The Bauhaus legacy

"The ultimate aim of all creative activity is a building!...Architects, painters, and sculptors must once again come to know and comprehend the composite character of a building, both as an entity and in terms of its various parts..."

- Walter Gropius

In a rapidly changing world it’s incredible that the few hundred architects, artists and craftsmen trained at the Bauhaus still influence the direction of development 100 years on. Yet they do.

Actually, today’s pace of life makes a Bauhausian approach, bold, new and creative, more relevant than ever. We need new spaces that cater for how we want, or need, to live and work but are economically viable. We also have a responsibility to consider environmental impact, meaning design has to enable sustainable construction. It makes design today exciting as it was a century ago, with each generation of visionary designers bringing new ideas.

As Chris Radcliffe, Head of Interiors at Maber Architects says: “In the 1920s the Bauhaus was on the cutting edge on what was happening then. So those people, if they were alive today, would be still on the cutting edge of what is happening right now. The Bauhaus masters, they would be right there - using new materials as they were then, pushing the boundaries.”

So how do we practically use what the Bauhaus has taught us to make spaces work for those using them, and to support those designing and constructing them?