Haus am horn
Encyclopedia
Weimar
Weimar is a city in Germany famous for its cultural heritage. It is located in the federal state of Thuringia , north of the Thüringer Wald, east of Erfurt, and southwest of Halle and Leipzig. Its current population is approximately 65,000. The oldest record of the city dates from the year 899...
Bauhaus
Bauhaus
', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...
's exhibition of July through September 1923. It was designed by Georg Muche
Georg Muche
Georg Muche was a German painter, printmaker, architect, author, and teacher.-Early life and education:Georg Muche was born on 8 May 1895 in Querfurt, in the south of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany and grew up in the Rhön area...
, a painter and a teacher at the Bauhaus. Other Bauhaus instructors, such as Adolf Meyer
Adolf Meyer (architect)
Adolf Meyer was a German architect. A student and employee of Peter Behrens, Meyer became the office boss of the firm of Walter Gropius around 1915 and a full partner afterwards. In 1919 Gropius appointed Meyer as a master at the Bauhaus, where he taught work drawing and construction technique...
and Walter Gropius
Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius was a German architect and founder of the Bauhaus School who, along with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modern architecture....
, assisted with the technical aspects of the house's design. Gropius stated that the goal of the house's construction was "the greatest comfort with the greatest economy by the application of the best craftsmanship and the best distribution of space in form, size, and articulation." The house's construction was financed by Sommerfeld
Sommerfeld
- Place name :* The German name of Lubsko, Poland* Sommerfeld, A German town now a district of Leipzig - Family name :* Arnold Sommerfeld , a German physicist who is one of the founders of the quantum mechanics...
, a Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
lumber merchant, who had been a client of Gropius years before. The house was built away from the main section of the Bauhaus, on land that was being used as a vegetable garden for the school. The site is currently near the Park an der Ilm in Weimar, on a residential street.
It was a simple cubic design, utilizing steel and concrete in its construction. At the center of the house was a clerestory
Clerestory
Clerestory is an architectural term that historically denoted an upper level of a Roman basilica or of the nave of a Romanesque or Gothic church, the walls of which rise above the rooflines of the lower aisles and are pierced with windows. In modern usage, clerestory refers to any high windows...
-lit living room, twenty-feet square, with specialized rooms surrounding it. Gropius described the room's design: "in each room, function is important, e.g. the kitchen is the most practical and simple of kitchens -- but it is not possible to use it as a dining room as well. Each room has its own definite character which suits its purpose." Each room had specially-designed furnishings and hardware designed by and created in the Bauhaus workshops. Laszlo Moholy-Nagy
László Moholy-Nagy
László Moholy-Nagy was a Hungarian painter and photographer as well as professor in the Bauhaus school. He was highly influenced by constructivism and a strong advocate of the integration of technology and industry into the arts.-Early life:...
, for instance, designed the lights and were made in the metal workshop; Marcel Breuer
Marcel Breuer
Marcel Lajos Breuer , was a Hungarian-born modernist, architect and furniture designer of Jewish descent. One of the masters of Modernism, Breuer displayed interest in modular construction and simple forms.- Life and work :Known to his friends and associates as Lajkó, Breuer studied and taught at...
, a student at the time, designed the furniture, including the built-in cabinetry.
Owing to the Bauhaus's financial difficulties, the Haus am Horn was sold to a private individual in 1924.
In 1996, it entered onto the monument preservation list of UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
and was declared a 20th century world heritage site.
In 1998-1999, the structure was evaluated for restoration by the Bauhaus University Circle of Friends (Freundeskreis der Bauhaus-Universität Weimar).
On the occasion of the Bauhaus‘s 80th anniversary, the house was completely restored by the Bauhaus University Circle of Friends with support from the Sparkasse Finance Group and several public donors.