Biography of Walter

Gropius
sr834

Submitted toAr Jaspreet Kaur

Submitted bySumit Ranjan

4th sem
College of Architecture
Bhaddal, Roper
sr834

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.

sr834

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.
sr834

Married life
Gropius married Alma Mahler(18791964), 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.
sr834

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.

sr834

Hobbies and interests

tea pots

Vessel designing

sugar pot
sr834

Wine glasses

peperweights
sr834

Chair designs
sr834

ARTWORKS
A GRAPHICS DESIGN

LOGO OF BAUHAUS

sr834

Staircase design

his famous door handle design

sr834

Philosphies of walter

Gropius
sr834

International style

sr834

Simple geometry often rectangular

Used of modern meterials like steel and glass
Smooth surface
Primary colors
Linears and horizontal elements

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.
sr834

Walter
Gropius
about architecture
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.

sr834

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.

sr834

 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

sr834

Famous works of Walter

Gropius
sr834

FAGUS FACTORY,
ALFELD, GERMANY

THE FAGUS FACTORY,A SHOE LAST FACTORY

IN ALFELD IN GERMANY, IS AN IMPORTANT
EXAMPLE OF EARLY MODERN ARCHITECTURE.
IT WAS BUILT AT ALFELD AN DER LEINE
IN 1911.
IT WAS IN COLLABORATION WITH ADOLF
MEYER.
IT WAS HIS FIRST INDEPENDENT COMMISSION.
MOST STRIKING THING: SIMPLICITY AND
CONFIDENCE OF THE ARCHITECTURE.
IN FAGUS WORKS, GROPIUS BROUGHT THE
ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE PAST FIFTEEN
YEARS.
THE MAIN BUILDING CAN BE SEEN AS AN
INVERSION OF THE TURBINE FACTORY.
sr834

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 IMPACT
FROM THE STRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT.
FAGUS STRUCTURE WAS ACTUALLY A HYBRID CONSTRUCTION OF BRICK COLUMNS, STEEL BEAMS AND
CONCRETE FLOOR SLABS AND STAIRWAYS.
IT WAS A STEEL FRAME SUPPORTING THE FLOORS, GLASS SCREEN EXTERNAL WALLS.
PILLARS ARE SET BEHIND THE FAADE SO THAT ITS CURTAIN CHARACTER IS FULLY REALIZED.

sr834

plan

sr834

Elevation

sr834

plan of main office building

sr834

EXTERNAL VIEW

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
FACTORY.

PREDOMINATE

IN

THIS

THE GLASS AND WALLS ARE JOINED CLEANLY AT

THE CORNERS WITHOUT THE INTERVENTION OF
PIERS.

FAGUS FACTORY- INTERNAL VIEW

sr834

 It was constructed in 1911 according to

Werners 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.

Glass facade

sr834

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.

AEG
Turbine
Factory
by Peter
Behrens,
1910

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
sr834

FAGUS FACTORY

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.
sr834

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

sr834

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.

CONSTRUCTUCTION SYSTEM
The main building was erected on top of a structurally stable basement with flat caps. Nonreinforced (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.

sr834

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.

sr834

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.

sr834

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

2011 on its 100th jublee.

sr834

Bauhaus Archive
Berlin
This is the museum of design that
collects art pieces, items, documents
and literature which relate to
the Bauhaus School (19191933).
The Bauhaus Archive was founded
in Darmstadt in 1960.
Gropius was asked to design it. In
1964.

sr834

 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.

sr834

Planning

plan
sr834

section
sr834

Section

Rough elevation
sr834

i
n
t
e
r
i
o
sr834
r

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.

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.

sr834

Gropius house
Lincoln, Massachusett

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.
sr834

 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.

sr834

Siemensstadt Housing

Estate

or Ring Estate

Europe, Eurasia, Germany, Western Europe

It is a nonprofit residential
community in the CharlottenburgWilmersdorf 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.

sr834

Embassy of the United States,

Athens

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 m and
includes office space for over 150
people.
sr834

MetLife
Building
Park Avenue, New York
The MetLife Building is
a skyscraper.
Built in 195863 as the Pan Am
Building, then headquarters
of Pan American World Airways.
It is in collaboration with Emery
Roth & Sons,Pietro Belluschi.

sr834

Josephine M. Hagerty House

Cohasset, Massachusett

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.

sr834

Impington Village College

Cambridgeshire, England

sr834

Michael
Reese
Hospital
Chicago

sr834

Harvard Graduate Center

U.S.A

It
is also
known
as "the
Gropius
Complex"

sr834

John F. Kennedy Federal Building

Boston, Massachusetts

sr834

Total theatre

sr834

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.

sr834

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

sr834

Thank you
sr834