"Bauhaus" is a phonetic translation of the German word Bauhaus, originally the name of a school of arts and crafts founded in Weimar, Germany in 1919. The school's founder and first director was Walter Gropius, a renowned German modernist architect, who ingeniously reversed the German term Hausbau (house construction) to create the name Bauhaus, signifying the school's departure from traditional academic institutions. Another German architect and modernist master, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, served as the third director of Bauhaus. The school relocated to Dessau in 1925 and later moved to Berlin in 1933, where it was forcibly closed by the Nazi regime that same year. After German reunification, the design school in Weimar was elevated to Bauhaus University Weimar by the German government in 1996, reinstating the Bauhaus name and becoming a prestigious public institution for comprehensive design education.
Bauhaus emphasized the integration of theory and practice in foundational courses, employing a series of rational and rigorous visual training programs to "reprogram" students and reshape their perspectives on observing the world. Simultaneously, it established 13 specialized workshops covering printing, glass painting, metalwork, furniture carpentry, weaving, photography, mural painting, stage design, bookbinding, ceramics, architecture, and curation, cultivating students' precise practical skills. This pedagogical approach was considered highly unconventional by traditional academic standards at the time, yet it eventually became the universal model for modern art and design education worldwide.
Gropius personally designed the Bauhaus school buildings. Following the practical functions of architecture, he adopted asymmetrical, irregular, and flexible layouts and compositions, fully utilizing the characteristics of modern building materials and structures to create refreshing visual effects through architectural components themselves. Compared to traditional public buildings of the era, the school buildings featured no pilasters, carvings, or ornamental decorations on their walls. Instead, through meticulous arrangement and treatment of window grids, canopies, balcony railings, curtain walls, and solid walls, they achieved a simple, fresh, unpretentious yet dynamic architectural aesthetic, with lower construction costs and shortened timelines. These buildings became the pioneering examples of what would later be known as the "Bauhaus" architectural style, serving as precursors and paradigms of modernist architecture and a milestone in modern architectural history. The Bauhaus buildings were designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996 and have since remained a popular tourist attraction.
After the school's dissolution, key figures such as Gropius and Mies immigrated to the United States and Britain. They compiled and published Bauhaus teaching materials, data, and student works, spreading Bauhaus principles worldwide and driving reforms in architectural and arts education globally during the mid-20th century. This approach significantly stimulated students' creativity and exerted tremendous influence on global architecture and industrial product design. When Liang Sicheng taught at Tsinghua University's architecture department in 1948, he incorporated Bauhaus educational concepts and materials brought back from the United States, while also hiring master carpenters to teach woodworking skills in workshops, initiating the dissemination of Bauhaus in China. Ultimately, the Bauhaus style and movement, characterized by emphasizing practical functionality, utilizing advanced technology, and pursuing economic efficiency, became established in architecture and art circles, meeting the practical needs of modern industrial production and human life.
Bauhaus's greatest contribution to the modern world lies in liberating art from the monopoly of specific social classes, ethnic groups, or nations and returning it to the general public. By reducing the production costs of art and improving its production efficiency, Bauhaus enabled art to comprehensively and holistically integrate into modern human life. In every man-made product and material environment we encounter daily—whether books and films, clothing and accessories, or furniture, utensils, and urban architecture—we can see traces of Bauhaus to varying degrees. In today's pursuit of environmental sustainability and minimalist living, Bauhaus principles remain not only relevant but should be further developed to continue benefiting humanity.
