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Biography of Walter

Gropius

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Submitted by-

Sumit Ranjan

4th sem

College of Architecture

Bhaddal, Roper

Submitted to-

Ar Jaspreet Kaur

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Early life

• Full name - GEORGE WALTER ADOLF GROPIUS.

• Born in Berlin 18 May, 1883

• He was the third child of Walter Adolph Gropius and Manon

Auguste Pauline Scharnweber.

• Earlier he was taught by his father.

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Early education

• Educated in private elementary school

• 1903 he left school and went to the Technical University in Munich to

study architecture.

• Although he studied architecture in Berlin and Munich (1903-1907), he

received no degree.

• Gropius could not draw, and was dependent on collaborators and

partner-interpreters throughout his career.

• In school an assistant is hired to complete his homework for him.

• 1904-1905 he served in the military, then went back to school.

• 1907 he left school without completion and went back to Berlin because

of the death of his brother.

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Married life

• Gropius married Alma Mahler(1879–1964), widow

of Gustav Mahler.

• Walter and Alma has a daughter, named Manon.

• Manon died of polio at age eighteen.

• Gropius and Alma divorced in 1920.

• Alma had by that time established a relationship

with Franz Werfel, whom she later married.

• In 1923 Gropius married Ise Frank, and they remained

together until his death.

• He adopted Beate Gropius, also known as Ati.

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Inspiration

• His father and his great-uncle Martin Gropius were architect, that was

why he wanted to become an architect from his childhood days.

• inspired by William Morris.

• William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was an English textile

designer, artist, writer, and socialist who founded a design firm and

associated English Arts and Crafts Movement.

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Hobbies and interests

Vessel designing

sugar pot

tea pots

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Wine glasses

peperweights

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Chair designs

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A GRAPHICS DESIGN

LOGO OF BAUHAUS

ARTWORKS

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Staircase design

his famous door handle design

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Philosphies of walter

Gropius

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International style

• Simple geometry often rectangular

• Used of modern meterials like steel and glass

• Smooth surface

• Primary colors

• Linears and horizontal elements

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Technique

• This advocacy of industrialized building carried with it a belief

in team work and an acceptance of standardization and

prefabrication.

• Using technology as a basis, he transformed building into a

science of precise mathematical calculations.

• An important theorist and teacher, Gropius introduced a screen

wall system that utilized a structural steel frame to support

the floors and which allowed the external glass walls to

continue without interruption.

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Walter Gropius

• “to built is to create event”

• Architect, sculptures, painters, we must all return to the crafts!

• For art is not a ‘profession’. There is no essential difference

between artist and the craftsman

• The artist is the exalted craftsman.

about architecture

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Famous Quotes

• Society needs a good image of itself. That is the job of an architect.

• “The mind is like and umbrella-it functions best when open.”

• “Architecture begins where engineering ends.”

• “Spacialists are people who always repeat the same mistakes.”

• “Only work which is the product of inner compulsion can have spiritual

meaning.”

• “The final goal of all artistic activity is architecture”.

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• “A modern, harmonic and lively architecture is the visible sign of

authentic democracy.”

• “Our guideline principal was that design is neither an intellectual

nor a material affair, but simply an integral part of the stuff of

life necessary for everyone in a civilized society.”

• “if your contribution is vital the will always be somebody to pick

up where you left off, and that will be your claim to immorality”

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Famous works of Walter

Gropius

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FAGUS FACTORY,

THE FAGUS FACTORY,A SHOE LAST FACTORYIN ALFELD IN GERMANY, IS AN IMPORTANTEXAMPLE OF EARLY MODERN ARCHITECTURE.

IT WAS BUILT AT ALFELD – AN– DER – LEINEIN 1911.

IT WAS IN COLLABORATION WITH ADOLFMEYER.

IT WAS HIS FIRST INDEPENDENT COMMISSION.

MOST STRIKING THING: SIMPLICITY ANDCONFIDENCE OF THE ARCHITECTURE.

IN FAGUS WORKS, GROPIUS BROUGHT THEACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE PAST FIFTEENYEARS.

THE MAIN BUILDING CAN BE SEEN AS ANINVERSION OF THE TURBINE FACTORY.

ALFELD, GERMANY

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IT WAS DESIGNED BY GROPIUS KEEPING IN MIND THE SURROUNDINGS.

IT WAS CALLED BY GROPIUS AN ARTISTIC AND PRACTICAL DESIGN.

FAGUS BUILDING WAS THE FIRST TO EXTRACT THE FULL AESTHETICALLY REVOLUTIONARY IMPACTFROM THE STRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT.

FAGUS STRUCTURE WAS ACTUALLY A HYBRID CONSTRUCTION OF BRICK COLUMNS, STEEL BEAMS ANDCONCRETE FLOOR SLABS AND STAIRWAYS.

IT WAS A STEEL FRAME SUPPORTING THE FLOORS, GLASS SCREEN EXTERNAL WALLS.

PILLARS ARE SET BEHIND THE FAÇADE SO THAT ITS CURTAIN CHARACTER IS FULLY REALIZED.

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plan

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Elevation

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plan of main office building

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GLASS SCREEN WAS USED ALL OVER THE WALLS

TO HAVE PROPER VIEW FROM INSIDE.

WALLS ARE NO LONGER SUPPORTERS OF THE

BUILDING BUT SIMPLE CURTAIN PROJECTING

AGAINST INCREMENT WEATHER.

IT WAS DOMINATION OF VOIDS OVER SOLIDS.

PLANE SURFACES PREDOMINATE IN THIS

FACTORY.

THE GLASS AND WALLS ARE JOINED CLEANLY AT

THE CORNERS WITHOUT THE INTERVENTION OF

PIERS.

EXTERNAL VIEW

FAGUS FACTORY- INTERNAL VIEW

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Glass facade

• It was constructed in 1911 according to

Werner’s plan but with the glass facades

designed by Gropius and Meyer and then

expanded in 1913.

• Both have corners free of supports, and

glass surfaces between piers that cover the

whole height of the building.

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• However, in the Turbine factory

the corners are covered by heavy

elements that slant inside.

The glass surfaces also slant

inside and are recessed in relation

to the piers.

• The load-bearing elements are

attenuated and the building has an

image of stability and

monumentality.

• In Fagus exactly the opposite

happens; the corners are left open

and the piers are recessed leaving

the glass surface to the front

AEG

Turbine

Factory

by Peter

Behrens,

1910

FAGUS FACTORY

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• The Fagus building is a 40-centimeter high, dark brick base that projects from the facade by 4

centimetre.

• The interiors of the building, which contained mainly offices, were finished in the mid 20s. The

other two big buildings on the site are the production hall and the warehouse. Both were

constructed in 1911 and expanded in 1913.

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• The warehouse is a four-storey building with few openings. Its design followed closely the original

plan by Werner .

• Apart from them, the site contains various small buildings designed by Gropius and Meyer. Gropius

and Meyer were able to enforce only minor changes in the overall layout of the factory complex.

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CONSTRUCTUCTION SYSTEM

• The main building was erected on top of a structurally stable basement with flat caps. Non-

reinforced (or compressed) concrete, mixed with pebble dashing was used for the basement

walls, an unfortunate blend unable to support great individual loads.

• The ceilings were underpinned with a formwork shell and finished in rough-cast plaster on the

services installation side. The floors were composed of planks on loose sleepers – that is,

sleepers that were not fixed between the floor joists.

• . Along the side of the building, 3-millimetre-thick steel plates sealed the wedge between

window frame and piers.

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DESIGN

• Although constructed with different systems, all of the buildings on the site give a common image

and appear as a unified whole.

• The first one is the use of floor-to-ceiling glass windows on steel frames that go around the

corners of the buildings without a visible (most of the time without any) structural support.

• The other unifying element is the use of brick.

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All buildings have a base of about 40 cm of black brick

and the rest is built of yellow bricks

In order to enhance this feeling of lightness, Gropius and Meyer

used a series of optical refinements like greater horizontal than

vertical elements on the windows, longer windows on the corners

and taller windows on the last floor.

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Now the Fagus factory is designated a UNESCO world heritage on 25 june

2011 on its 100th jublee.

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Bauhaus Archive

• This is the museum of design that

collects art pieces, items, documents

and literature which relate to

the Bauhaus School (1919–1933).

• The Bauhaus Archive was founded

in Darmstadt in 1960.

• Gropius was asked to design it. In

1964.

Berlin

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• He produced plans for a new

museum in Darmstadt, which was

prevented by local politics.

• The foundation stone was finally

laid in 1976 and the building was

ready by 1979.

• The necessary changes to the

plan were carried out by his

former colleague Alex Cvijanovic,

in conjunction with the Berlin

architect Hans Bandel.

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Planning

plan

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section

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Section

Rough elevation

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• The collection documents the history of

Bauhaus in art, teaching, architecture and

design.

•

The collection includes teaching materials,

workshop models, architectural plans and

models, photographs, documents and a

library.

i

n

t

e

r

i

o

r

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Materials And Forms

• The building emphasized the direct and honest use of materials as a

functional design.

• The result was rectilinear architectural forms

• structural components such as steel, glass and concrete were used,

directly and honestly, without trying to imitate any other way.

• The colourful metal columns placed at both ends of the ramp.

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Gropius house

• The Gropius House was the family

residence of Gropius.

• It is now owned by Historic New

England and is open to the public.

• This house was his first architectural

commission in the United States.

• He designed it in 1937, when he came to

teach at Harvard University's Graduate

School of Design, and it was built in

1938.

Lincoln, Massachusett

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• The house caused a sensation when built. In keeping with Bauhaus philosophy,

every aspect of the house and its surrounding landscape was planned for

maximum efficiency and simplicity.

• Gropius carefully sited the house to complement its New England habitat on

a rise within an orchard of 90 apple trees.

• the Gropius House mixes up the traditional materials of New England

architecture (wood, brick, and fieldstone) with industrial materials such as

glass block, acoustic plaster, and chrome banisters.

• The house structure consists of a traditional New England post and beam

wooden frame.

• It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2000.

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Siemensstadt Housing Estate or Ring Estate

• It is a nonprofit residential

community in the Charlottenburg-

Wilmersdorf district of Berlin.

• It is one of the six Modernist

Housing Estates in Berlin

recognized in July 2008 by

UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

Europe, Eurasia, Germany, Western Europe

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Embassy of the United States,

• The Embassy of the United

States in Athens is the embassy of

the United States in Greece.

• It was constructed between 1959 and

1961 and is a protected architectural

landmark.

• inspired by the architecture of

the Parthenon.

• The office building is 5026 m² and

includes office space for over 150

people.

Athens

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MetLife Building

• The MetLife Building is

a skyscraper.

• Built in 1958–63 as the Pan Am

Building, then headquarters

of Pan American World Airways.

• It is in collaboration with Emery

Roth & Sons,Pietro Belluschi.

Park Avenue, New York

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Josephine M. Hagerty House

• Located a few feet from the

shoreline, it was the first

building in the United States

commissioned from Gropius.

• The house was built in 1938 and

added to the National Historic

Register in 1997.

Cohasset, Massachusett

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Impington Village CollegeCambridgeshire, England

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Michael Reese HospitalChicago

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Harvard Graduate CenterU.S.A

It

is also

known

as "the

Gropius

Complex"

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John F. Kennedy Federal BuildingBoston, Massachusetts

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Total theatre

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Conclusion

GROPIUS IS RECOGNIZED AS ONE OF THE FOUR PIONEERS OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE, THE OTHERS

BEING MIES VAN DER ROHE, FRANK LYOD WRIGHT AND LE-CORBUSIER.

GROPIUS WAS A FUNCTIONLIST MOST OF HIS BUILDINGS IN GERMANY, ENGLAND AND AMERICA ARE

CONSTRUCTED THAT AIM TO BE LOGICAL INTERPRETATION OF PURPOSE FOR INSTANCE:IMPINGTON

VALLAGE SCHOOL, HARVARD GRADUATE CENTRE.

GROPIUS WAS QUICK TO SEE THE ADVANTAGES OF ECONOMY IN THE BUILDINGS.

GROPIUS WAS EXPERIMENTED IN HIS PROJECTS.

BEING AN EDUCATOR HIS NATURE MADE HIM READY TO LISTEN TO OTHERS AND GIVE THEM THEIR

FULL DUE. HE WAS ALWAYS READY TO CONSULT AND LEARN FROM OTHERS.

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Reference

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauhaus_Archive

• GROPIUS book by TASCHEN

• BAUHAUS book by TASCHEN

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Gropius

• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fagus_Factory

• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_ Morris

• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alma _Mahler

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Thank you