1919–1933 · Germany
Bauhaus
Also known as Bauhaus Style
The German school that fused art, craft, and industry into a functional modernism — clean geometry, flat roofs, and 'form follows function' applied to the whole designed world.
Photo: JensKunstfreund, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Au%C3%9Fenansichten_des_Bauhaus-Geb%C3%A4udes_in_Dessau_07.jpg
Across disciplines
- Graphic Design: The New Typography
- Graphic Design: Bauhaus Graphic Design
- Industrial Design: Bauhaus Product
- Industrial Design: Tubular Steel Furniture
- Industrial Design: Ulm School Design
- Interior Design: Bauhaus Interior
About the style
More than a look, the Bauhaus was a school — in Weimar, then Dessau, then Berlin — that set out to unite fine art with industrial craft and mass production. Its architecture stripped away ornament in favor of rational geometry, flat roofs, ribbon windows, glass curtain walls, and an honest expression of materials. The Dessau building by Walter Gropius made the program concrete: asymmetric wings, a transparent workshop block, and an industrial aesthetic embraced as beauty. Closed under Nazi pressure in 1933, its teachers scattered worldwide and seeded the International Style.
Notable examples
- ▸Bauhaus Building, Dessau (Dessau)
- ▸Masters' Houses (Dessau)
- ▸Fagus Factory (Alfeld)
Anatomy of Bauhaus
The numbered markers call out the design elements that define this style. Hover or tap a marker to see its breakdown.
Photo: JensKunstfreund, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Au%C3%9Fenansichten_des_Bauhaus-Geb%C3%A4udes_in_Dessau_07.jpg
Gropius wrapped the workshop wing in a sheer glass curtain wall — one of the first — hanging it off the structure as a transparent membrane.
Plain white rendered cubes with flat roofs express each function as a clean geometric volume, free of all applied ornament.
Slim balconies cantilever from the studio block, the thin slabs showing off reinforced concrete's structural daring.
Long horizontal strips of window band the connecting wings, a Bauhaus signature later carried worldwide by the International Style.
How Bauhaus connects
Styles form a network, not a tree. Explore the direct neighbours below — click any to travel the map one hop at a time.
- Influenced by
- Parallel / cross-current
- Evolved from
Influenced by Constructivism — absorbed constructivist geometry and the union of art and industry
Parallel / cross-current Art Deco — parallel interwar styles — functional rigor versus decorative glamour
Parallel / cross-current The New Typography — the Bauhaus workshop produced the New Typography programme
International Style evolved from Bauhaus — carried Bauhaus principles into a global corporate building language
De Stijl parallel / cross-current Bauhaus — Van Doesburg's teaching and ideas fed directly into the Bauhaus, though De Stijl remained a distinct, more dogmatic abstraction
Functionalism evolved from Bauhaus — drew its 'form follows function' doctrine from Bauhaus pedagogy, then adapted it to regional climate and craft
Bauhaus Graphic Design parallel / cross-current Bauhaus — the graphic and typographic workshop of the same Bauhaus school
Bauhaus Product parallel / cross-current Bauhaus — the product workshops of the same Bauhaus school
Tubular Steel Furniture parallel / cross-current Bauhaus — developed in Breuer's Bauhaus metal workshop at Dessau
Ulm School Design evolved from Bauhaus — founded as the successor to the Bauhaus, pushing into systematic method
Bauhaus Interior parallel / cross-current Bauhaus — the Bauhaus architecture and school
Describe it like this
Prompt-ready vocabulary for describing or re-creating the Bauhaus look.