The Influence of Bauhaus on American Architecture

Founded in 1919 in the German city of Weimar, the Bauhaus was a unique art school that was shaped by the 19th and early-20th centuries trends, such as the Arts and Crafts movement, which had sought to level the distinction between fine and applied arts and to reunite creativity and manufacturing. Its creator, Prussian architect Walter Gropius, wanted to create a new breed of artists who could turn their hands to anything; he broke down the barrier between fine art and applied arts. The Bauhaus was an influential modernist art school of the 20th century, one whose approach to teaching and understanding art's relationship to society and technology, had a major impact in American architecture.

The Bauhaus, despite literally translating to “building house,” did not offer classes in architecture until 1927 (Cook). From 1919 to 1927, Gropius and his partner Adolf Meyer observed no real distinction between the output of the former’s architectural office and the school. It was not until 1927 that the architecture department opened under the guidance of Hannes Meyer (Lee), who helped in shifting the school away from aesthetics and toward functionality; the style was still characterized by harmoniously balanced geometric shapes.

Meyer's approach was to research users' needs and scientifically develop a design solution. Because of this shift, there were major commissions — some of which are still in use today. However, despite being successful, the Bauhaus was eventually closed by its own leadership under pressure from the Nazi regime, having been painted as a center of communist intellectualism. Although the school was closed, the staff continued to spread its idealistic precepts as they left Germany and emigrated all over the world.

In 1937, former Bauhaus instructor László Moholy-Nagy moved to Chicago and founded the “New Bauhaus.” Though short-lived under that name, Moholy-Nagy went on to head an independent school that later became IIT’s Institute of Design. His goal was nothing less than the realization of a new way of living: “It is the artist’s duty today to [...] unconsciously [disentangle] the most essential strands of existence from the contorted and chaotic complexities of actuality, and [weave] them into an emotional fabric of compelling validity” (IIT College of Architecture). This idea of simplifying and conveying the essential parts of one’s creation was fulfilled by one-time Bauhaus director Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who designed six buildings in the United States. Among these six buildings, two are more prominent in how they display the Bauhaus style than the rest.

One such building is the Farnsworth House. Designed in 1945 and constructed in 1951, it is a vital part of American iconography, representing both the International Style as well as the modern movement’s desire to juxtapose the sleek, streamline design of modern structure with the organic environment of the surrounding nature. Mies constructed this glass box residence of “almost nothing” for Dr. Edith Farnsworth as a country retreat along the Fox River in Plano, IL (Farnsworth). It continued to be a private residence for over 50 years until Landmarks Illinois and the National Trust for Historic Preservation purchased it in 2003. Today, it is owned and managed by the trust; the site is open as a public museum.

The significance of the Farnsworth House was recognized even before it was built. In 1947, a model of the Farnsworth House was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Describing it, along with the unbuilt Resor House, as a “radical departure from his last European domestic projects,” Philip Johnson noted that it went further than the Resor house in its expression of the floating volume: “The Farnsworth house with its continuous glass walls is an even simpler interpretation of an idea. Here the purity of the cage is undisturbed. Neither the steel columns from which it is suspended, nor the independent floating terrace break the taut skin.” In the actual construction, the aesthetic idea was progressively refined and developed through the choices of materials, colors, and details. While subsequent debates and lawsuits sometimes questioned the practicality and livability of its design, the Farnsworth House would increasingly be considered, by architects and scholars alike, to constitute one of the crystallizing and pivotal moments of Mies van der Rohe’s long artistic career.

Another prominent building is S.R. Crown Hall. Sited at a focal point in landscape architect Alfred Caldwell’s campus design, Crown Hall seems to float delicately above the lawn, reachable by a cascading waterfall of travertine marble steps. The lower windows are sandblasted to screen students from outside distractions, while upper windows freely admit light and views of the surrounding trees and sky (Architecture). The expansive interior space is ever-changing with the rhythms of the academic year. Overall, the design is seemingly simple. Mies once described the building as “almost nothing.”

Although Crown Hall was not among the first buildings Mies built at IIT, it is widely regarded as the clearest and best expression of his ideas: the suspended roof, without interior columns, created universal space that could be endlessly adapted to new uses; the use of off-the-shelf components, including standard glass panes and steel I-beams, made the building economical to construct; and the carefully-proportioned, repetitive elements of the exterior convey both uniformity and precision of construction. The Bauhaus modern architecture movement heavily inspired the look of mid-century modern American homes, which borrow the clean lines and functional design of Bauhaus buildings.

Today, the Bauhaus is often credited as the catalyst for modern architecture and furniture and as an important influence on mid-20th century painting and sculpture. While initially founded as a call for those who could utilize both fine and applied arts, this German art school transformed how society viewed art by giving it functionality; this was most notable in Bauhaus-inspired architecture, which found its way to the United States in 1937 and became famous because of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Yet the true measure of its immense influence is how familiar it has become. Once a radical revolt against the status quo, Bauhaus style has become the new normal. And by becoming ubiquitous, it has disappeared — into the architecture of modern society.