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Walter gropius
1.
2. Born in Berlin , Walter Gropius was the third child of Walter
Adolph Gropius and Manon Auguste Pauline Scharnweber.
Gropius married Alma Mahler (1879–1964), widow of
Gustav Mahler . Walter and Alma's daughter, named Manon
after Walter's mother, was born in 1916. When Manon died
of polio at age 18, composer Alban Berg wrote his Violin
concerto in memory of her (it is inscribed "to the memory
of an angel"). 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 (Ilse) Frank (d. 1983), and they remained together until
his death. They adopted Beate Gropius, also known as Ati.
3. •Walter Gropius, like his father and his great-uncle Martin Gropius
before him, became an architect. Gropius could not draw, and was
dependent on collaborators and partner-interpreters throughout his
career.
•In 1910 Gropius left the firm of Behrens and together with fellow
employee Adolf Miyer established a practice in Berlin. Together they
share credit for one of the seminal modernist buildings created during
this period: the Faguswerk in Alfeld an der Leine , Germany , a shoe
last factory. Although Gropius and Meyer only designed the facade, the
glass curtain walls of this building demonstrated both the modernist
principle that form reflect function and Gropius's concern with
providing healthful conditions for the working class. Other works of this
early period include the office and factory building for the Werkburn
Exhibition (1914) in Cologne .
4. In 1919, Gropius was involved in the Glass Chain utopian expressionist correspondence
under the pseudonym "Mass." Usually more notable for his functionalist approach, the
"Monument to the March Dead," designed in 1919 and executed in 1920, indicates
that expressionism was an influence on him at that time.
In 1923, Gropius designed his famous door handles, now considered an icon of 20th-
century design and often listed as one of the most influential designs to emerge
from Bauhaus. He also designed large-scale housing projects in Berlin, Karlsruhe
and Dessau in 1926-32 that were major contributions to the New Objectivity
movement, including a contribution to the Siemensstadt project in Berlin.
6. The building that is commonly referred as the Fagus building is the main building.
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. The Fagus building is a
40-centimeter high, dark brick base that projects from the facade by 4 centimeter.
The entrance with the clock is part of the 1913 expansion. 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. The production hall is a one-storey
building. It was almost invisible from the railway (north) elevation and acquired a
proper facade after the expansion. The warehouse is a four-storey building with
few openings. Its design followed closely the original plan by Werner and it is left
out from many of the photographs. 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. Overall,
Werner's intended layout for the individual buildings within the complex was
carried out; greater uniformity and coherence were achieved, however, through
Gropius and Meyer's reductionism in form, material, and color.
8. The first WerkbundExhibition of 1914 was held at Rheinpark in Cologne, Germany.
Bruno Taut's best-known building, the prismatic dome of the Glass Pavilion of which
only black and white images survive today, was in reality a brightly colored landmark.
Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer designed a model factory for the exhibition. The
Belgian architect Henri Van de Velde designed a model theatre.
Bruno Taut's Glass Pavilion
9. The Gropius House was the family residence of noted architect Walter Gropius at
68 Baker Bridge Road, Lincoln, Massachusetts. It is now owned by Historic New
England and is open to the public Wednesday through Sunday (June 1 – October
15, and weekends (October 16 – May 31). An admission fee is charged.
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. He chose the area because of its
proximity to Concord Academy which his daughter, Ati, was going to attend. It
remained Gropius' home from 1938 until his death in 1969. (Gropius had a
benefactor. Mrs. James J. Storrow offered him the site and the capital and was
so pleased with the result that she allocated house sites to four other professors
as well, two of which Gropius helped design.
11. Gropius created innovative designs that borrowed materials and
methods of construction from modern technology.
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.
