The Enduring Influence Of The Bauhaus In London
By Something CuratedThe concept for the Bauhaus, literally translated to “building house”, came from Walter Gropius, one of the great visionary thinkers of the 20th century and a practising architect. Foremost, the Bauhaus was a school. It is best known for its “preliminary course”, an educational legacy that provided a template for foundation courses still operating in the UK. The school emerged as architects and artists began to rebuild a battle-torn Europe after the Great War. The teaching method replaced the traditional pupil-teacher relationship with the idea of a community of creatives working together.
Its intention was to bring art back into everyday life, and design was therefore given as much precedence as fine art. Fundamental to the school’s ethos was an emphasis on interdisciplinary practice, which encouraged the blurring of lines between art, architecture and design. In avoiding limiting distinctions, the Bauhaus way of thinking continues to inspire and influence contemporary creators from diverse fields today. The creative scope of the curriculum attracted an extraordinary variety of teaching staff; among the celebrated faculty were Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, László Moholy-Nagy, Josef Albers and Marcel Breuer.
The movement’s emphasis was urban and technological, and it embraced modern machine culture. Mass production was key, and the machine aesthetic demanded reduction to essentials. The workshops of the Bauhaus produced many design classics, including Marianne Brandt’s tea sets, Wilhelm Wagenfeld’s table lamp, and Breuer’s tubular steel chair. More generally, consider graphic designer Herbert Bayer, who in the 1920’s famously opposed uppercase at the Bauhaus, the next time you see a brand name or logo in lowercase lettering.
The Nazis’ exiling of the Bauhaus ultimately gave its philosophies greater international impetus. London was the first stopping point for many of the émigré masters, who arrived with faith in Britain’s liberal traditions. Gropius and his wife, Ise, arrived in 1934, followed by Breuer the next year; together they formed the nucleus of a Bauhaus community in the Lawn Road Flats in Hampstead. Though most moved onto America, due to a scarcity in job opportunities, some stayed, infusing Britain with Bauhaus principles. Something Curated explores examples of the Bauhaus school’s influence in London today, spanning art, architecture and design.
The Lawn Road Flats
The Grade I listed Lawn Road Flats, also known as the Isokon Building, in Hampstead, had long been in a state of disrepair but was fortunately saved ten years ago. Now the Isokon Gallery Trust has created a public museum in the building, exhibiting the story of Britain’s first Modernist block and its famed residents.
The concrete block of 34 flats was designed by architect Wells Coates for Molly and Jack Pritchard, the latter himself an influential furniture designer. Interestingly, most of the apartments had very small kitchens as there was a large communal area for the preparation of meals, connected to the residential floors via a dumb waiter. Services, including laundry and shoe-shining, were provided on site. Opening in July 1934, it was the home of notable émigrés, including Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus, Marcel Breuer, designer of Modernist furniture, and László Maholy-Nagy, head teacher of art at the renowned school.
Congress House (Trades Union Congress Memorial Building)
Located on a side street in Bloomsbury, Congress House is one of the most significant British buildings of the 1950s. Like the Royal Festival Hall, it is a complete demonstration of the principles of modern architecture instilled with a sense of pleasure and perfectionism. The Bauhaus inspired balconies, curving walls of aquamarine tiles, and elegant wood-panelled function rooms, epitomise the Modern.
Designed by architect Aberdeen, he had the idea to put the main assembly hall in the basement, creating a large light well in the middle of the square site. As in the 1920s designs of Le Corbusier, there is a tangible sense of free-flowing space on the basement and ground floors, which can be shared by people passing at street level.
J.W. Anderson AW16
Bauhaus teacher and artist Moholy-Nagy experimented with the process of developing photographic images without a camera. He was highly influenced by constructivism and a strong advocate of the integration of technology and industry into the arts. The artist’s photograms resembled scientific x-ray prints, detailedly capturing translucent layers in subtle sepia-tones.
For his AW16 collection, J.W. Anderson utilised expansive shades of black, cream and charcoal grey, dynamically chopping and overlapping the translucent layers, creating an effect reminiscent of Moholy-Nagy’s dynamic images. Sportswear references in transparent fabrics offered a scientific or futuristic quality.
Curzon Victoria
The founder of Curzon, Harold Wingate, famously imported unknown foreign films to London during the post-war period. Established in 1934, the cinema group specialises in art house films. Afroditi Krassa Studio designed the interiors for the company’s flagship site in Victoria, basing the concept on Bauhaus and Modernist styles and classic cinema iconography.
The space, labelled a ‘cultural hub’, features screening rooms, a café, lounge and library. The look draws on the heritage of the Curzon’s word mark, which utilises the 1927 typeface Futura, referencing the recognisable Bauhaus design style.
Joe Frazer, Tête-à–tête
Frazer’s sculptural works are often described to be in the act of courting. For a project with Studio_Leigh in 2015, the artist brought together his longstanding interests in notions of desire and woven fabrics to create “an object of desire for desire.”
The fluid lines and satisfying sense of equilibrium present in the work, as well as the combination of materials, are aesthetically evocative of the Bauhaus school’s experimental furniture. Made from woven leather and blackened steel, the sculpture is an invitation – the arms of the chair spiralling inwards in an attempt to hug its sitters together.
The Barbican Centre
A Grade II listed building, the Barbican is Europe’s largest multi-arts and conference venue and one of London’s best examples of Brutalist architecture. It was developed from designs by architects Chamberlin, Powell and Bon as part of a utopian vision to transform an area of London left devastated by bombing during the Second World War, comparable to the Bauhaus’ vision of a changed society in the aftermath of the First World War.
The Barbican could be said to be a tribute to the school and its architects, and evidence of its continuing influence. The Barbican manifests a vision of modern living socialised around art, music and theatre, bringing art and life closer in a practical sense; Gropius would have certainly approved. Notably, in the summer of 2012, the Barbican hosted the largest Bauhaus exhibition in the UK in over 40 years.
Text by Keshav Anand