Walter Gropius

(1883-1969)

Personal Information
Born in Berlin on May 18, 1883
German architect
Worked under Peter Behrens
Migrated to the U.S and
taught at the Harvard
School of Architecture
Influenced by Frank Lloyd
Wright

Philosophies
The final goal of all artistic activity is
architecture
To build is to create events
He realized the interdependence of
machine and architecture

Works

Other Than Architecture

Tubular steel chair, 1925.

Four differently shaped teapots, 1923
Nickel alloy door handles, Berlin, 1922
Tea and coffee pots, 1968

Major Works
BAUHAUS
Fagus Factory
Gropius House
U.S Embassy Athens

School of Architecture & Design, Germany 1919-1933

Bauhaus is enclosed by Glass curtains
The whole cube seems like to be immense
horizontal plains floating on the ground

The entire complex is rendered and painted

mainly in light tones, creating an attractive
contrast to the window frames, which are dark
For the interior, the junior master of the mural
workshop, Hinnerk Scheper, designed a detailed
colour plan that, by differentiating between
supporting and masking elements through the
use of colour, aimed to accentuate the
construction of the building.

The glass curtain wall suspended in front of the

load-bearing framework defines the exterior of
the workshop wing and openly shows the
constructive elements
Gropius, rather than visually amplifying the
corners of the cubic body of the building,
allowed the glass surface to overlap the edges,
thereby creating the impression of lightness
Gropius consistently separated the parts of the
Bauhaus building according to their functions
and designed each differently. He thereby
arranged the different wings asymmetrically

Aesthetically it was an advanced building but

technologically. Probably because of the limited
funds it was someway behind the contemporary
works.

Fagus Factory

The Fagus Factory is a shoe last factory in Alfeld

on the Leine in Germany (1911-13)
Most striking things: Simplicity & confidence of
architecture
It was a steel frame supporting the floors, Glass
screen external walls

While the other buildings of this industrial

complex, built in three construction phases from
1911 to 1925, are completely adapted to their
respective functions
The scheme is at once architectural, aesthetic
and social, and bears witness to a determination
to achieve humanist control of the social and
aesthetic changes linked to industrialisation. The
interior decorative and functional elements are
attuned with the architecture and the social
project. They represent one of the first
consummate manifestations of industrial design.

Its unsupported, fully glassed-in corners

represented a departure from Industrial
Classicism and mark the beginnings of modern
skeleton construction
The production hall with its large glass windows
offers ideal lighting for shoe-last production
The three-storey main building of the Fagus
became an icon of modernity and the
transparency it advocated
The storage depot is a solid stone building

Fagus structure was actually a hybrid

construction of brick columns, steel beams and
concrete floors, slabs, stairways
Pillars are set behind the facade

Gropius House
It was done in partnership with Marcel Breller in
Linclon (1937-38)
Rough fieldstone walls, like those employed in
the seaside house built around this time at
Cohasset, are here not yet incorporated into the
structure of the house itself.

The structure of the house consists of the

traditional light wood frame of New England,
sheathed with white painted clapboard siding:
only in this case the siding runs vertically instead
of horizontally
There was an extensive use of Timber reinforced
with some steel members

Timber cladding was hung vertically

Inconsistent use of elements like spiral stairs to
roof terrace and sun lounge

Harvard Graduate
Center

It was built at Cambridge (1945-50)

It was designed by The Architects Collaborative
Block-mass buildings connected by flat-roof
canopies.

The group of eight buildings arranged round

small and large courtyards has a good
community feel about it and is humanly scaled.
Mixing single and double rooms.

The dormitory blocks are constructed in

reinforced concrete and the community buildings
in steelwork
The planning of the dormitories is of the
conventional central-corridor type with single
and double rooms off either side

Design Features
Simple geometry, often rectangular
Use of modern materials like steel and glass
Smooth Surfaces used
Primary colors
Linear and horizontal Elements

Conclusion
Gropius is recognized as one of the four
pioneers of modern architecture
Gropius was quick to see the advantages of
economy in the buildings
Gropius was experimented in his project
Almost all his buildings have a slight horizontal
emphasis-balanced by verticals together with the
rectangular windows

Thanks