- The Bauhaus, a German word meaning house of building,
emerged from political, social and technological change
in the 19th century.
The idea of a school encompassing the totality
of all artistic media, including fine art,
industrial design, graphic design,
typography, interior design and architecture,
was a radical departure from the traditional education
of artists and designers.
The 19th century saw the rise
of the Second Industrial Revolution,
now products were mass-produced
by an increasingly urban and factory-based society.
Quality and design were ignored
for the sake of profit and ease of manufacturing.
This also led to the rise of advertising
and the beginnings of the graphic design profession.
As more products were produced,
manufacturers needed to advertise their goods.
There are many reasons for the start of World War I,
one was the rigid aristocracy of the 19th century.
During the 19th century, Queen Victoria, in England,
created a wide and interwoven family tree,
her children and grandchildren married into
or were monarchs in almost every European nation.
Every ruling family in Europe was related as cousins,
nephews, nieces, aunts and uncles.
Her goal and hope was to maintain peace
based on a close, familial network.
But like many families, the opposite happened.
In 1914, World War I began.
Germany and much of Europe was devastated.
After the war, many movements began
that looked to a universal approach to design
that bypassed politics.
These designers believed that it was the aristocracy
that led to World War I.
They vowed to work for the common man,
the masses, created an equal and egalitarian society.
Before World War I, the Arts and Crafts movement
attempted to introduce the idea of quality,
craft and handmade.
After the devastation of the war,
these ideas had less relevance.
In 1919, Walter Gropius, looking for a way
to educate artists and designers following this philosophy,
merged the Weimar Institute of Fine Arts
and the Weimar School of Arts and Crafts
to establish the Bauhaus.
This would be a place where designers
could learn the importance of craft and the handmade.
They would unite society and create a new utopia,
where design of all kinds would make a better life.
The new vision will be based on universal ideas
such as pure geometry, mathematics and logic,
rather than political ideas.
He agreed with the need for quality
from the Arts and Crafts movement,
but evolved their ideas of reverence for the handmade
by adding technology and the machine-made to their mission.
Gropius soon attracted
the most renowned avant-garde creatives at the time,
including avant-garde painters Johannes Itten
and Lyonel Feininger and sculptor Gerhard Marcks.
This led to a groundbreaking curriculum
that would change design and design education to this day.