Building on Brand
Metropolis Magazine|November/December 2019
The Bauhaus turned 100 this year, and a crop of museum buildings sprang up for the celebration.
Samuel Medina
Building on Brand
In 2019, two museums bearing the name Bauhaus appeared on the German culture circuit. Angling to capitalize on the design school’s centennial, the Bauhaus Museum Weimar was first out of the gate, opening in early April; a few clicks behind, the Bauhaus Museum Dessau followed suit in early September. A third project, the much-delayed extension to Walter Gropius’s 1979 BauhausArchiv/Museum für Gestaltung in Berlin, did not manage to keep pace and isn’t expected to open for a couple more years yet.

At the moment in Berlin, kapitän Gropius’s keel is shipwrecked in a sea of muddy ditches, its programming relocated to a temporary annex. The building, which broke ground in 1976, the same year the kapitän’s Dessau campus was restored by the German Democratic Republic, opened in 1979 and was never much loved, although footfalls dramatically increased after the Wall came down. It is visibly the result of compromise: Gropius’s original plans, drawn up in 1964 for a sloped site in the small city of Darmstadt near Frankfurt, were waylaid by local politicians; only in the following decade, after Gropius’s death, did the project find a site in then–West Berlin. The dislocation did violence to the original scheme, however, requiring extensive modifications by Gropius’s acolyte Alex Cvijanovic (not least among them translating the building to flatland).

This story is from the November/December 2019 edition of Metropolis Magazine.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

This story is from the November/December 2019 edition of Metropolis Magazine.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

MORE STORIES FROM METROPOLIS MAGAZINEView All
No New Buildings
Metropolis Magazine

No New Buildings

The energy already embodied in the built environment is a precious unnatural resource. It’s time to start treating it like one.

time-read
7 mins  |
November/December 2019
The Circular Office
Metropolis Magazine

The Circular Office

Major manufacturers are exploring every avenue to close the loop on workplace furniture.

time-read
1 min  |
November/December 2019
Signs of Life
Metropolis Magazine

Signs of Life

Designers, curators, and entrepreneurs are scrambling to make sense of motherhood in a culture that’s often hostile to it.

time-read
7 mins  |
November/December 2019
Interspecies Ethic
Metropolis Magazine

Interspecies Ethic

In probing the relationship between humans and nature, two major exhibitions question the very foundations of design practice.

time-read
6 mins  |
November/December 2019
Building on Brand
Metropolis Magazine

Building on Brand

The Bauhaus turned 100 this year, and a crop of museum buildings sprang up for the celebration.

time-read
8 mins  |
November/December 2019
Building for Tomorrow, Today
Metropolis Magazine

Building for Tomorrow, Today

Radical change in the building industry is desperately needed. And it cannot happen without the building trades.

time-read
6 mins  |
November/December 2019
Strength from Within
Metropolis Magazine

Strength from Within

Maggie’s Centres, the service-focused cancer support network, eschews clinical design to arm patients in their fight for life.

time-read
5 mins  |
October 2019
Next-Level Living
Metropolis Magazine

Next-Level Living

The availability of attractive, hospitality-grade products on the market means everyday consumers can live the high life at home.

time-read
1 min  |
October 2019
Mi Casa, Su Casa
Metropolis Magazine

Mi Casa, Su Casa

Casa Perfect creates a memorable shopping experience in lavish private homes.

time-read
1 min  |
October 2019
Enter The Culinarium
Metropolis Magazine

Enter The Culinarium

AvroKO imagines the future of residential amenities—where convenience, comfort, and sustainability meet.

time-read
5 mins  |
October 2019