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Exhibition Texts

Exhibition Texts

The Bauhaus school was founded in Weimar in 1919; moved to Dessau in 1925; and finally to Berlin where it was closed by the National Socialist Party in 1933. The Bauhaus aimed to synthetize art, archi­tecture and design. It developed workshop­based teaching with learning from materials and its stated aim was to meet society’s needs. Under three directors Walter Gropius, Hannes Meyer and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the Bauhaus developed this approach in different directions.

At the Bauhaus, the focus was less on the individual object than rethinking the building as a whole. This meant the invention and design of new household objects from cups to chairs to textiles, designing colour schemes and flooring, to developing new construction techniques—building campus architecture, single houses and affordable housing estates. In its later period this extended from environmental and urban studies to city planning on a grand scale.

During its brief lifetime of 14 years, the Bauhaus was actively engaged in the international movement of Modernism. Walter Gropius was a founding member of the Inter­ national Congresses of Modern Architecture (CIAM) and, together with Mies van der Rohe, created networks of modernist architects in Europe and the United States, while Hannes Meyer was in dia­ logue with the avant­garde of the Soviet Union and Latin American. The school gained worldwide recognition and helped to create new thinking about design in terms of form, method and ethos.

"ein bauhaus-film. fünf jahre lang"

The focal object for Designing Life is Marcel Breuer’s collage “ein bauhaus-­film”, published in Bauhaus magazine, no. 1 (1926), the year the school reopened in Dessau. Breuer’s filmstrip visualizes the development of chair design, from crafted object to industrial prototype towards a future where designed objects become obso­ lete. Breuer wrote about the need for design to respond to a particu­ lar time and place, something that is important when considering Bauhaus propagation. The collage appears in Bauhaus magazine, no. 1 as an advertisement, reflecting the attempt to promote and sell Bauhaus products designed by students and teachers. It also sits adjacent to an article from Walter Gropius discussing the new campus, the “Master Houses” and the Dessau-­Törten construction site providing affordable housing. Situated in this way the collage becomes part of a discussion about design at the Bauhaus—from prototype and commodity— to a wider social function in housing projects and city planning.

“EIN BAUHAUS­FILM. FÜNF JAHRE LANG” (A BAUHAUS FILM, FIVE YEARS LONG) • Marcel Breuer • 1926 • Offset litho print

Chair Series

This joint project of Marcel Breuer and Gunta Stölzl is a reference to the principles of the Dutch artist Theo van Doesburg, who taught private courses at the Weimar Bauhaus in 1921 and 1922. His influence can be seen in the rectangles as well as in the reduced palette of colours for the upholstery of red, blue, yellow, black, white and grey.

1 CHAIR WITH WOVEN SEAT • Marcel Breuer (frame), Gunta Stölzl (fabric) • 1921 • Photograph • Archiv der Moderne, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar

Marcel Breuer designed the (ti 3a), a red and white chair for the children’s room for the “Haus am Horn” in Weimar. During the first Bauhaus exhibition in 1923 the house, built from a draft by Georg Muche, became a showroom. It represented how the founding director of the Bauhaus, Walter Gropius, imagined modern architecture and lifestyle.

2 CHILD’S CHAIR (TI 3A) • Marcel Breuer • 1923 • Photograph • Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin

In its combination of metal feet and leather seat, the materials of the Barcelona chair corresponded with each other. At the same time, it shows the marriage of handicraft and modernism. The chair was named after its original location: the German Pavilion of the 1929 Barcelona International Exposition designed as seating for the Spanish king.

3 BARCELONA CHAIR WITH STOOL • Ludwig Mies van der Rohe • 1929 • Chrome on steel frame, leather • China Design Museum, Hangzhou

Originally designed in 1926 by Marcel Breuer, the B3 (the B stands for Breuer) immediately became an all-time design classic of the New Living movement. The contrast between shiny, tubular steel and soft leather created a new lightness that had not been known in German seat design until then. The B3 is also known as the “Wassily chair” after Wassily Kandinsky.

4 TUBULAR STEEL ARMCHAIR (B3), “WASSILY CHAIR” • Marcel Breuer • 1930 • Tubular steel, leather • China Design Museum, Hangzhou

Hubert Hoffman’s stool experiments with simple materials: an analysable plug-in system, four long bolts fix the wooden side panels and the textile seat of the stool. In this way, the stool refers to the easy-to-fix and inexpensive furniture that was propagated at the Bauhaus under Hannes Meyer.

5 STOOL • Hubert Hoffmann (frame), Gunta Stölzl (fabric) • 1933 • Bent plywood, aluminium, straps • China Design Museum, Hangzhou

The Slatted chair (ti 1) looks more like a De Stijl sculpture than actual seating. Flexible and resistant textile belts and a tilted seat supported by a wooden frame were supposed to guarantee a comfortable and anatomically-correct upright seating position.

6 SLATTED CHAIR (TI 1) • Marcel Breuer • 1922 • Wood, fabric • China Design Museum, Hangzhou

The (B 9c) was used as a canteen stool at the Bauhaus in Dessau, but
it originally belongs to a series of four tubular steel stacking tables of different sizes. It was among the first tubular steel furniture that Breuer designed at the Bauhaus and was used in the Bauhaus building and the “Master Houses” in Dessau in various ways.

7 STACKING TABLE (B 9C), STOOL FOR THE BAUHAUS CANTEEN • Marcel Breuer • 1926–1929 • Steel, wood • Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau

On behalf of the industrialist Franz Itting, Alfred Arndt built the “Haus des Volkes” (“House for the people”), a culture and recreation centre in the Thuringian municipality of Probstzella. Arndt designed this folding chair for the Red Saloon (a meeting and event space), and it was made of chromed tubular steel and stained-black plywood and could be stowed away during dances.

8 FOLDING CHAIR • Alfred Arndt • 1928 • Steel, wood • Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau

Two perpendicular boards and a third horizontal board, firmly connected to each other and held together by a wooden stick at the bottom; this is the simple principle of the Ulm stool. It is a universal piece of furniture: a stool, table, desk, part of a shelf and much more. Used in the HfG Ulm’s seminars, dining rooms and living rooms, the stool became a symbol of the university.

9 ULM STOOL • Max Bill, Hans Gugelot, Paul Hildinger • 1953 • Wood • Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau

Research into bamboo was undertaken in northeast India between 1979 and 1986 by designers from the National Institute of Design (NID). They recorded its innovative uses, including for tools, housing and fish traps. Using the principles of systems design, this bamboo cube could function individually or as a multiple. It was designed to be produced in northeast India through the mechanized splitting of bamboo at Common Facility Centres, then hand-fabricated in small-scale production units in nearby villages.

10 BAMBOO CUBE STOOL • M. P. Ranjan • Year unknown • Bamboo • National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad

Intended to encourage entrepreneurship and sustainability in rural communities, this bamboo “knockdown” armchair was designed to be made using simple hand tools. Suitable for production in bamboo-growing rural areas of northeast India, it could be disassembled for easy transport to neighbouring regions and across India.

11 BAMBOO ARMCHAIR • M. P. Ranjan • Year unknown • Bamboo • National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad

When tubular steel was designed as a new material to create modern furniture, Thonet was one of the first companies to perfect the method and was thus selected by the Bauhaus as a partner to produce Marcel Breuer’s new interior designs.

12 TUBULAR STEEL ARMCHAIR (B 3), (B 30), (B 34), (B 35) IN THONET AG PRODUCT CATALOGUE • 1930–1931 • Offset litho print (reprint) • Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin

These blueprints were produced by the Bauhaus Dessau carpentry workshop as product cards that were presented to interested clients. For the newly founded Bauhaus Gmbh (Ltd.) it was in the company’s special interest to be able to show their varied range of furniture and provide information about an object’s name, measurements, function and price.

FURNITURE FROM THE BAUHAUS DESSAU CARPENTRY WORKSHOP, CA. 1929 • Blueprints (reprints) • Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau

Designs of:

  • Stool (ti 245)

  • Iron bed (sn 83 II)

  • Table (ti 5 A)

  • Iron bed, Table (ti 5 A)

  • Three-piece children’s cabinet (ti 24)

  • Cabinet (ti 17/0–1)

  • Wardrobe (ti 107/2–4)

  • Part of a desk (ti 217/3)

  • Cabinet (ti 132/1)

  • Armchair with fabric upholstery (ti 157 A)

  • Metal bed (SN 831)

  • Living room cabinet (ti 18/0–1)

  • Bookshelf (ti 216)

  • Desk (ti 207/217/3)

  • Armchair (ti 244)

  • Broom cupboard (ti 138/3)

  • Round table (ti 146 a)

  • Desk (ti 14) and (ti 217)

  • Cabinet (ti ?)

  • Table (ti 207)

  • Folding recliner with fabric upholstery (ti 240)

Kandem Lamps

In the Leipzig-based company, Kandem, the Bauhaus in Dessau had found a trustworthy partner with which to realize their simple, innovative lamp designs from 1928 to 1933.

1 ADJUSTABLE CEILING LAMP (ME 105A) • Marianne Brandt • 1926 • Photograph (reprint) • Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin • VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2018

2 CEILING LAMP (ME 94) • Marianne Brandt • 1926 • Photograph (reprint) • Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin • VG Bild- Kunst, Bonn 2018

3 CEILING LAMP (ME 29) • Marianne Brandt (lamp), Lucia Moholy (photo) • 1926 • Photograph (reprint) • Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin • VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2018

4 KANDEM DOUBLE-CYLINDER LAMP (NO. 806 P 40 SMALL) • Marianne Brandt • 1929 • Photograph (reprint) • Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin • VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2018

Bauhaus Weaving Workshop

The weaving workshop at the Bauhaus in Dessau was equipped with new looms and dyeing facilities, encouraging the weavers to experiment with both the technical and aesthetic possibilities of cloth. It included teaching and production, and it was one of the most commercially successful workshops, producing samples sold at trade fares and through contracts with textile companies. One particular interest was the use of new yarns such as “Eisengarn” (patent-strong yarn)—a waxed cotton thread prized for its strength—and synthetic fibres such as cellophane that were light reflective.

1 “EISENGARN” (IRON YARN) FOR FURNITURE • Margaretha Reichardt • 1926 • Patent-strong yarn, cotton • Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau

2 “EISENGARN” (IRON YARN) FOR FURNITURE • Margaretha Reichardt • 1926 • Patent-strong yarn, cotton • Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau

3 “EISENGARN” (IRON YARN) FOR FURNITURE • Margaretha Reichardt • 1926 • Patent-strong yarn, cotton • Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau

4 WEAVING SAMPLE, FABRIC BY THE METRE • 1932 • Cotton • Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau

5 S-P-H TEXTILES SAMPLE BOOK “CURTAIN MATERIAL”, ZURICH • Gunta Stölzl, Gertrud Preiswerk, Heinrich Otto Hürlimann • 1932–1933 • Cotton and wool • Private collection

6 TEXTILE SAMPLES FOR SALE • Gunta Stölzl, Heinrich Otto Hürlimann • 1933–1936 • Cotton and wool • Private collection

7 TEXTILE SAMPLES FOR SALE • Gunta Stölzl, Heinrich Otto Hürlimann • 1933–1936 • Cotton and wool • Private collection

8 TEXTILE SAMPLES FOR SALE • Gunta Stölzl, Heinrich Otto Hürlimann • 1933–1936 • Cotton and wool • Private collection

9 CURVO PATTERN, UPHOLSTERY FABRIC SAMPLES • Otti Berger • 1935–1936 • Cotton and wool • Private collection

10 EXPERIMENTAL CURTAIN MATERIAL FOR CINEMA URBAN, ZURICH • Gunta Stölzl • 1933 • Cellophane • Private collection

Bauhaus Architecture

Bauhaus building in Dessau

The third film of the series “How do we live healthily and economically?” provides a glimpse inside one of the single-family “Master Houses”, the private home of the first Bauhaus director, Walter Gropius, in which the designed interior is seen as a space of gendered subjects and practices.

“DAS BAUHAUS IN DESSAU UND SEINE BAUWEISE” (The Bauhaus in Dessau and its construction methods) • 1926 • Film, 12 min. 15 sec. • Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin

With its light-flooded windows, whitewashed facade, steel structure and flat roof, the Bauhaus building in Dessau quickly became an epitome of modern architecture. The floating lightness of the building emerges from the balance of materials, and its composition is reflected in the division of spaces designated for workshops, living quarters and studying.

MODEL OF THE BAUHAUS BUILDING IN DESSAU • 1925/26 (design), 1994 (model) • Wood, plexiglass, cardboard, glue • Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau

ELEVATIONS OF A PROPOSAL FOR A COLOURED FAÇADE OF THE DESSAU BAUHAUS BUILDING • Hinnerk Scheper, ca. 1924–1926 • Tempera over blueprint, collage (reprint) • Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin, permanent loan from the Scheper Estate

In designing the Bauhaus Dessau building the director of Bauhaus, Walter Gropius, extended his understanding of modern architecture to include the interior, which was conceived to integrate with the building’s exterior.

1 RECONSTRUCTION OF A BLANKET, DESIGNED FOR THE DORMITORY-SLEEPING ALCOVE AT BAUHAUS DESSAU • Gunta Stölzl • 1926/2000 (reconstruction) • Viscose, cotton • Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau

2 MURAL COLOUR-SAMPLES FOR THE BAUHAUS BUILDING DESSAU • 1925–1926 • Paper • Wils Ebert Estate, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Archiv der Moderne

3 TRIOLIN FLOORING FROM THE BAUHAUS DESSAU BUILDING • 1926 • Triolin, jute • Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau

4 MAN AT THE INFORMATION BOARD AT BAUHAUS DESSAU • Iwao Yamawaki • ca. 1930–1932 • Photograph (reprint) • Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau

Trade Union School Bernau

The Trade Union school is a unique building project in the Bauhaus; the yellow-brick stone building gradually adjusts in its Z-like shape to the descending landscape, and in this way organically relates to a functional principle. It is a democratic building dedicated to Trade Union members, which Hannes Meyer and Hans Wittwer researched, planned and built, in collaboration with Bauhaus students, in all its details from inside to out.

1 UNTITLED (FOREST AROUND TRADE UNION SCHOOL, BERNAU) • Walter Peterhans • 1930 • Photograph • Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Archiv der Moderne

2 UNTITLED (NORTHEAST FAÇADE OF THE TRADE UNION SCHOOL, BERNAU WITH TEACHERS’ HOUSES) • Walter Peterhans • 1930 • Photograph • Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Archiv der Moderne

3 UNTITLED (GLASS HALLWAY OF THE TRADE UNION SCHOOL, BERNAU, INTERIOR) • Walter Peterhans • 1930 • Photograph • Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Archiv der Moderne

4 UNTITLED (BOARDING SCHOOL AND GLASS HALLWAY OF THE TRADE UNION SCHOOL, BERNAU) • Walter Peterhans • 1930 • Photograph • Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Archiv der Moderne

5 UNTITLED (MAIN ENTRANCE OF THE TRADE UNION SCHOOL, BERNAU) • Walter Peterhans • 1930 • Photograph • Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Archiv der Moderne

6 GENERAL PLAN OF THE TRADE UNION SCHOOL, BERNAU • Hannes Meyer • 1928 • Offset litho print (reprint) • Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin

Dessau-Törten

7 THE DESSAU-TÖRTEN HOUSING ESTATE • Emil Theis • ca. 1926–1928 • Photograph (reprint) • Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin

8 INTERIOR OF A LIVING ROOM WITH FITTED SAMPLE FURNITURE AT DESSAU-TÖRTEN HOUSING ESTATE • Emil Theis • ca. 1926–1928 • Photograph (reprint) • Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin • VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2018

The film series “How do we live healthily and economically?” was produced between 1926 and 1928. This particular film documents the Dessau-Törten housing estate, designed by Gropius, featuring serial production, prefabrication and the use of modern building materials. Informally, the settlement was nicknamed the Wohnford, meaning the “[Model-T] Ford of housing”.

FILM SHOWING THE INTERIOR OF THE “MASTER HOUSE” OF WALTER GROPIUS, FROM THE SERIES “WIE WOHNEN WIR GESUND UND WIRTSCHAFTLICH” (How do we live healthily and economically?) • 1926 • Film, 13 min. • Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin

1 COLOUR STUDIO OF THE DESSAU-TÖRTEN HOUSING ESTATE • Heinrich Koch • ca. 1927 • Tempera and pencil on cardboard (reprint) • Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin

2 COLOUR STUDIO OF THE DESSAU-TÖRTEN HOUSING ESTATE • Heinrich Koch • ca. 1927 • Tempera and pencil on cardboard (reprint) • Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin

3 COLOUR STUDIO OF THE DESSAU-TÖRTEN HOUSING ESTATE • Heinrich Koch • ca. 1927 • Tempera and pencil on cardboard (reprint) • Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin

The Steel House experiment, designed by Georg Muche and Richard Paulick in 1926/27, in Dessau-Törten. Their idea was to acknowledge changing living conditions and family growth—taking up ideas of a flexible plan for an extendable house.

4 DESIGN DRAWING AND COLOURED PHOTOGRAPH OF THE STEEL HOUSE AT THE DESSAU-TÖRTEN HOUSING ESTATE • Georg Muche • 1926/27 • Indian ink, foil, photographic paper (reprint) • Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin

The Dessau-Törten housing estate was meant to create affordable apartments for the growing population of Dessau. A varied assembly of structures, made from precast building materials was intended to account for future residents’ individual needs as well as to lower construction costs.

1 GENERAL PLAN OF THE DESSAU-TÖRTEN HOUSING ESTATE • Walter Gropius • 1926–1928 • Indian ink on tracing paper (reprint) • Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin • VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2018

The balcony-access houses were designed by Hannes Meyer with Hans Wittwer and Ludwig Hilberseimer (Bauhaus tutors from the building department), as well as students such as Tibor Weiner and Philipp Tolziner.

The five balcony-access houses were three-storey buildings produced during the second construction phase of the Dessau-Törten housing estate. Each building has 18 units of 47 square metres. Staircase towers and balconies running along the north façade are used to access these units.

2 CONSTRUCTION PHASE IN 1930 OF THE DESSAU-TÖRTEN HOUSING ESTATE • Unknown • 1928–1930 • Photographic reproduction of plans (reprint) • Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Archiv der Moderne

When Ludwig Mies van der Rohe became the third and last director of the Bauhaus, it changed into a private educational establishment. The understanding of how and what was taught changed too. Whereas Walter Gropius and Hannes Meyer encouraged their students to develop individual and innovative ideas, designs from the students of Mies often seemed to copy the director’s ideas about architecture and interior design.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

1 INTERIOR OF ONE OF THE “MASTER HOUSES”, DESSAU • Walter Gropius (architecture), Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (interior design), Unknown photographer • ca. 1931–1932 • Photograph (reprint) • Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau • VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2018

2 HOUSE LEMKE IN BERLIN-HOHENSCHÖNHAUSEN • Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (architecture), Paul Schulz (photo) • 1933 • Photograph (reprint) • Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau • VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2018

3 GARDEN OF HOUSE LEMKE IN BERLIN-HOHENSCHÖNHAUSEN • Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (architecture), Paul Schulz (photo) • 1933 • Photograph (reprint) • Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau

4 COURTYARD OF A HOUSE, PERSPECTIVE DRAWING FROM THE MIES VAN DE ROHE COURSE • Walter Köppe • ca. 1930–1931 • Indian ink and pencil on paper (reprint) • Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau

5 INTERIOR OF A HOUSE, PERSPECTIVE DRAWING FROM THE MIES VAN DE ROHE COURSE • Walter Köppe • ca. 1930–1931 • Indian ink and pencil on paper (reprint) • Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau

Others

The Narkomfin building is an apartment block in central Moscow that was designed by architects Moisei Ginzburg and Ignaty Milinis in 1928 for the employees of the Narodnyo Kommissariat Finansov (Commissariat of Finance). In 1929, Bauhaus-trained artist Hinnerk Scheper, who taught the Bauhaus mural workshop, worked on colour designs for the walls of the apartment “Type F” and “Type K” of the building.

1 COLOUR DESIGN FOR AN APARTMENT “TYPE F” AND “TYPE K” OF THE NARKOMFIN BUILDING, MOSCOW • Hinnerk Scheper • 1929 • Tempera, Indian ink and pencil on paper (reprint) • Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin, permanent loan from the Scheper Estate

2 COLOUR DESIGN FOR THE HALLWAYS OF THE NARKOMFIN BUILDING, MOSCOW • Hinnerk Scheper • 1929 • Tempera, Indian ink and pencil on paper (reprint) • Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin

Student exercises for Hannes Meyer’s architectural classes at the Bauhaus ca. 1927–1930. These panels were made by students, and the drawings and diagrams in them speak to the biological preoccupations Meyer had at that time. The functional aspects of the architecture are important, but so is the way users of the buildings will relate to their environment, both from within their dwellings and from their gardens.

1 STUDIES OF SUNLIGHT IN A ROOM, EXERCISE FROM A HANNES MEYER CLASS • Unknown student, Meyer class • ca. 1929 • Photograph of graphics (reprint) • Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau

2 RELATIONSHIP TO NEIGHBOURS AND THE SURROUNDINGS IN A DWELLING • Sigfrid Giesenschlag, Meyer class • ca. 1929 • Photograph of graphics (reprint) • Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Archiv der Moderne

3 RELATIONSHIP TO NEIGHBOURS AND THE SURROUNDINGS IN A DWELLING • Sigfrid Giesenschlag, Meyer class • ca. 1929 • Photograph of graphics (reprint) • Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Archiv der Moderne

4 THE GARDEN AS EXTENSION OF THE LIVING SPACE, EXERCISE FROM A HANNES MEYER CLASS • Heiner Knaub, Meyer class • ca. 1929 • Photograph of graphics (reprint) • Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Archiv der Moderne

Miguel Lawner’s chronological development of activities were preliminary studies for the design of a house. They were created for Tibor Weiner’s “Architectural Analysis” class at the University of Chile’s architecture school in the mid-1940s. These visual analyses are similar to exercises from Hannes Meyer’s architecture classes at the Bauhaus ca. 1927–1930.

5 ATMOSPHERIC AND CLIMATIC ANALYSIS AND CHRONOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT OF ACTIVITIES • Miguel Lawner • ca. 1946 • Photographic reproduction of drawings (reprint) • Miguel Lawner Archive

6 ATMOSPHERIC AND CLIMATIC ANALYSIS AND CHRONOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT OF ACTIVITIES • Miguel Lawner • ca. 1946 • Photographic reproduction of drawings (reprint) • Miguel Lawner Archive

The Internationalist Architect

The Russian avant-garde had an important impact on Bauhaus design ideas in Germany. Exchange between the Bauhaus (1919–1933) and design and architecture school Vkhutemas (1920–1930), in Moscow, was established, and when Hannes Meyer came to Dessau in 1927 to start the newly established building department at Bauhaus Dessau the relationship to Russia was intensified through travel, guest teaching and exhibitions.

After Meyer was dismissed for political reasons as Bauhaus director in 1930, he and seven Bauhaus students travelled to Moscow at the invitation of the Soviet government, like other architects at that time. In the Soviet Union Meyer worked for a series of institutes and collaborated on several urban projects before leaving for Mexico City in 1936, where he became director for the Institute of Urbanism and Planning. Several of his students would continue to work for Soviet state agencies. Until the late 1930s they were in charge of designing educational facilities, interiors and housing schemes, they conducted urban studies as well as the large-scale planning of new towns like Orsk.

Under Stalin’s regime, avant-garde ideas were rejected and several Bauhaus architects were imprisoned and even sentenced to death. Some were able to leave the Soviet Union and relocate to Europe, Asia and South America, where, for example, in Hungary, Chile, the German Democratic Republic and North-Korea, they were active as city planners and educators.

The Red Bauhaus Brigade

The seven Hannes Meyer students who went to Moscow were Tibor Weiner, Konrad Püschel, Philipp Tolziner, René Mensch, Béla Scheffler, Antonin Urban and Klaus Meumann. In 1933, the Bauhauslers Konrad Püschel, Philipp Tolziner and Tibor Weiner joined former Ernst May-Brigade members, Mart Stam and Hans Schmidt, in the design of the city of Orsk and were also in charge of the design of several individual buildings. Their former Bauhaus classmate Lotte Beese also participated in this project.

1 PERSPECTIVE OF ORSK • 1935 • Drawing (reprint) • Hans Schmidt Estate, gta Archiv/ETH Zürich

2 PERSPECTIVE AND GENERAL PLAN OF ORSK • 1935 • Photographic reproduction of plans (reprint) • Hans Schmidt Estate, gta Archiv/ETH Zürich

In 1934 Hannes Meyer worked in the office for “Housing, Social Construction and Interior Decoration” at the Soviet Architecture Academy (WAA) in Moscow. In his department four architectural brigades worked on the problem of the Soviet dwelling including the architects Antonin Urban, Hans Schmidt and Grete Schütte-Lihotzky from Dessau, Vienna and Frankfurt. Their investigation resulted in 21 types of apartment that were handed over for evaluation to various Moscow enterprises.

3 PERSPECTIVE, WALL ELEVATIONS, ENTRANCE HALL AND BEDROOMS OF A LIVING UNIT • Antonin Urban • 1935 • 4 Photographic reproductions • Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Archiv der Moderne

The design for a dentist chair, by Philipp Tolziner was created for the dentist’s office of the Usollag labour camp in Solikamsk near Perm in the Urals. Tolziner, who survived imprisonment and never left the Soviet Union, worked in the Urals and later in Moscow on housing projects. Béla Scheffler and Antonin Urban both died in the Soviet Gulag, as probably Klaus Meumann did too.

4 DENTIST’S CHAIR DESIGNED BY PHILIPP TOLZINER FOR THE USOLLAG LABOUR CAMP • 1938 • Drawing (reprint) • Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin

When Hannes Meyer succeeded Walter Gropius as director of the Bauhaus in 1928, the school’s magazine drastically shifted

its goal according to educational changes, in which students were more fully integrated into the whole building process.
In one of the magazines, Meyer published a manifesto called “bauhaus and society”, which summarized his thinking about the Bauhaus’s social and architectural task.

According to him, the Bauhaus had a wide-ranging social goal to fulfil.

1 “BAUHAUS UND GESELLSCHAFT”
(“Bauhaus and society”), BAUHAUS. MAGAZIN FÜR GESTALTUNG, NO. 1 • Hannes Meyer • 1929 • Magazine (reprint) • Downloaded from monoskop.org

2 BAUHAUS. ORGAN DER KOSTUFRA. SPRACHROHR DER STUDIERENDEN, VOL. 3, NO. 9 •

1932 • Magazine (reprint) • Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau

3 EXHIBITION CATALOGUE FOR BAUHAUS EXHIBITION IN MOSCOW • 1931 • Catalogue • Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Archiv der Moderne

After the Soviet Union, Hannes Meyer returned to Switzerland; from there he moved to Mexico, where he worked at the Urban Planning office of Mexico City and also designed several unrealized projects. Tibor Weiner went to France and then Chile, where he lived for almost a decade and seized the chance to design several buildings and also to teach. René Mensch worked as an architect in Iran, Chile and Switzerland, always linked to the design and construction of architectural projects. Konrad Püschel returned to Germany, where he was a professor at the Bauhaus University Weimar, and then in the 1950s led an East German architecture task force to North Korea to work on redesigning the war-devastated cities of Hamhung and Hungnam.

4 “ARCHITECTURE AND CITY PLANNING IN SOVIET RUSSIA”, TASK, NO. 3 • Hannes Meyer • 1942 • Magazine, print on paper • Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Archiv der Moderne

5 “LA REALIDAD SOVIETICA: LOS ARQUITECTOS”, ARQUITECTURA, NO. 9 • Hannes Meyer • 1942 • Magazine, print on paper • Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Archiv der Moderne

6 ARCHITECTURA Y DECORACIÓN, VOL. 2, NO. 12 • 1938 • Magazine, print on paper • Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Archiv der Moderne

7 “BAUHAUS DESSAU 1927–1930”, EDIFICACIÓN (MEXICO), NO. 32 • Hannes Meyer •1940 • Magazine, print on paper • Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Archiv der Moderne

8 CONSTRUYAMOS ESCUELAS, NO. 1 • Comité Administrador del Programa Federal de Construcción de Escuelas (CAPFCE) • 1947 • Magazine, print on paper • Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Archiv der Moderne

CIAM

The passenger ship Patris II transported the participants of the 4th International Congresses of Modern Architecture (CIAM) from Marseilles to Athens and back. Bauhaus teacher Moholy-Nagy, travelling as a “friend of the new building movement” produced this half-hour soundless film as a travel journal. Under the illuminated Acropolis, the opening of the exhibition The Functional City took place in the Technical University. On the return trip, the working sessions were held with lectures and discussions of city analysis prepared by groups from diverse countries.

ARCHITECTS’ CONGRESS • László Moholy-Nagy • 1933 • Silent movie, 29 min. • The Moholy_Nagy Foundation

Founded in La Sarraz, Switzerland, in 1928, the International Congresses of Modern Architecture (CIAM) led urban planning discussions and the development of modern architecture. Eminent personalities include the art historian Sigfried Giedion, the architects Le Corbusier, Cornelis van Eesteren, José Luis Sert, Ernst May and the Bauhaus director Walter Gropius. The focus of the congresses shifted over the years from social housing and the standardization of dwellings to the economic planning of large settlements, and culminated logically in the analysis of the whole city.

1 CIAM 1 FOUNDATION ANNOUNCEMENT, BAUHAUS: ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR GESTALTUNG, NO. 4 • 1928 • Magazine (reprint)

2 CIAM 2 ARTICLE, BAUHAUS: ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR GESTALTUNG, NO. 4 • 1929 • Magazine (reprint)

3 AGENDA FOR THE CIAM 2 CONFERENCE: “THE MINIMUM DWELLING”, FRANKFURT AM MAIN • 1929 • Reprint • gta Archives / ETH Zurich, CIAM

4 GROUP PHOTOGRAPH, CIAM 3, BRUSSELS • 1930 • Photograph (reprint) • gta Archives / ETH Zurich, CIAM

5 INVITATION TO THE CIAM 4 CONFERENCE • 1933 • Reprint • gta Archives / ETH Zurich, CIAM

6 ORGANIZATION PANEL OF THE CIAM • Brussels, 1930 • Photograph (reprint) • gta Archives / ETH Zurich, CIAM

Since no modern architect was among the winners in the competition for the Palace of the Soviets in Moscow (1931/32)—Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier and Erich Mendelsohn were invited to participate—the CIAM leadership sent two letters of protest to Stalin including an annotated photocollage likening Soviet Realism with departmentstore architecture. This conflict caused the cancellation of the 4th CIAM congress, which was due to be held in Moscow in March 1933.

7 “PROTEST COLLAGE” SENT BY THE CIAM TO STALIN • Sigfried Giedion • 1931 • Photocollage (reprint) • gta Archives / ETH Zurich, CIAM

8 PROTEST LETTER WRITTEN IN FRENCH TO STALIN, SIGNED BY SIGFRIED GIEDION AND CORNELIS VAN EESTEREN • 1932 • Ink on two pages (reprint) • gta Archives / ETH Zurich, CIAM

Le Corbusier wrote in the “Charter of Athens” (1943) that “The keys to city planning lie in the four functions: living, working, recovering (in the free hours), and moving around.” His influential publication on urban planning came out ten years after the statements and guidelines for new buildings were formulated in “The Functional City” by CIAM 4- members, who had met in 1933 aboard the passenger ship Patria II and in Athens.

9 THE CHARTER OF ATHENS • “La Charte D’Athènes avec un Discours liminaire de Jean Giraudoux” • Le Groupe CIAM-France, 1943 • Brochure, print on paper (reprint) • gta Archives / ETH Zurich, CIAM

The National Institute of Design (NID), Inda

In the decades after Indian independence, the development of design education drew on modernist sources including the Bauhaus. This was largely routed through the School of Design (HfG) in Ulm, West Germany, after the Second World War, where many Bauhaus graduates taught and developed this school’s curriculum. In India, the government played a powerful role in the life of its citizens and design was included in the larger project of nation building. As part of this, the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad, was established in 1961, followed by the Industrial Design Centre (IDC) at the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, in 1969. Both schools understood design as a catalyst for economic growth and as a development tool, which might also serve a non-affluent and rural population. Trainee designers attempted to utilize the traditions and know-how of Indian handicrafts and vernacular objects in the development of contemporary design through fieldwork, and to bring this to contemporary markets.

In the 1960s and 1970s the NID and IDC developed a strong connection with HfG Ulm. This included Otl Aicher’s study tour in India; Ulm faculty Hans Gugelot and Herbert Lindinger contributing to the curriculum at NID; and Ulm graduates Sudhakar Nadkarni and H Kumar Vyas becoming key figures at IDC and NID respectively. While modernist aesthetics and systems design principles were shared by all three schools, a specific Bauhaus influence can also be seen in the preliminary course, which was at different times common to each.

These two films underline the ways in which modern design in India is anchored in traditional craft practices, while seeking simultaneously to revitalize them for today. The “Lota” film, based on a text written by Charles and Ray Eames in 1958, outlines an idea of design in postcolonial India derived from values distilled from the form and function of the everyday pot. The “Jawaja Project” film which is played on the monitor realizes the hope expressed in the “Lota” film; describing the transformation of a vanishing leather craft through the joint efforts of designers from NID and managers from the Indian Institute of Management, in Ahmedabad.

1 “LOTA” A DEDICATION TO CHARLES EAMES • Based on the 1958 India Report by Charles & Ray Eames • 1979 • Film, 5:12 min. • National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad

The industrial design and visual-communication projects executed by faculty members of the Industrial Design Centre (IDC), Mumbai, and the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad, reveal their strong emphasis on securing a good “standard of living” through design for the Indian masses, and projecting the image of a modernizing forward-looking nation.

1 DEVANAGARI TYPEFACE (1972) • Mahendra C. Patel • Document, type on paper (reprint) • National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad

3 “GAMELA” (project completed ca. 1971), Industrial Design Centre: A decade of design experience • S. K. Dastoor (Supervisor: S. Nadkarni) • 1979 • Reprint • Industrial Design Centre, Indian Institute for Technology, Bombay

2 FIRST VISUALIZATION FOR A SCHOOL OF IDEAS • Jochen Claussen-Finks (layout), Phani Tetali (photo) • 1989–1990 • Poster (reprint) • Courtesy Jochen Claussen-Finks

4 VISUAL IDENTITY OF INDIAN AIRLINES (project completed 1967) • Benoy Sarkar • 1973 • Brochure, print on paper (reprint) • National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad

5 BAMBOO TOOL KIT • A.G. Rao • Undated • Set of 10 tools in a bag • Industrial Design Centre, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay

6 KEROSENE-WICK STOVE AND TRADITIONAL PROTOTYPES • S. Balaram • 1976 • Metal • National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad

The exchange between two institutions in India—the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedbad, and the Industrial Design Centre (IDC), Mumbai—and the Ulm School of Design (HfG), Ulm, Germany, included students and faculty, and created similarities in workshop environments as well as teaching methods, in particular the foundation courses of the three schools. How designers responded to an Indian context can be seen in sketches made by Otl Aicher during his visit to the sub-continent in 1960, as well as Sudhakar Nadkarni’s 1966 Ulm diploma project, featuring a milk kiosk conceived for use in rural India.

1 SUDHAKAR NADKARNI AT HFG ULM • 1962 • Photograph (reprint) • Private collection

2 TOMÁS MALDONADO’S FOUNDATION COURSE • Ernst Hahn • 1956 • Photograph (reprint) • Museum Ulm – HfG-Archiv

3 HANS GUGELOT WITH STUDENTS AT NID • 1965 • Photograph (reprint) • gugelot archiv hamburg

4 METAL WORKSHOP AT NID • 1960s • Photograph (reprint) • National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad

5 DRAWINGS OF CARS FROM THE “INDIEN 1960” REPORT • Otl Aicher • 1960 • Drawing on paper • Museum Ulm – HfG-Archiv

6 DRAWINGS OF CARS FROM THE “INDIEN 1960” REPORT • Otl Aicher • 1960 • Drawing on paper • Museum Ulm – HfG-Archiv

7 DRAWINGS OF UNIFORMS FROM THE “INDIEN 1960” REPORT • Otl Aicher • 1960 • Drawing on paper • Museum Ulm – HfG-Archiv

8 DRAWINGS OF BUILDINGS FROM THE “INDIEN 1960” REPORT • Otl Aicher • 1960 • Drawing on paper • Museum Ulm – HfG-Archiv

Seeking to define a new creative profession—the “designer ”— HfG Ulm developed its specific educational classes (urban planning, information, visual design, product design and architecture) building on the foundation course. This was the basic requirement, famously also used by the Bauhaus, to ascertain which students were talented and ambitious enough to be edu- cated at the school.

1 NETWORK OF ISOMETRIC ELEMENTS (MALDONADO’S FOUNDATION COURSE) • Klaus Wille • 1957–1958 • Wood • Museum Ulm – HfG-Archiv

2 “IDENTIFICATION OF DESIGN PROBLEMS IN INDIA”: DIPLOMA THESIS, PART 1 • Sudhakar Nadkarni • 1966 • Print on paper • Museum Ulm – HfG-Archiv

3 “DESIGN OF A NEW MILK KIOSK”: DIPLOMA THESIS, PART 2 • Sudhakar Nadkarni • 1966 • Print on paper • Museum Ulm – HfG-Archiv

4 CIRCULAR SCHEME OF COURSES AT HFG ULM • Otl Aicher • 1950 • Print on paper (reprint) • Museum Ulm – HfG-Archiv

The public discourse around modern design was initiated in India by two English-language journals: Marg (published from 1946 to the present from Mumbai and expanded by Design (published from 1957 from Mumbai; later from New Delhi until 1988). Marg focused largely on architecture and urban planning, while Design covered industrial design, advertising, graphics, ceramics and textiles. Both had contributions from European and American architects and designers.

Included here is “The India Report”, written in 1958 by prominent American designers Charles and Ray Eames at the invitation of the newly independent government of India. It outlined the rationale and institutional mechanism for introducing modern design in India and resulted in the establishment of the National Institute of Design at Ahmedabad. Also included are documents relating to the UNESCO-UNIDO “Design for Development” conference in 1979, which led to the Ahmedabad Declaration on Industrial Design for Development.

1 “THE INDIA REPORT” • Charles and Ray Eames • 1958 • Brochure, print on paper • National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad

2 DESIGN TODAY IN AMERICA AND EUROPE • MoMA • 1958 • Exhibition catalogue, print on paper • National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad

3 50 YEARS OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF DESIGN 1961–2011 • National Institute of Design • 2013 • Book, print on paper • National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad

4 MARG: A MAGAZINE OF ARCHITECTURE AND ART • Articles from selected volumes 1946–1967 • Magazines (reprints) • Marg Foundation, Mumbai

5 DESIGN: REVIEW OF ARCHITECTURE, APPLIED AND FREE ARTS • Articles from selected volumes 1958–1969 • Magazines (reprints) • Meher Wilshaw, New Delhi

6 IDC OUTPUT • Selected volumes 1971–1981 • Magazines, print on paper • Industrial Design Center, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay

7 AHMEDABAD DECLARATION ON INDUSTRIAL DESIGN FOR DEVELOPMENT • 1979 • Print on paper • National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad

8 “DESIGN FOR DEVELOPMENT” • UNIDO–ICSID • 1979 • Brochure, print on paper • National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad

9 ULM 1 • 1958 • Magazine, print on paper • Museum Ulm – HfG-Archiv

10 ULM 2 • 1958 • Magazine, print on paper • Museum Ulm – HfG-Archiv

11 ULM 8/9 • 1963 • Magazine, print on paper • Museum Ulm – HfG-Archiv

12 ULM 10/11 • 1964 • Magazine, print on paper • Museum Ulm – HfG-Archiv

Indian Ceramics

This teapot and vase were designed by Dashrath Patel (1927–2010), who was trained in art, ceramics and glazes in 1957 in Prague. Patel was one of the founding teachers at the National Institute of Design (NID).

TEAPOT AND VASE • Dashrath Patel • Year unknown • Ceramic • National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad

NID Textiles

Today, David Abraham is part of the successful duo Abraham & Thakore, New Delhi, whose con- temporary fashion and textile designs employ a traditional craft vocabulary. Abraham’s diploma project at NID, inspired by his study with rural artisans, used Khadi (hand-spun and handwoven cotton cloth), updated with simple motifs, and cut into modern dress shapes.

GARMENTS USING PRINTED KHADI CLOTH • David Abraham • 1980 • Cotton • National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad

Publications: Bauhaus—India—China

The Bauhaus magazine was planned as a quarterly journal. Ultimately 14 issues were produced; eleven published from 1926–1929 under Gropius and Meyer and three in 1931 under the directorship of Mies van der Rohe. The magazine became the organ for a new design vocabulary, propagating a synthesis of economic, political and cultural demands. Articles by teachers, students and guest writers promoted a new epistemology of design, which included the shift from workshop to laboratory and aimed for a humanist univer­ salism that would acknow­ ledge the everyday life­needs of the individual, and help to promote a new standard of living.

BAUHAUS. ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR GESTALTUNG • 1926–1931 • Magazines (reprints)

The Bauhaus under Walter Gropius published a series of 14 books that discussed and promoted the international debate of the modernist movement about the integrative function of art, design and architecture.

1 BAUHAUSBÜCHER 1: INTERNATIONALE ARCHITEKTUR (International Architecture) • Walter Gropius • 1925, Reprint 1981 • Book, print on paper • Private collection

2 BAUHAUSBÜCHER 2: GRUNDBEGRIFFE DER NEUEN GESTALTENDEN KUNST (Principles of Neoplastic Art) • Theo van Doesburg • 1925, Reprint 1981 • Book, print on paper • Private collection

3 BAUHAUSBÜCHER 7: NEUE ARBEITEN DER BAUHAUS­ WERKSTÄTTEN (The New Architecture and the Bauhaus) • Walter Gropius • 1925, Reprint 1981 • Book, print on paper • Private collection

4 BAUHAUSBÜCHER 10: HOLLÄNDISCHE ARCHITEKTUR • (Dutch Architecture) • J. J. P. Oud • 1926, Reprint 1976 • Book, print on paper • Private collection

5 BAUHAUSBÜCHER 11: DIE GEGENSTANDSLOSE WELT (The Non-­Objective World) • Kasimir Malewitsch • 1927, Reprint 1980 • Book, print on paper • Private collection

6 BAUHAUSBÜCHER 12: BAUHAUSBAUTEN DESSAU (Bauhaus Architecture in Dessau) • Walter Gropius • 1930, Reprint 1974 • Book, print on paper • Private collection

These publications showcase designs from the Industrial Design Centre (IDC) at the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai and the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad.

7 AHMEDABAD CITY MAP • ca. 1979 • Print on paper (reprint) • National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad

8 AHMEDABAD BUS ROUTE • ca. 1979 • Print on paper (reprint) • National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad

9 INDUSTRIAL DESIGN CENTRE: A DECADE OF DESIGN EXPERIENCE • 1979 • Book, print on paper • Industrial Design Centre, Mumbai

10 IDC OUTPUT • Selection of magazines from 1971–1981 • Magazines, print on paper • Industrial Design Centre, Mumbai

11 ABHIKALPA • Selection of magazines from 1984–1986 • Magazines, print on paper • Industrial Design Centre, Mumbai

12 A SLIDE SHOW FEATURING PHOTOGRAPHS OF EXHIBITIONS: exhibition design from 1953; exhibition design by Selman Selmanagic in the applied art of the German Democratic Republic in China 1954; by Chen Qin 1989; by Heinz Fuchs and Francois Bourkhart 1991; Bauhaus Institute of China Academy of Art 2013 • China Design Museum, Hangzhou • Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts • Private collection

13 FUTURE WORLD • Chen Zhifou (design) • 1934 • Book • Private collection

14 SHORT NOVELS • Chen Zhifou (design) • 1934 • Book • Private collection

Exhibition Design: Bauhaus and NID

From the outset the Bauhaus created several national and international exhibitions to promote the school’s educational ideas, architecture and design ethos. These exhibitions had a significant impact on its reception.

1 SLIDE SHOW FEATURING PHOTOGRAPHS OF BAUHAUS EXHIBITIONS in Weimar 1923; Leipzig 1929; Basel 1929; Mannheim, Zurich, 1930; Moscow 1931; and New York 1938 • Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin • Archiv der Moderne, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar • Harvard Art Museums, Busch-Reisinger Museum, Gift of Lydia Dorner, BR58.121, BR58.17, BR58.14, BR58.120 • Schule und Museum für Gestaltung, Zürich • BLDAM, Bildarchiv, 64 i 26 / III 16, 54 i 26 / III 14

Exhibition design worked on by staff and students at NID included the exhibition to commemorate India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru which opened in New York in 1965. Also, four pavilions on Indian agriculture and food, which were designed for the Ministry of Agriculture and displayed at the Hall of Nations in New Delhi in 1977.

2 SLIDE SHOW FEATURING PHOTOGRAPHS OF JAWAHARLAL NEHRU: His Life and His India • Design: National Institute of Design. (Consultants: Charles and Ray Eames, Alexander Girard) • 1965 and Agri Expo 1977 • Dashrath Patel and Vikas Satwalekar • National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad

Urban Planning

For the International Congresses of Modern Architecture (CIAM), a number of analytical studies of cities were conducted ready for the meeting in Athens in 1933. One of these studies, conducted by a group of Bauhaus students for CIAM 4, analysed the city of Dessau. From geology to soil and wind conditions, the facets of urban development were presented very broadly and resulted in urban planning proposals.

CITY ANALYSIS OF DESSAU • Wils Ebert, Wilhelm Jacob Hess, Cornelis van der Linden, Hubert Hoffmann • 1933 • Photographic reproduction of drawings (reprint) • gta Archives / ETH Zurich, CIAM

Hannes Meyer’s new master plan for Moscow was one of eight competing projects. It was developed between 1931–1932 along with the architect Peer Bücking and the Soviet urban planner Geimanson. The main idea was to turn Moscow into a modern metropolis by dispersing the existing city, for which they proposed reorganizing the entire road system. The main characteristic of this project was the creation of 19 satellite cities around Moscow, each with a different specialization.

BLUEPRINT FOR GREATER MOSCOW • Hannes Meyer et al. • 1931–1932 • Photographic reproduction of drawings (reprint) • Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Archiv der Moderne

After living in Chile for ten years, Bauhaus graduate Tibor Weiner returned to Hungary. In 1950 he became the leading architect for the master plan of the industrial city of Sztálinváros (renamed Dunaújváros). This city was developed in conjunction with the construction of Hungary’s main steelworks.

1 MAP OF DUNAÚJVÁROS, HUNGARY • Tibor Weiner • 1950–1965 • Blueprint (reprint) • Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin

2 “DER MANN DER EINE STADT BAUTE” (The man who built a city), ARTICLE ABOUT TIBOR WEINER • 1962 • Offset print (reprint) • Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin

After the Second World War, the Bauhaus architect Konrad Püschel had an academic career in Weimar teaching village planning until he was called in the mid-1950s to lead an East German architecture task force to North Korea. Here, he helped in the redesign of the cities of Hamhung and Hungnam after they had been devastated in the Korean War (1950–1953).

1 MASTER PLAN OF HAMHU ̆ NG, NORTH KOREA • Konrad Püschel • 1956 • Photograph (reprint) • Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau

2 GENERAL PLAN OF HAMHU ̆ NG, NORTH KOREA • Konrad Püschel • 1956 • Photograph (reprint) • Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau

3 SITE PLAN OF HAMHU ̆ NG, NORTH KOREA • Konrad Püschel • 1956 • Photograph (reprint) • Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau

Since 1942, Richard Paulick had been thinking about urban planning at St. John’s University and in 1945 became member and later director (1948) of the planning board for Greater Shanghai. Based on the idea of “organic decentralization” of large cities developed by Eliel Saarinen in the USA and the plan for Greater London, the planning board developed between 1946 and 1949 three drafts based on the regional natural conditions of waterways and infrastructure. After the Communist takeover in 1949, the plan was abandoned in favour of the “compact city ” modelled on Moscow.

1 FIRST-DRAFT DRAWINGS OF THE GREATER SHANGHAI PLAN • Shanghai Urban Planning and Design Institute • 1946 • Print on paper (reprint) • Shanghai Archives

2 THIRD-DRAFT DRAWINGS OF THE GREATER SHANGHAI PLAN • Shanghai Urban Planning and Design Institute • 1949 • Print on paper (reprint) • Shanghai Archives

3 EXPLANATORY DRAWING FOR THE “URBAN PLAN” • Shanghai Urban Planning and Design Institute • 1940s • Print on paper (reprint) • Shanghai Archives

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