WALTER GROPIUS HIS LIFE,PHILOSPHY AND WORKS PRESENTATION BY: PEARL SIDHU

WALTER GROPIUS
HIS LIFE,PHILOSPHY AND WORKS
PRESENTATION BY:
PEARL SIDHU
G.P.C.G. PTA
INTRODUCTION
• Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (May 18, 1883 – July 5,
1969) was a German architect and founder of the
Bauhaus School, who, along with Ludwig Mies van der
Rohe, Le Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer, is widely
regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modern
architecture.
• Gropius was founder of the Bauhaus and one of the most
influential architects of the 20th century.
WALTER GROPIUS
Birth18
Berlin,
Walter Adolph Georg
Gropius
May
(1883)
German
Empire
Nationality-German/American
Awards-AIA Gold Medal(1959) ,
Goethe Prize(1961)
DeathWalter Gropius ( 1919).
5JULY
1969,Boston,Mass.(U.S)
.
• WALTER GROPIUS
EARLY CAREER
• 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 school he hired an assistant to complete his
homework for him.
• In 1908 Gropius found employment with the firm of Peter
Behrens, one of the first members of the utilitarian
school.
• His fellow employees at this time included Ludwig
Mies Vander Rohe, Le Corbusier, Dietrich Marcks.
WALTER GROPIUS
HIS PROJECTS
• Fagus Factory- (1910-1911)
• Werkbund Exhibition- (1914)
• Bauhaus- (1919-1933)
• Gropius House- (1937)
• University of Baghdad
• Harvard Graduate Center-(1950)
• J .F. Kennedy Federal Building-(1966)
• Pan Am Building - (1963)
WALTER GROPIUS
FAGUS SHOE FACTORY-1911
WALTER GROPIUS
FAGUS SHOE FACTORY
• "Gropius's first large building in Alfred on the Leine in 1911...
was materialized due to his connection , with Peter Behrens
• The starting point for the young architect was the already
existing site plan, the ground plan, and construction plans of the
architect Eduard Werner, as well as the foundation, which had
already been laid.
• A loan from the American United Shoe Machinery Corporation
made the construction possible in 1911, and continued until
1912 step by step under the new concept of Walter Gropius.
• The whole operational procedure was newly thought through,
according to the inner functions, and then articulated in a threedimensional form.
WALTER GROPIUS
FAGUS SHOE FACTORY
• The Fagus Factory a shoe last factory in Alfeld on the Leine in
Germany, is an important example of early modern architecture.
• Commissioned by owner Carl Benscheidt who wanted a radical
structure to express the company's break from the past, the
factory was designed by Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer.
• It was constructed between 1911 and 1913, with additions and
interiors completed in 1925.
WALTER GROPIUS
FAGUS SHOE FACTORY
• For the first time a complete
brick facade is conceived in
glass
• The supporting piers are
reduced to narrow mullions of
brick
• The corners are left without
any support
• The expression of the flat roof
has also changed
• The large expanses of clear
glass,
the
usual
hard
separation of exterior and
interior is annihilated.
WALTER GROPIUS
FAGUS SHOE FACTORY
WALTER GROPIUS
FAGUS SHOE FACTORY
• The client's wish for an
attractive fa•
cade was
solved by Gropius in a
special way: by means of
a projected steel skeleton,
which pulled the function
of support to the inside,
thereby making possible a
broad dissolution of the
exterior envelope into
glass walls; the idea of the
'curtain wall' was at this
point first expressed in a
consistent manner
WALTER GROPIUS
THE BAUHAUS-1919
WALTER GROPIUS
THE BAUHAUS
• The Staatliches Bauhaus commonly known simply as
Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts
and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design
that it publicized and taught.
• It operated from 1919 to 1933.
• At that time the German term Bauhaus literally "house of
construction", stood for "School of Building”
• Walter Adolph Georg Gropius is the founder of the
Bauhaus School,along with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Le
Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer, is widely regarded as one of
the pioneering masters of modern architecture
WALTER GROPIUS
THE BAUHAUS
• In spite of its name, and the fact that its founder was an
architect; the Bauhaus did not have an architecture
department during the first years of its existence
• Nonetheless it was founded with the idea of creating a "total"
work of art in which all arts, including architecture, would
eventually be brought together.
• The Bauhaus style became one of the most influential
currents in Modernist architecture and modern design.
The Bauhaus Dessau
WALTER GROPIUS
THE BAUHAUS
• The Bauhaus had a profound influence upon subsequent
developments in art, architecture, graphic design, interior
design, industrial design, and typography(letter press
printing)
• The school existed in three German cities (Weimar from 1919
to 1925, Dessau from 1925 to 1932 and Berlin from 1932 to
1933), under three different architect-directors: Walter
Gropius from 1919 to 1928, Hannes Meyer from 1928 to
1930 and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe from 1930 until 1933,
when the school was closed by its own leadership under
pressure from the Nazi regime.
• The changes of venue and leadership resulted in a constant
shifting of focus, technique, instructors, and politics
WALTER GROPIUS
THE BAUHAUS
• ARCHITECTURAL OUTPUT :
• The Bauhaus style, also known as the International Style, was
marked by the absence of ornamentation and by harmony
between the function of an object or a building and its design.
• Students architectural work amounted to un-built projects,
interior finishes, and craft work like cabinets, chairs and
pottery
• The architectural focus shifted away from aesthetics and
towards functionality
• One of the main objectives of the Bauhaus was to unify art,
craft, and technology. the modern day "Basic Design" course
that has become one of the key foundational courses offered
in architectural and design schools across the globe.
WALTER GROPIUS
THE BAUHAUS
– The Bauhaus had a major impact on art and architecture
trends in Western Europe, the United States, Canada and
Israel
– One of the most important contributions of the Bauhaus is
in the field of modern furniture design
WALTER GROPIUS
GROPIUS HOUSE-1938
WALTER GROPIUS
GROPIUS HOUSE
• The Gropius House was the family residence of noted
architect Walter Gropius at 68 Baker Bridge Road, Lincoln,
Massachusetts.
• He designed it in 1937, when he came to teach at Harvard
University's Graduate School of Design, and it was built in
1938
• 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.
WALTER GROPIUS
GROPIUS HOUSE
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Two bathrooms
Lounge
Study
Wardrobe
Kitchen
Room service
Spiral staircase
Porch
Floor
WALTER GROPIUS
GROPIUS HOUSE
• The materials used
were wooden tablets
on the walls, brick,
steel to the forges as
stairs,
pergolas,
balustrades, columns
and
ornamental
porches lined with
sheet metal building,
the foundation stone
and flooring, as well
as laminated glass
for the woodwork
and glass block to
shed light on some
points
Lobby
Three
bedrooms
Terrace
Study
Two bathrooms
WALTER GROPIUS
GROPIUS HOUSE
• Set amid fields, forests, and farmhouses, 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.
WALTER GROPIUS
GROPIUS HOUSE
• The house structure
consists of a
traditional New
England post and
beam wooden frame,
sheathed with white
painted tongue and
grove vertical siding.
Traditional
clapboards are used
in the interior foyer,
but are applied
vertically.
Gropius House, view from rear side
WALTER GROPIUS
GROPIUS HOUSE
• On this floor access is
diagonal, under a porch that
welcomes visitors, here
Gropius used hollow glass
block to give privacy to the
lobby
• The bathrooms in both the
plans and in the top group
in the north corner where
there is no just views
• The spaces such as dining
and living area, are next to
the center of the house
which is located a stone
fireplace.
WALTER GROPIUS
GROPIUS HOUSE
•On the back porch is located one
space covering the porch with stone
flooring.
•It was declared a National Historic
Landmark in 2000
WALTER GROPIUS
GROPIUS HOUSE
• The plan above is accessed from the main staircase to the
lobby which leads to the bedrooms, study and terrace.
• In the back of the house, a pergola performs the function of
double height covered terrace which allows the lighting in the
dining room.
WALTER GROPIUS
GROPIUS HOUSE
All family possessions are still
in place, including a
remarkable collection of
furniture designed by Marcel
Breuer and made in the
Bauhaus workshops.
WALTER GROPIUS
PAN AM BUILDING-1963
WALTER GROPIUS
PAN AM BUILDING
• The PAN AM Building is a skyscraper located at 200 Park
Avenue at East 45th Street above Grand Central Terminal in
Midtown Manhattan, New York City.
• Built in 1958–63 as the Pan Am Building, then
headquarters of Pan American World Airways, it was
designed by Emery Roth & Sons, Pietro Belluschi and
Walter Gropius in the International style, and is one of the
fifty tallest buildings in the United States.
• When it opened on March 7, 1963 the Pan Am Building was
the largest commercial office space in the world.
• It bore 15' tall "Pan Am" displays on its north and south
faces and 25' tall globe logos east and west.
• The Pan Am Building is an e.g. of an International
Style skyscraper.
WALTER GROPIUS
PAN AM BUILDING
• .
WALTER GROPIUS
PAN AM BUILDING
• It is purely commercial in design with large floors, simple
massing, with an absence of ornamentation inside and out
• The building previously had helicopter service to Pan Am's
terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport, a 7-to-10minute flight from the rooftop helipad. .
WALTER GROPIUS
PAN AM BUILDING
• The design is inspired by never built Grand Central Terminal
project from Le Corbusier and by the slender Pirelli Tower in
Milan
• It consisted of a tower of 49 stories resting on a 10 story base.
• The exterior is covered with concrete panels to strengthen the
building visually.
• The 246 meter / 808ft tall building was completed in 1963 and
incorporates an immense 390,700 m2 office space.
• Originally the project was called Grand Central City, but was
renamed in 1960 after its main tenant, the Pan American
Airways.
• In 1981 the building was sold to Metlife insurance company
for $400 million and is since called Metlife Building.
WALTER GROPIUS
HARVARD GRADUATE CENTERCAMBRIDGE-1950
WALTER GROPIUS
HARVARD GRADUATE CENTER
•Harvard's new
Graduate Center has
eight buildings
arranged to enclose a
series of large and
small quadrangles.
• No building is more
than four stories high;
construction is of
concrete with exterior
walls of buff-colored
brick or limestone
WALTER GROPIUS
HARVARD GRADUATE CENTER
• The group of eight buildings arranged round small and large
courtyards on the Oxbridge pattern has a good community feel
about it and is humanly scaled.
• The various buildings house dormitories, common-rooms,
refectory and a lounge convertible into a meeting hall for 250
people
WALTER GROPIUS
HARVARD GRADUATE CENTER
• The dormitory blocks are
constructed in reinforced concrete
and the community buildings in
steelwork.
• The planning of the dormitories is
of the conventional central-corridor
type with single and double rooms
off either side."
WALTER GROPIUS
J.F. KENNEDY FEDERAL
BUILDING-1966
WALTER GROPIUS
J.F. KENNEDY FEDERAL BUILDING
• The John F. Kennedy Federal Building in Boston,
Massachusetts, is one of the federal government's most
noteworthy Modern designs
• Master architect Walter Gropius and his firm The Architects
Collaborative (TAC) designed the complex with the assistance
of Boston architect Samuel Glaser
• Technically one building, it consists of twin 26-story high-rise
towers, which sit on axis to each other, and a low, 4-story
building.
• This combination of tall towers paired with low buildings is a
common Modern form that is used extensively throughout the
United States and abroad.
WALTER GROPIUS
J.F. KENNEDY FEDERAL BUILDING
• The building occupies only 45
percent of the 4.6-acre site.
The remaining portion
contains terraces, plazas,
extensive landscaping, a
WALTER GROPIUS
sunken patio, and driveways
J.F. KENNEDY FEDERAL BUILDING
• The double towers increase the number of offices lit by
natural light and decrease the visual bulk that a single
monolithic building would create. The building contains
839,000 square feet
• The exterior of the towers is constructed of pre-cast
reinforced concrete.
• The lower sections are faced with polished granite.
• All aluminum work has a dark anodized finish in a medium
gray tone, which the architects designed to contrast with
the white concrete facade.
• Overall, the exterior lacks ornamentation, instead
displaying a stark functionality.
• ..
WALTER GROPIUS
J.F. KENNEDY FEDERAL BUILDING
• Bands of windows wrap
around the towers; corner
windows have rounded
edges..
• The tops of the towers are
distinguished by metal
louvers An exposed glass
atrium connects the two
towers at the ground level.
• A glass-enclosed walkway
connects the four-story
building to the towers.
WALTER GROPIUS
DESIGN PHILOSPHY AND
ARCHITECTURAL STYLE
• One of the most influential architects of the twentieth
century, German-born Gropius founded the worldrenowned Bauhaus school in Weimar, Germany, in 1919
• He is credited with bringing the International Style of
architecture to the United States and for promulgating
Modernist design principles
• Gropius's Modern designs make no reference to regional
or local architectural influences.
• Uniting new social demands with advanced technological
possibilities, he radically simplified building design.
Building forms were basic and usually built of glass,
steel, and concrete with minimal ornamentation.
WALTER GROPIUS
DESIGN PHILOSPHY AND
ARCHITECTURAL STYLE
• Gropius advocated pushing
architecture forward as the
society needs it. He concluded
by saying that “There is no
finality in architecture – only
continuous change.”
WALTER GROPIUS
THANKS
WALTER GROPIUS