Biography
Gropius was a great-nephew of the architect Martin Gropius. His parents were Walther Gropius, who was a secret building officer in the German Empire at the time, and Manon Gropius, née Scharnweber. Between 1903 and 1907, Gropius studied architecture at the technical universities in Munich and Berlin. From 1908 to 1910 he was employed by Peter Behrens in Berlin. He then opened his own architectural office. In 1911 he joined the "Deutscher Werkbund". In the same year he worked with Adolf Meyer on the design of the Fagus factory in Alfeld an der Leine. This was the first time he succeeded in avant-garde architectural design in the 20th century. The centerpiece was a complete glass facade. From 1918, Gropius headed the Labor Council for Art in Berlin. The following year he founded the "Bauhaus" in Weimar, which he directed until 1928. With this institution, Gropius realized his educational reform ideas.
At the Bauhaus he integrated all creative art genres and combined training and practice. In his art school, the architect placed great emphasis on craftsmanship and group work within artistic activities. In 1925 and 1926, the avant-garde architectural style culminated in the construction of the "Bauhaus" in Dessau, where the institute moved from Dresden. In the new Bauhaus building, Gropius implemented the construction method according to the modular principle with a rationalistic character in the material mix of glass and iron. In 1928 Gropius moved to Berlin and worked there as an architect. The Siemensstadt settlement there goes back to his planning. He was particularly committed to combating the housing shortage in the imperial capital. To this end, he pushed forward the rationalization of the construction industry.
In this way, numerous residential buildings were built, including the Berlin Haus Sommerfeld in 1927. With the outbreak of the Second World War the Bauhaus was closed. Gropius retired to London in 1933. There he ran an architectural office together with Maxwell Fry from 1934 to 1937. Gropius then went to the USA. As a professor at the Graduate School of Design Harvard University in Cambridge, he taught from 1937 to 1950. He also opened his own school of architecture, the "Archiects Collaborative". In 1952, together with Konrad Wachsmann, he designed the so-called "packaged house", which was based on the "growing house" concept from 1932. For Gropius, architecture was linked to social responsibility. The new person should be placed in a new society. His idea of total architecture as a synthesis of art and technology was based on the claim of uniting the arts into a total work of art.
Gropius' aim was to make optimal use of the possibilities of technology and to free people from the monotony of work processes. In his pragmatic ideas, Gropius pursued the goal of eliminating homelessness. As a designer, Gropius became known for his chairs, ceramic works, lamps and other objects. He is considered a key pioneer of avant-garde architecture in the industrial age. His planning work was accompanied by an extensive work of specialist articles and lectures.
Walter Gropius died on July 5, 1969 in Boston.
