To continue our Bauhaus 100 series exploring the key projects and figures of the influential design school, we take a look at its home in Dessau, designed by Walter Gropius to embody the school's core principles and values.
Gropius founded the Bauhaus in Weimar, Germany, in 1919, as a new kind of art school based around a holistic approach to the creative disciplines. The objective was to facilitate the creation of a Gesamtkunstwerk ? or total work of art ? in which buildings and everything in them were designed as a whole entity.
The Bauhaus promoted a unified vision for the arts that made no distinction between form and function, and therefore Gropius wanted the school's architecture to reflect these values.

An appreciation of the evolving relationship between art and industry was also key to the Bauhaus philosophy, which informed the use of modern materials and industrial processes across its various creative subjects. When the school was forced to relocate to Dessau, after succumbing to pressure from Weimar's conservative political regime, Gropius seized the opportunity to design a suitably bold and progressive building.
The architectural project was commissioned and funded by the city of Dessau, and was designed by Gropius in his own office, as the Bauhaus did not establish its own architecture department until 1927.

The campus features an asymmetric pinwheel plan, with dedicated areas for teaching, an auditorium and offices, and housing for students and faculty dis...