My Bauhaus / Mein Bauhaus

In the Chinese horoscope, 2019 is the year of the earth pig. It could be a good year, for in China the pig is a symbol not only of luck, but also of wealth. The 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus, which will take place in 2019, is therefore quite fitting. Although Tom Wolfe may have doubted it in his critique From Bauhaus to Our House, the Bauhaus was a stroke of luck, its legacy indubitably impressive. This is why Sandra Hofmeister asked 100 architects from around the world to consider these questions: Is the idea of the Bauhaus relevant to their work, and does it represent a reference value for designs, processes and the architects’ own self-perception?

Indeed, the Bauhaus has not touched all the architects, to each of whom a double page is devoted, as closely as it has Tom Emerson of London’s 6a Architects. In 1992, he spent the summer there, removed the rear wall of the refectory as Gropius had originally planned to do, and swam naked in the lake near the Meisterhäuser, which “with their GDR-style gabled roofs and added-on rabbit hutches … were not masterful at all.” Walter Gropius and Oskar Schlemmer did not come and go at everyone’s house, as they did at Roman Delugan’s mother’s place. Not everyone experiences the Bauhaus spirit, the “unity of function, form and material-appropriate building, a rational treatment of resources, but also sensuality, feel and colour” every day in the white, black, blue and red design of the Munich office stairway as do Andreas Meck and Axel Frühauf. And not everyone understands the Bauhaus as “a challenge to change society by means of design” as Anna Heringer does, or tries to explore proximity to the Bauhaus in a programmatic way, as Volker Staab does. Indeed, Staab’s new entrance tower to the Bauhaus Archive in Berlin became possible only by means of a digital process. However, this may be the movement’s merit: from 100 experts, the Bauhaus provokes 100 different responses. For the reader, this book, fittingly designed and printed on Gmund Bauhaus Dessau paper in honour of the occasion, certainly represents wealth and luck.

The Edition DETAIL »My Bauhaus / Mein Bauhaus« is here available.

On the occasion of this year's Bauhaus anniversary, on 31st January Spela Videcnik from OFIS and Werner Frosch from Henning Larsen will talk with Sandra Hofmeister, Editor-in-Chief DETAIL, about their very personal relationship with the Bauhaus. At the event, the book »My Bauhaus. 100 architects on the occasion of the 100th birthday of a myth ", published in Edition DETAIL, presented for the first time.

Further information and registration for »100 Jahre Bauhaus – 14. JUNG Architekturgespräche in Weimar«