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Architectural style · 1919–1933

Bauhaus

An art school in Weimar that existed for only fourteen years – and still shaped how the whole world lives, sits and builds. Bauhaus is the school of modernism.

How to spot it Find it in the app

The style in timeDrag to travel in time

  1. Zigguratc. 2200–500 BC
  2. Ancient Greek architecturec. 700–30 BC
  3. Roman architecturec. 500 BC–AD 400
  4. Nabataean architecturec. 300 BC–AD 106
  5. Byzantine architecturec. 330–1453 in the Eastern Roman Empire
  6. Moorish architecture8th–15th century in al-Andalus and North Africa
  7. Carolingian architecturec. 780–900 in the Frankish Empire
  8. Novgorod and Pskovc. 1045–1600 in north-western Russia
  9. Norman architecturec. 1050–1200
  10. Romanesquec. 1050–1250
  11. Mudéjarc. 1100–1600
  12. Gothicc. 1235–1530
  13. Brick Gothicc. 1250–1530
  14. Late Gothicc. 1400–1530
  15. Manuelinec. 1490–1530
  16. Renaissancec. 1520–1650
  17. Palladian architecturec. 1550–1800
  18. Dutch Renaissancec. 1560–1650 in the Netherlands and Flanders
  19. Baroquec. 1640–1730
  20. Carolean Baroquec. 1680–1720
  21. Georgian architecture1714–1830
  22. Rocococ. 1730–1775
  23. Neoclassicismc. 1750–1850
  24. Gustavianc. 1772–1810
  25. Karl Johan stylec. 1810–1850
  26. Victorian architecture1837–1901
  27. Gothic Revivalc. 1840–1910
  28. Historicismc. 1840–1900
  29. Industrial architecturec. 1850–1950
  30. Neo-Renaissancec. 1850–1900
  31. Swiss chalet stylec. 1850–1900
  32. Landshövdingehus1875–1945
  33. Neo-Baroquec. 1880–1910
  34. Beaux-Artsc. 1830–1920
  35. National Romanticismc. 1890–1920
  36. Art Nouveauc. 1896–1914
  37. Art Decoc. 1910–1940
  38. 1910s Neoclassicismc. 1910–1920
  39. Bauhaus1919–1933
  40. Swedish Gracec. 1920–1930
  41. Functionalismc. 1930–1950
  42. Socialist classicismc. 1933–1955
  43. Post-war Swedish modernismc. 1940–1960
  44. Brutalismc. 1950–1975
  45. The Record Yearsc. 1955–1975
  46. The Million Programme1965–1974
  47. DeconstructivismFrom the 1980s
  48. Postmodernismc. 1980–1995
  49. LonghouseStone Age to Viking Age
  50. Log houseThe Middle Ages onwards
  51. Raised storehouseIron Age to 20th century
  52. Swedish vernacularc. 1600–1900
  53. Croft and cottagec. 1700–1900
  54. Decorated farmhouses of Hälsinglandc. 1700–1900
  55. Half-timberingThe Middle Ages to the 19th century
  56. Sámi goahtiFrom prehistory to the present day
  57. Seljuk architecturec. 1040–1300
  58. Persian architectureIran
  59. British Colonialc. 1700–1950 in the British Empire

01. Fourteen years that changed everything

On 1 April 1919 the architect Walter Gropius founds the Staatliches Bauhaus in Weimar. The idea is to bring art, craft and industry together: architects, artists and craftsmen are to work side by side, and design should suit an age of machines. "We want an architecture adapted to our world of machines, radios and fast cars," Gropius writes in 1923.

The school moves to Dessau in 1925, where Gropius designs its new building – glass façades, flat roofs and an asymmetrical plan, completed in 1926. Around it the Masters' Houses for the teachers and the Törten housing estate are built. After Gropius the school is led by Hannes Meyer and finally Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who moves it to Berlin in 1932. Under Nazi pressure it closes in 1933.

But the teachers scatter across the world. Gropius and Marcel Breuer teach at Harvard, Mies builds in Chicago, and the ideas become the International Style. In Tel Aviv more than 4,000 buildings are raised in the Bauhaus spirit in the 1930s – the "White City", World Heritage since 2003. The school's buildings in Weimar and Dessau became World Heritage in 1996.

Bauhaus and Le Corbusier are the great models for the modernism that breaks through in Sweden as Functionalism at the Stockholm Exhibition of 1930.

02. How to spot it

  • 1.Simple geometric volumes without ornament
  • 2.Flat roofs
  • 3.Long ribbon windows and glass façades
  • 4.Projecting balconies with simple railings
  • 5.Roof terraces and smooth, white cement render
  • 6.Asymmetrical plans where function decides form

03. The giveaway

The glass corner. A white, flat box where the glass wraps the corner with no column is the Bauhaus signature – the frame carries the load inside, the wall is just a skin.

Read the façade

  1. Flat roof
  2. Long ribbon windows
  3. Projecting balconies
  4. The glass façade

04. Architects and builders

  • Walter Gropius
  • Hannes Meyer
  • Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
  • Marcel Breuer

05. Where to see it

  • The Bauhaus building, DessauWalter Gropius, 1925–1926
  • The Masters' Houses, Dessau
  • Haus am Horn, Weimar1923
  • Weissenhof Estate, Stuttgart1927, with houses by Mies van der Rohe, Gropius and Le Corbusier among others
  • The White City, Tel AvivWorld Heritage 2003

06. Often confused with

Functionalism. Bauhaus is the school and the movement in Germany; Functionalism is the Swedish modernism that grew from the same ideas.

Sources

  • Wikipedia (en): "Bauhaus" (bygger bl.a. på Kenneth Frampton: Modern Architecture – A Critical History, 1992)
  • UNESCO: "Bauhaus and its Sites in Weimar, Dessau and Bernau" (världsarv 1996, utvidgat 2017)
  • UNESCO: "White City of Tel-Aviv – the Modern Movement" (världsarv 2003)
  • Owen Hopkins: Reading Architecture – A Visual Lexicon, andra upplagan (Laurence King)

Text: Pontus Bovin · Last updated 9 November 2026

Bauhaus around the corner

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