Nonetheless, the Bauhaus did not reject the Machine Age as had Morris, but embraced it. The machinery of War now became the machinery of the workers? liberation - arising out of the social upheaval of revolution and economic turmoil, new ideas and methods of manufacturing were tumbling forth during the 1920?s. Overabundance in interior design, clothing, and architecture was seen as ?bourgeois? and self-indulgent. The economic shift from that Edwardian-era abundance to post-War poverty demanded a formal asceticism.
The first building occupied by the Bauhaus in Weimar was, in itself, a departure from most of Weimar?s eclectic but typically Germanic urban style. Unadorned and fitted with large windows, it provided studios with wonderful light and multi-use classrooms. Here, a new style of teaching evolved. Beginning with a required Preliminary Course in design, color theory, composition and drawing, students were presented with a basic art education. Having passed that course successfully, the students then chose the professional course they wished to pursue in formal workshops: architecture, textile design, typography, interior design, etc. The Bauhaus method of preliminary courses was adopted by art and design schools all over the world.
The Bauhaus workshops were the birthplaces of new industrial designs. First, handicrafts were the subject of experiment, with marvelous results. The results also showed in the field of textile art. Thousands of experiments with textiles were performed. Many of them were adopted by the factories for production, and they were also eagerly copied. Photography was taken more seriously as an art form. Innovation ran rampant through the Bauhaus resulting in a multitude of advances affecting the most basic aspects of life. If you?ve ever sat on a chair with a tubular steel frame, used an adjustable reading lamp, or lived in a house partly or entirely constructed from prefabricated elements, you have benefited from a revolution in design largely brought about by the Bauhaus.
In spite of its strong focus on cooperation with the industrial needs of manufacturers, politically the Bauhaus faculty was not popular in Weimar. The city withdrew its financial and political support of the school in 1924, and in 1925 the school moved to Dessau, where Gropius designed new classroom buildings and residences for the faculty.
This faculty had drawn its talent from all over Europe, and included Josef Albers, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Johannes Itten, Wassilly Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Marcel Breuer, Lyonel Feiniger, and Hannes Meyer. Their art, sculpture and architecture embraced Expressionism as the form of communistic utopian solution to socio-economic upheaval, with Art as a quasi-religion. However, there were strong philosophical differences among these creative geniuses. In spite of his success as its founder, Gropius left the Bauhaus leadership in 1928. He appointed the Swiss architect Hannes Meyer to succeed him.
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