austin cubed: marcel breuer

Showing posts with label marcel breuer. Show all posts

7.30.2023

sleeping at the bauhaus (pt 1) [weimar]

The Bride and I just returned from a trip to Europe with a focus on the Bauhaus (amidst celebrating 100 years) and Adolf Loos (with a side of R.M. Schindler). The full Bauhaus experience encompasses three cities: Weimar, Dessau, and Berlin, and we hit all three, including an exciting, if fitful, overnight in the dorms in Dessau.

Weimar is a town of about 65,000 people that, in addition to Goethe, can lay claim to the first Bauhaus. The Bauhaus has its roots in the Grand-Ducal Saxon Art School formed in 1860 by royal decree. In 1910, the school joined forces with two other schools, including the School of Arts & Crafts led by Art Nouveau architect Henry van de Velde, to form the Grand-Ducal Saxon School for Fine Arts. The main buildings of the school were designed by van de Velde between 1904 and 1911.

In 1915, the Belgian van de Velde was forced to resign because of World War I. He recommended Walter Gropius, among two others, to run the school. Gropius was selected in 1919 after World War I, which is when he combined the school with the Ducal Saxon School of Arts and Crafts to create the Bauhaus. While in Weimar, the school enjoyed residencies by Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, László Moholy-Nagy, and Theo van Doesburg.

As local politics turned conservative (and eventually Nazism), political pressure on the school mounted. One outcome was a requirement to show the output of the school to the community. This resulted in the first built Bauhaus structure, the Haus am Horn by Georg Muche, in 1923, which was used to display various household objects designed and made by the school's teachers and students.

Ultimately, the school's time was running out. After the local politicos cut the Bauhaus budget in half and placed the instructors on six month contracts, Gropius knew the time had come to move on. Accordingly, he announced that the school would close at the end of March, 1925.

We were able to wander about the school grounds and the buildings as the students--the facility still operates as a school for creatives--prepared for a show that weekend. We were able to tour the recently restored Haus am Horn but missed the tour of the Director's room, Gropius' iconic office. The key buildings of the school are now designated as UNESCO sites.

the main building by Henry van de Velde (1904-1911)

circa 1904

entrance interior with Auguste Rodin's "Eva"(1888, recreated)

relief panel by Joost Schmidt (1923, recreated)

relief panel by Hubert Schiefelbein (1976)

"The Eye" stairwell

back of the main building

outside of the Director's Room (where Gropius held court)

The Director's Room (not my photo)

a newer building in the spirit of Bauhaus Dessau

the greenhouse, now coffee house/gift shop. good thermal loading.

the van de Velde Building (aka The Horseshoe) by Henry van de Velde (1905-06)

stairwell in the van de Velde Building with a mural by Oscar Schlemmer (1923, recreated)

Haus am Horn by Georg Muche (1923)

furniture by Marcel Breuer, lighting by László Moholy-Nagy

kitchen designed by by Benita Koch-Otte, ceramics by Theodor Bogler

kids room furniture designed by Alma Siedhoff-Buscher

Marcel Breuer

detail

László Moholy-Nagy experimenting with built-in lighting

Walter Gropius hardware

6.30.2018

dancing with architecture: Grand Rapids, Michigan (with a side trip to Muskegon)

Due to a family wedding, we found ourselves in Grand Rapids, Michigan. And thanks to Michigan Modern, we were able to enjoy a wee bit of architecture on the trip. Grand Rapids is a lovely town that sports 1.5 Frank Lloyd Wrights (the 0.5 being a house started by Wright but finished by Marion Mahony and Herman von Hoist), a Richard Neutra, a mini-Mies SOM, and numerous feral turkeys. We also saw that nearbyish Muskegon hosts a Marcel Breuer church. Oh, and the hitchin' went off without a hitch!

Wright's Meyer May House

Built in 1908-9, Wright designed and built the Meyer May House at the peak of his Prairie House phase. This building echoes the Robie House and shows, by my eyes, how Robie's limited lot dictated its long-linear design since the May House is similar but sits on a huge corner lot. Steelcase bought the house in 1985 and restored it and the grounds. Sadly, the house was not open for tours while we were in town.

wild turkey in the hood

The Amberg House

Just down the street from the Meyer May House sits the Amberg House, designed and built in 1909-10. It started off as a Wright commission, but, amidst the design, Wright suffered a mid-life crisis that saw him run off with a client's wife to Europe. He turned the project over to Marion Mahony and Herman von Hoist to finish.

It's a neat place, but the contrast with the Meyer May House is striking: not surprisingly, Wright was a far better architect than Mahony and von Hoist. On the other hand, the house is interesting in its lack of ornamentation and how cubist (and different) the planters are from Wright's. What ornamentation there is, is painted (original?).

frederik meijer gardens

The wedding was at these gardens, named after the owner of the local grocery chain. We didn't have time to tour the full gardens...

Neutra's List House

Designed and built in 1961, Richard Neutra's List House is perched along a lakeshore at the end of the street. Expansive second-floor windows engage the lake and landscape. The street sports several other mid-century modern homes.

Gunnar Birkerts' Freeman House

You don't see too many Brutalist houses, but there's one in Grand Rapids that is rather unique. Designed by Gunnar Birkerts in 1964, the house features volcanic light wells to raise ceiling heights and invite light into the interiors. You can see interior photos here. Gunnar designed out of Detroit after working in Eero Saarinen's and Minoru Yamasaki's shops.

Marcel Breuer's Saint Francis de Sales Church

Muskegon is about 45 minutes away from Grand Rapids, so when we set out to see Breuer's 1968 church there, I consoled myself that if the church was a bust, there'd be Lake Michigan to gawk at as consolation. But the church did not disappoint. Photos online don't do justice to the epic scale of this Brutalist masterpiece. As we rounded the corner and the church came into view, we both gasped at its size and beauty.

The church is a stunner despite the ill-advised attempt at a sympathetic addition to the front (which in reality mars the original building and saddles it with an unfortunate 1800s defensive posture).