#books #architecture | My Bauhaus : 100 architects on the 100th anniversary of a myth

My Bauhaus : 100 architects on the 100th anniversary of a myth = Mein Bauhaus : 100 Architekten zum 100. Geburtstag eines Mythos / Sandra Hofmeister (ed.).
Munich : Edition Detail, 2018.
240 p. : il.
Ed. bilingüe inglés – alemán.
ISBN 9783955534516
/ EN / DE / Libros / Arquitectura – Siglo XX / Bauhaus / Movimiento moderno (Arquitectura)
ehuBiblioteka BCG A-72.036 BAU
https://ehu.on.worldcat.org/oclc/1104820658

[.en] Architects the world over are familiar with the name Bauhaus. A century after it was founded, the principles, philosophies and memories of this avant-garde school are still very much alive. Bauhaus is a legend, and its legacy continues to shape our world in many different ways. To mark its centenary, Detail has produced an autograph book in which 100 architects from all over the world wish the school a happy birthday. Their short texts, photos and sketches reveal what Bauhaus means to them. The result is a colourful album of anecdotes, experiences and personal stories that will raise a smile or make you think. Rather than defining what Bauhaus is, the short statements show the extent to which Bauhaus is still relevant today. 

In the Chinese horoscope, 2019 is the year of the earth pig. It could be a good year, for in China the pig is a symbol not only of luck, but also of wealth. The 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus, which will take place in 2019, is therefore quite fitting. Although Tom Wolfe may have doubted it in his critique From Bauhaus to Our House, the Bauhaus was a stroke of luck, its legacy indubitably impressive. This is why Sandra Hofmeister asked 100 architects from around the world to consider these questions: Is the idea of the Bauhaus relevant to their work, and does it represent a reference value for designs, processes and the architects’ own self-perception? 

Indeed, the Bauhaus has not touched all the architects, to each of whom a double page is devoted, as closely as it has Tom Emerson of London’s 6a Architects. In 1992, he spent the summer there, removed the rear wall of the refectory as Gropius had originally planned to do, and swam naked in the lake near the Meisterhäuser, which “with their GDR-style gabled roofs and added-on rabbit hutches … were not masterful at all.” Walter Gropius and Oskar Schlemmer did not come and go at everyone’s house, as they did at Roman Delugan’s mother’s place. Not everyone experiences the Bauhaus spirit, the “unity of function, form and material-appropriate building, a rational treatment of resources, but also sensuality, feel and colour” every day in the white, black, blue and red design of the Munich office stairway as do Andreas Meck and Axel Frühauf. And not everyone understands the Bauhaus as “a challenge to change society by means of design” as Anna Heringer does, or tries to explore proximity to the Bauhaus in a programmatic way, as Volker Staab does. Indeed, Staab’s new entrance tower to the Bauhaus Archive in Berlin became possible only by means of a digital process. However, this may be the movement’s merit: from 100 experts, the Bauhaus provokes 100 different responses. For the reader, this book, fittingly designed and printed on Gmund Bauhaus Dessau paper in honour of the occasion, certainly represents wealth and luck.