A Guide to Bauhaus Interior Design

Often, design is reduced simply to its aesthetic or utilitarian components, but good design is not only functional and beautiful. Design, at large, is a field brimming with innovation and forward thinking people who continue to change how we view and interact with the world as a society. Good design has the capability to change the world, which is exactly what the Bauhaus movement—and Bauhaus interior design—aspired to do.

The Bauhaus was a radical expansion of what a design school should be. Teachers and students were freely able to experiment in any freedom they pleased, from painting and sculpture to architecture and product design. While the Bauhaus was beset by its turbulent history and only lasted for a short period of time (1919-1933), the Bauhaus left an enduring mark on art and design that lives on today.

The Bauhaus was established by an architect, Walter Gropius, to create unity through art and design in the aftermath of the First World War. Gropius himself said "Together let us desire, conceive and create the new structure of the future." In order to create the future, Gropius looked back into the past, to examples like William Morris and John Ruskin, who upheld craftsmanship during the Industrial Revolution. Similarly, Gropius believed there needed to be a radical response through art and design to cope with the damage of the First World War. Gropius maneuvered his way into the position of director at Weimar's School of Arts and Crafts, and persuaded the authorities to merge the school with the city's Academy of Fine Arts. Thus, the Staatliches Bauhaus Weimar, was opened in April of 1919.

The name derives from Bauhütte, which were medieval lodges that congregated architects, craftsmen, and sculptors to come together in guilds. Gropius's mission was obviously an extension of that into the 20th century, speaking directly to the hopes and dreams of young people with a vision of creative unity. One of the founding principles of the school was the idea of Gesamtkunstwerk, or comprehensive artwork, which would bring together all of the arts.

Gropius's mission and manifesto for the Bauhaus struck a chord in the hearts of many, attracting international icons like Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee as some of the school's first teachers. Later on, students like Gunta Stölzl and Marcel Breuer would become legends in their own right.

Gropius developed an innovative preliminary course for the Bauhaus known as Vorkurs, which was compulsory for all students before they joined a workshop. Traditionally, students were required to copy old masters and draw from life, with the students' personality making very little impact on their education. The Bauhaus's first teacher, Johannes Itten, sought to "unleash the creative powers of the learners." Lessons catered and tended to the individual needs and talents of each student, allowing them to flourish and create work free from convention.

Over time, the nature of the Vorkurs changed under each succeeding teacher. László Moholy-Nagy and Josef Albers reduced the degree of subjectivity in the curriculum, instead prioritizing technology and machinery over the handmade, and familiarizing the students' with materials. Eventually, under Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the Vorkurs was no longer compulsory, as the Bauhaus had to shift gears towards a more conventional manner of teaching due to financial and political pressure from the rising Nazi Party.

Ultimately, the trajectory of the Vorkurs happened on a macro scale to the entire Bauhaus, which changed leadership and location twice before it was closed due to the Nazi regime, who characterized the Bauhaus as a center point for communist intellectualism.

While the Bauhaus made significant marks on the worlds of architecture, art, and graphic design which are not to be understated, the Bauhaus is most commonly associated with its innovations in interior design. Bauhaus designers pioneered new material applications, for example, Marcel Breuer's newfound use of steel tubing and plywood left an indelible mark on furniture design as we know it today.

Most notably, however, are the iconic blue circle, red square, and yellow triangle, which are inseparably tied to the image of the Bauhaus. The colors were assigned to each shape by Wassily Kandinsky, who argued that "internal necessity" denoted each shape's color. The softness of the blue circle represented femininity, while the square is active, red, and masculine. Naturally, the acute angles of the triangle make it yellow. Interestingly, there have been scientific studies of correlation between these naturally biased associations between shape and color, which later found Kandinsky's findings to be partly confirmed. Regardless, the circle, square, and triangle found themselves in classics like Peter Keler's Bauhaus Cradle, and were common motifs in the works of many other Bauhaus designers.

Overall, the Bauhaus championed a very minimal design aesthetic, making use of the aforementioned basic shapes in various combinations to create form with very little decor and ornamentation. Bauhaus designs typically defaulted to clean lines and simple materials, like steel, wood, and natural textiles. Interestingly, many of the characteristics of Bauhaus design were a mimicry of the mass produced objects of the time, but were hand crafted to look machine made. This clash between craft and mass production is paramount to the Bauhaus ethos, and is more of a common thread throughout than any particular visual cue.

Interestingly, many Bauhaus designs lent themselves well to mass production since they were constructed in a way that looked mass produced. The clean lines and simple materials were ideal for large scale manufacture, and in the later years of the Bauhaus the school focused more on economic output as well as artistic exploration.

It's easy to be reductive and call Bauhaus design minimalist, but this description often implies that aesthetics and form supersede function and utility. The Bauhaus may have set the precedent for minimalism, but the "less is more" mentality promoted by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was rooted in the celebration of craftspeople and material.

To that end, material was often considered ornamentation in and of itself. Extravagant carvings, gildings, and other design elements were deemed frivolous. A change in texture, from glossy to matte, or change in material did just enough to provide an object with the character it needed. Bauhaus designers also believed in a philosophy of honesty in relating to material, choosing to highlight the material and its construction methods rather than to hide them from the user.

These core tenets of Bauhaus design are what made the school so impactful, even today. Material use was intentional and calculated, keeping designs interesting without compromising function whatsoever.

There are no shortage of iconic designers and objects to come out of the Bauhaus, so it can be difficult to compile them concisely. However, we've done our best to create an assortment of "greatest hits," which many of you will undoubtedly recognize. While browsing, it is important to note that anything that feels familiar or possibly played out now was a fresh idea that likely originated with the Bauhaus, or even a specific object.