biography,early life,education,working style,Phylosophies, the Bauhaus, hobbies,interests, international style,famous quotes,famous works, fagus factory illustration etc

1. sr834
Biography of Walter
Gropius

2. sr834
Submitted by-
Sumit Ranjan
4th sem
College of Architecture
Bhaddal, Roper
Submitted to-
Ar Jaspreet Kaur

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. sr834
Married life
• Gropius married Alma Mahler(1879–1964), 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.

6. 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.

7. sr834
Hobbies and interests
Vessel designing
sugar pot
tea pots

8. sr834
Wine glasses
peperweights

9. sr834
Chair designs

10. sr834
A GRAPHICS DESIGN
LOGO OF BAUHAUS
ARTWORKS

11. sr834
Staircase design
his famous door handle design

12. sr834
Philosphies of walter
Gropius

13. sr834
International style
• Simple geometry often rectangular
• Used of modern meterials like steel and glass
• Smooth surface
• Primary colors
• Linears and horizontal elements

14. sr834
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.

15. sr834
Walter Gropius
• “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.
about architecture

16. 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”.

17. 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”

18. sr834
Famous works of Walter
Gropius

19. sr834
FAGUS FACTORY,
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.
ALFELD, GERMANY

20. 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 FAÇADE SO THAT ITS CURTAIN CHARACTER IS FULLY REALIZED.

21. sr834
plan

22. sr834
Elevation

23. sr834
plan of main office building

24. sr834
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 PREDOMINATE IN THIS
FACTORY.
THE GLASS AND WALLS ARE JOINED CLEANLY AT
THE CORNERS WITHOUT THE INTERVENTION OF
PIERS.
EXTERNAL VIEW
FAGUS FACTORY- INTERNAL VIEW

25. sr834
Glass facade
• It was constructed in 1911 according to
Werner’s 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.

26. 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.
• 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
AEG
Turbine
Factory
by Peter
Behrens,
1910
FAGUS FACTORY

27. sr834
• 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.

28. sr834
• The warehouse is a four-storey building with few openings. Its design followed closely the original
plan by Werner .
• 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.

29. sr834
CONSTRUCTUCTION SYSTEM
• The main building was erected on top of a structurally stable basement with flat caps. Non-
reinforced (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.

30. 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.

31. 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.

32. sr834
Now the Fagus factory is designated a UNESCO world heritage on 25 june
2011 on its 100th jublee.

33. sr834
Bauhaus Archive
• This is the museum of design that
collects art pieces, items, documents
and literature which relate to
the Bauhaus School (1919–1933).
• The Bauhaus Archive was founded
in Darmstadt in 1960.
• Gropius was asked to design it. In
1964.
Berlin

34. 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.

35. sr834
Planning
plan

36. sr834
section

37. sr834
Section
Rough elevation

38. sr834
• 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.
i
n
t
e
r
i
o
r

39. sr834
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.

40. sr834
Gropius house
• 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.
Lincoln, Massachusett

41. 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.

42. sr834
Siemensstadt Housing Estate or Ring Estate
• It is a nonprofit residential
community in the Charlottenburg-
Wilmersdorf 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.
Europe, Eurasia, Germany, Western Europe

43. sr834
Embassy of the United States,
• 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 m² and
includes office space for over 150
people.
Athens

44. sr834
MetLife Building
• The MetLife Building is
a skyscraper.
• Built in 1958–63 as the Pan Am
Building, then headquarters
of Pan American World Airways.
• It is in collaboration with Emery
Roth & Sons,Pietro Belluschi.
Park Avenue, New York

45. sr834
Josephine M. Hagerty House
• 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.
Cohasset, Massachusett

46. sr834
Impington Village College
Cambridgeshire, England

47. sr834
Michael Reese HospitalChicago

48. sr834
Harvard Graduate Center
U.S.A
It
is also
known
as "the
Gropius
Complex"

49. sr834
John F. Kennedy Federal Building
Boston, Massachusetts

50. sr834
Total theatre

51. 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.

52. 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

53. sr834
Thank you