It’s a building that needs no introduction. What follows is largely a visual record of when the Modernist Tourists took a walk down Gropius Allee to visit the Bauhaus School in Dessau.
All images © Modernist Tourists 2016
It is rather like approaching a famous work of art on a gallery wall, one has seen it a thousand time in print and on screen but inevitably one feels some anxiety ahead of seeing it in person. Of course Walter Gropius‘ most famous work has many advantages over a painting in a gallery – one can go inside, walk around, sit in a chair, smell the linoleum, touch the door handles – a living masterpiece.
In sharp contrast to the main campus where order reigns, a visit to the Masters’ Houses (also by Gropius) is a rather surreal experience. Badly damaged during World War II the four houses have been restored/recreated/reimagined in a splendidly confusing yet thoroughly delightful way. The eccentric docents don’t help in matters of comprehension, so if you are troubled by veracity then it is probably best to just take a deep breath and relax.
And finally, the Bauhaus Greenhaus as we dubbed it.
Perhaps the most illustrious example of upcycled, recycled, architecturally significant DIY garden engineering ever. At some point during the early DDR period, when the Bauhaus was a smashed and forgotten ruin, some cheeky local absconded with some bits of the original fenestration and built themselves a green house. Now if only they hadn’t installed a pitched roof…
All images © Modernist Tourists 2016
M O D E R N I S T TOURISTS 
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