger architects,
• The Architects Collaborative (TAC) was a bold choice for the typically traditional university.
Walter Gropius
• Though it cannot be said that Gropius was the sole designer, those that held strongly to his
ideals collaboratively designed the building with large windows, flowing rooms, floating
facades on raised pilotis.
• The building was completed in 1950, and was one of the first major projects in the Architects
Collaborative office.
• The buildings are now primarily used as a student centre and as a dormitory complex for
Harvard Law School.

Fagus Shoe Factory, Alfeld an der Leine

Bauhaus building,
Harvard Graduate Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts Dessau

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