Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (German pronunciation:[ˈvaltɐˈadɔlfˈɡeːɔʁkˈɡʁoːpiʊs]; 18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-American architect and founder of theBauhaus School,[1] who is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters ofmodernist architecture. He was a founder of Bauhaus in Weimar and taught there for several years, becoming known as a leading proponent of theInternational Style.[2][3] Gropius emigrated from Germany to England in 1934 and from England to the United States in 1937, where he spent much of the rest of his life teaching at theHarvard Graduate School of Design. In the United States he worked on several projects withMarcel Breuer and with the firmThe Architects Collaborative, of which he was a founding partner. In 1959, he won theAIA Gold Medal, one of the most prestigious awards in architecture.
Gropius in 1918, with his wife Alma Mahler and their daughter, ManonGropius in his sergeant's uniform duringWorld War IGropius'sMonument to the March Dead (1921) was dedicated to the memory of nine workers who died in Weimar resisting theKapp Putsch.Gropius withHarry Seidler in Sydney, Australia, in 1954
In 1915, Gropius marriedAlma Mahler (1879–1964), widow ofGustav Mahler. Walter and Alma's daughter, namedManon after Walter's mother, was born in 1916. When Manon died ofpolio at age 18, in 1935, composerAlban Berg wrote hisViolin Concerto in memory of her (it is inscribed "to the memory of an angel"). Gropius and Mahler divorced in 1920 (She had by that time established a relationship withFranz Werfel, whom she later married).
Gropius married Ilse Frank, known as Ise, on 16 October 1923; they remained together until his death in 1969.[5] The couple adopted Beate Frank known asAti, the orphaned daughter of Ise's sister Hertha.[6][7] Ise Gropius died on 9 June 1983 in Lexington, Massachusetts.[8]
Walter's sister Manon Burchard (1880–1975) is the great-grandmother of the German film and theater actressesMarie Burchard andBettina Burchard [de], and of the curator and art historianWolf Burchard.[9]
In 1908, after studying architecture inMunich and Berlin for four semesters, Gropius joined the office of the architect and industrial designerPeter Behrens, one of the first members of the utilitarian school.[8] His fellow employees at this time includedLudwig Mies van der Rohe,Le Corbusier, and Dietrich Marcks.
Gropius left the firm of Behrens in 1910 and established a practice in Berlin with fellow employeeAdolf Meyer. Together they share credit for one of the pioneering modernist buildings created during this period: theFaguswerk inAlfeld-an-der-Leine, Germany, a shoelast factory. Although Gropius and Meyer only designed the facade, the glass curtain walls of this building demonstrated both the modernist principle thatform reflects function and Gropius's concern with providing healthful conditions for the working class.
The factory is now regarded as one of the crucial founding monuments of European modernism. Gropius was commissioned in 1913 to design a car for the Prussian Railroad Locomotive Works inKönigsberg. This locomotive was unique and the first of its kind in Germany and perhaps in Europe.[10]
Gropius published an article about "The Development of Industrial Buildings" in 1913, which included about a dozen photographs of factories andgrain elevators in North America. A very influential text, this article had a strong influence on other European modernists, including Le Corbusier andErich Mendelsohn, both of whom reprinted Gropius's grain elevator pictures between 1920 and 1930.[11]
Gropius's career was interrupted by the outbreak ofWorld War I in 1914. He was drafted in August 1914 and served as a sergeant major at theWestern front during the war years (getting wounded and almost killed)[12] and then as a lieutenant in thesignal corps.[13] Gropius was awarded theIron Cross twice[14] ("when it still meant something," he confided to his friend Chester Nagel) after fighting for four years.[15] Gropius then, like his father and his great-uncle Martin Gropius before him, became an architect.
Gropius's career advanced in the postwar period.Henry van de Velde, the master of the Grand-Ducal Saxon School of Arts and Crafts inWeimar was asked to step down in 1915 due to his Belgian nationality. His recommendation for Gropius to succeed him led eventually to Gropius's appointment as master of the school in 1919. It was this academy which Gropius transformed into the world-famousBauhaus (a.k.a. Gropius School of Arts), attracting a faculty that includedPaul Klee,Johannes Itten,Josef Albers,Herbert Bayer,László Moholy-Nagy,Otto Bartning andWassily Kandinsky.
In principle, the Bauhaus represented an opportunity to extend beauty and quality to every home through well designed industrially produced objects. The Bauhaus program was experimental and the emphasis was theoretical.[16] One example product of the Bauhaus was the armchair F 51, designed for the Bauhaus's directors room in 1920 – nowadays a re-edition in the market, manufactured by the German company TECTA/Lauenfoerde.
In 1919, Gropius was involved in theGlass Chain utopianexpressionist correspondence under the pseudonym "Mass." Usually more notable for his functionalist approach, theMonument to the March Dead, designed in 1919 and executed in 1920, indicates that expressionism was an influence on him at that time. In 1920, the Bauhaus was given its first major commission that would utilize almost all of the workshops in the school.[17] This commission was for a house forAdolf Sommerfeld made from wood. The architectural designs for the house came from Gropius and Adolf Meyer. TheSommerfeld House was completed in 1921.
In 1923, Gropius designed his famous door handles, now considered an icon of 20th-century design and often listed as one of the most influential designs to emerge from Bauhaus. Facing political and financial difficulties in Weimar, Gropius and the Bauhaus moved toDessau in 1925 following an offer from the city. Gropius designed the newBauhaus Dessau school building in 1925–26 on commission from the city of Dessau. He collaborated withCarl Fieger,Ernst Neufert and others within his private architectural practice.[18] Gropius also designed the Master Houses (Meisterhäuser) (1925–1926) in Dessau, along with the Törten Housing Estate (Siedlung Dessau-Törten) which was built from 1926 to 1928. In 1927 he designed the Dessau City Employment office (Arbeitsamt), but left the Bauhaus and Dessau before construction began. The City Employment office was completed in 1929. He also designed large-scale housing projects inBerlin,Karlsruhe that were major contributions to theNew Objectivity movement, including a contribution to theSiemensstadt project in Berlin.
Modern reconstruction of Gropius's house in Dessau which was destroyed during World War II.
The rise of Hitler in the 1930s would soon drive Gropius out of Germany. Before that, however, he did accept an invitation in early 1933 to compete for the design of the newReichsbank building and submitted a detailed plan.[21] He also designed furniture, cars, high-rise housing developmentsSiedlung and an unrealizedPalace of the Soviets inMoscow.
Gropius was able to leaveNazi Germany in 1934 with the help ofMaxwell Fry on the pretext of making a temporary visit to Italy for a film propaganda festival; he then fled to the United Kingdom to avoid the fascist powers of Europe. Although not Jewish, his association with "degenerate" modern art despised by the Nazis meant he was obliged to emigrate when commissions dried up.[22] He lived and worked in the artists' community associated withHerbert Read inHampstead, London, as part of theIsokon group.
Gropius arrived in the United States in February 1937, while their twelve-year-old daughter, Ati, finished the school year in England.[23] The house the Gropiuses built for themselves in 1938 inLincoln, Massachusetts (now known asGropius House) was influential in bringingInternational Modernism to the US, but Gropius disliked the term: "I made it a point to absorb into my own conception those features of the New England architectural tradition that I found still alive and adequate."[24] In designing his house, Gropius used the approach developed at the Bauhaus. The Gropiuses believed their house could embody architectural qualities similar to those practiced today, such as simplicity, economy, and aesthetic beauty.[23]
Helen Storrow, a banker's wife and philanthropist, became Gropius's benefactor when she invested a portion of her land and wealth for the architect's home. She was so satisfied with the result that she gave more land and financial support to four other professors, two of whom Gropius designed homes for. With the Bauhaus philosophy in mind, every aspect of the homes and their surrounding landscapes was planned for maximum efficiency and simplicity. Gropius's house received a huge response and was declared a National Landmark in 2000.[25]
Gropius and his Bauhaus protégéMarcel Breuer both moved toCambridge, Massachusetts, to teach at theHarvard Graduate School of Design (1937–1952)[26] and collaborate on projects includingThe Alan I W Frank House in Pittsburgh and the company-townAluminum City Terrace project inNew Kensington, Pennsylvania, before their professional split. In 1938 he was appointed Chair of the Department of Architecture, a post he held until his retirement in 1952.[27] Gropius also sat on theMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Visiting Committee at the end of his career. The well-known architect designed the Richards and Child residence halls on the Harvard campus that were built in the 1950s.[28] In 1944, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States.
Gropius was one of several refugee German architects who provided information to confirm the typical construction of German houses to the RE8 research department set up by the BritishAir Ministry. This was used to improve the effectiveness of air raids on German cities by theBomber Command of theRoyal Air Force inWorld War II. The research was to discover the most efficient way of setting fire to houses withincendiary bombs during bombing raids. The findings were used in planning raids such asthe bombing of Hamburg in July 1943.[29]
In 1945, Gropius was asked by the young founding members ofThe Architects Collaborative (TAC) to join as their senior partner.[30] TAC represented a manifestation of his lifelong belief in the significance of teamwork, which he had already successfully introduced at the Bauhaus. Based in Cambridge, the original TAC partners includedNorman C. Fletcher,Jean B. Fletcher,John C. Harkness,Sarah P. Harkness,Robert S. MacMillan, Louis A. MacMillen, andBenjamin C. Thompson. Among TAC's earliest works were two residential housing developments inLexington, Massachusetts:Six Moon Hill andFive Fields. Each incorporated contemporary design ideas, reasonable cost, and practical thinking about how to support community life. Another early TAC work is the Graduate Center ofHarvard University in Cambridge (1949/50).[31] TAC would become one of the most well-known and respected architectural firms in the world before it closed its doors amidst financial problems in 1995.
In 1967, Gropius was elected into theNational Academy of Design as an Associate member and became a full Academician in 1968.
Gropius died on 5 July 1969, inBoston, Massachusetts, aged 86. He had been diagnosed with inflammation of the glands, and was admitted to hospital on 7 June. After an operation was performed successfully on 15 June, there was hope of a full recovery. Gropius described himself as a "tough old bird", and continued to make progress for about a week. However, his lungs became congested and could not supply proper amounts of oxygen to the blood and brain. He lost consciousness, and died in his sleep.[32]
Today, Gropius is remembered not only by his various buildings but also by the district ofGropiusstadt in Berlin. In the early 1990s, a series of books entitled The Walter Gropius Archive was published covering his entire architectural career. The CD audiobookBauhaus Reviewed 1919–33 includes a lengthy English Language interview with Gropius.
Upon his death his widow, Ise Gropius, arranged to have his collection of papers divided into early and late papers. Both parts were photographed with funds provided by theThyssen Foundation. The late papers, relating to Gropius's career after 1937, and the photos of the early ones, then went to theHoughton Library at Harvard University; the early papers and photos of the late papers went to the Bauhaus Archiv, then inDarmstadt, since reestablished in Berlin.[33] Mrs. Gropius also deeded the Gropius House in Lincoln toHistoric New England in 1980, now a house museum. The Gropius House was added to theNational Register of Historic Places in 1988 and is now available to the public for tours.[25]
1945–1959Michael Reese Hospital, Chicago, Illinois, US – Master planned 37-acre (150,000 m2) site and led the design for at least 8 of the approx. 28 buildings.[38][39]
1967–1969Tower East, Shaker Heights, Ohio, was Gropius's last major project.
1968–1970Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, West Virginia, US. Original building expanded with Gropius addition with little alteration to the original structure. Only American art museum to be brought to completion using a Gropius design.
1973–1980Porto Carras, at Chalkidiki, Greece, was built posthumously from Gropius designs, it is one of the largest holiday resorts in Europe.
NB: The building inNiederkirchnerstraße, Berlin known as the Gropius-Bau is named for Gropius's great-uncle,Martin Gropius, and is not associated with the Bauhaus.
Front view of the modern reconstruction of Gropius's house in Dessau (1925–1926). It was destroyed during World War II. This reconstruction (2014) was not built as an exact replica of the original house.
Part of the Törten Housing Estate (Siedlung Dessau-Törten) designed by Gropius (1926–1928)
Dessau Employment Office (Arbeitsamt) designed by Gropius in 1927 and built between 1928 and 1929
^Mertens, Richard (20 August 2009). "Battle to Save Chicago's Gropius Architecture has Preservationists and City at Odds".Christian Science Monitor: 17.
More information on Gropius's early years at the Bauhaus can be found in his correspondence with Lily Hildebrandt, with whom he had an affair between 1919 and 1922:Hans and Lily Hildebrandt papers,Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles. CA.
.png)
.jpg)
