biography of famous architect walter gropius

1. Study of famous architects.
WALTER GROPIUS
Subject｜ History of Modern Architecture | Year III Part II
Ar.Kiran KC
Department of Architecture
PEC , Phirke , Pokhara
SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY:
Manoj Darai A17/11
Sabita Karki A17/20
Sonisha Aryal A17/24
Sujan Pokhrel A17/26

2. Early life
•Full name - GEORGE WALTER ADOLF
GROPIUS
•Born in Berlin 18 May , 1883
•He was the third child of Walter Adolph
Gropious and Manon Auguste Pauline
Scharnweber.
•Earlier he was taught by his father
WALTER GROPIUS

3. Early Education
•1903 he left school and went to the Technical University
in Munich to study architecture .He received no degree.
•Gropius could not draw , and was dependent on
collaborators and pattern- interpreters throughout his
career.
•In school an assistance is hired to completed 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.
WALTER GROPIUS

4. MARRIED LIFE
1.Gropius married Alma Mahler(1879-1964) widow of
Gustav Mahler.
2.Walter and Alma has a daughter named Manon but
she died of polio in 18.
3.Gropius and Alma divorced in 1920.
4.In 1923 Gropius married Ise Frank and they
remained together until death.
5.He adopted Beate Gropius also known as Ati.
WALTER GROPIUS

5. 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.
WALTER GROPIUS

6. WALTER GROPIUS
In 1908, after studying architecture in Munich and Berlin
for four semesters, Gropius joined the office of the
renowned architect and industrial designer Peter
Behrens, who worked as a creative consultant for AEG,
with co-workers including Ludwig Mies van
der Rohe and Le Corbusier.

7. WALTER GROPIUS
In 1910 Gropius left the firm of Behrens and together with
fellow employee Adolf Meyer established a practice in Berlin .
He designed furniture, wallpapers, objects for mass
production, automobile bodies and even a diesel
locomotive.

8. WALTER GROPIUS
In 1914 Gropius and Adolf Meyer designed a prototype factory in Cologne, which was to become
yet another classic example of modern architecture.
Gropius published an article about "The
Development of Industrial Buildings". A very
influential text, this article had a strong influence on
other European modernists, including Le Corbusier.
FAGUS FACTORY

9. WALTER GROPIUS

10. WALTER GROPIUS

11. WALTER GROPIUS
Gropius's career was interrupted by the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Called up immediately
as a reservist, Gropius served as a sergeant major at the Western front during the war years,
and was wounded and almost killed.
BAUHAUS PERIOD (1919-1932)
Gropius's career advanced in
the post-war period. Gropius
became involved with several
groups of radical artists that
sprang up in Berlin in the
winter of 1918. In March 1919
Gropius was appointed as
master of the GrandDucal
Saxon School of Arts and
Crafts in Weimar which
Gropius transformed into the
world famous Bauhaus.

12. WALTER GROPIUS

13. WALTER GROPIUS
With the help of the English architect
Maxwell Fry, Gropius was able to leave
Nazi Germany in 1934, on the pretext of
making a temporary visit to Britain.
He lived and worked in Britain, as part of
the Isokon group with Fry and others and
then, in 1937, moved on to the United
States.
The house he built for himself in Lincoln,
Massachusetts, (now known as Gropius
House) was influential in bringing
International Modernism to the U.S.
Interior of Gropius House.
GROPIUS HOUSE

14. WALTER GROPIUS
GROPIUS HOUSE
As to my practice, when I built my first house in the U.S.A.—which was my own—I made it a point to absorb into
my own conception those features of the New England architectural tradition that I found still alive and adequate.
This fusion of the regional spirit with a contemporary approach to design produced a house that I would never
have built in Europe with its entirely different climatic, technical and psychological background.
— Walter Gropius, Scope of Total Architecture

15. WALTER GROPIUS GROPIUS HOUSE

16. WALTER GROPIUS MAJOR BUILDINGS BY GROPIUS
The Bauhaus Archive was founded in Darmstadt in 1960. Walter Gropius and other members of the Bauhaus
movement gave their support. The collection grew so quickly that a dedicated museum seemed attractive and
Gropius was asked to design it.
Bauhaus Archive

17. WALTER GROPIUS MAJOR BUILDINGS BY GROPIUS
Bauhaus Archive

18. WALTER GROPIUS MAJOR BUILDINGS BY GROPIUS
Siemensstadt Estate

19. WALTER GROPIUS MAJOR BUILDINGS BY GROPIUS
Embassy of the United States, Athens

20. WALTER GROPIUS MAJOR BUILDINGS BY GROPIUS
METLIFE BUILDING

21. WALTER GROPIUS MAJOR BUILDINGS BY GROPIUS
Josephine M Hagerty House, Cohasset

22. Impington Village College,England
WALTER GROPIUS MAJOR BUILDINGS BY GROPIUS

23. WALTER GROPIUS MAJOR BUILDINGS BY GROPIUS
Harvard Graduate Centre
Cambridge,USA

24. WALTER GROPIUS
Gropius died on July 5, 1969,
in Boston, Massachusetts, aged 86.
He had been diagnosed with
inflammation of the glands, and was
admitted to hospital on 7 June. After an
operation was performed successfully on
15 June, there was hope of a full recovery.
Gropius described himself as a "tough old
bird", and continued to make progress for
about a week.
However, his lungs became congested
and could not supply proper amounts of
oxygen to the blood and brain. He lost
consciousness, and died in his sleep.

25. INTRODUCTION
BRUTALISM
•The term originates from the
french beton brut, or “raw
concrete”.
•Descended from modernism
•Architectural style that flourished
from the 1950s to the 1970s.
•Post - war architecture style .
•The early style was largely
inspired by the work of the
architecture Le Corbusier and Mies
Van de Rohe.

26. BRUTALISM
• Le Corbusier use the term brutalism to describe his
own work, which originally was coined by the british
architecture Alison and peter smithson.
• The term eventually became part of common
architectural lexicon when Reyner Banham used it in
his book, “new brutalism.
• Examples can be found across Europe, and in the us,
australia, israel, japan, brazil and India.
Key features
Use of raw concrete
bold , confrontational and bulky building
Reflects strength, functionality and power

27. BRUTALISM CHARACTERISTICS

28. BRUTALISM
•Reinforced concrete structures.
•Off form concrete construction.
•Diagonal, sloping or strong curved
element contrasting with horizontal and
vertical members.
•Brutalist building materials also include
brick,glass, steel.
•The exposure of the building’s function-
ranging from their structure and services
to their human.

29. BRUTALISM
Unite d’Habitation in Marseilles
Used raw concrete and is seen as an rarely
example of brutalism
Coventry Cathedral
Constructed of red sandstone
Projecting out are the circular chapel of unity and
the chapel of industry
Zig zag walls let angled windows direct light down
the nave towards the altar.
Le Corbusier
Sir Basil Spence

30. BRUTALISM
Sir Denys Lasdun
20 Bedford way in Bloomsbury.
Used rough texture in his concrete form, in
particular wood shuttering from when the
concrete was cast in situ.
Peter and Alison Smithson
Hunatanton Secondary Modern in Norfolk
•External steel frame.
•Structural frames, welded on-site to make a continuous
plastic structure to save steel.
•The standard sections,through larger and in short supply,
were relatively cheap.
•The brick end wall braces the structure, and inside all the
finished and pipes are exposed.

31. BRUTALISM
Downfall
1.Peaking in 1970s, brutalism began
losing its position in popular
architecture at the turn of the same
decade, due to its functional
shortcoming, expensive maintenance.
2.Concrete building criticized due to :
-weathering effects in every weather
condition excluding the deserts.
-Water staining due to moisture
-Algae formation and discoloration
-People highly dissatisfied with the
space and the boxtype buildings.

32. BRUTALISM
WALTER GROPIUS
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