Walter Gropius’ Master Houses Reinterpreted At The Bauhaus In Dessau

These buildings completed the restoration of an estate that originally consisted of a kiosk designed by Mies van der Roe in 1932 and five buildings designed by Gropius during his tenure at the Bauhaus. Dessau was the second location of the Bauhaus, which moved from Weimar in 1925 after the Nazis won control of the state. During an air raid in the final days of the Second World War, Gropius House and half of the semi-detached house of Paul Klee and László Moholy-Nagy were destroyed.

While Bruno Fioretti Marquez’s replacement designs share the proportions of the original houses, their minimalism has been amplified. Built using contemporary construction techniques, each concrete carapace has been treated with an opaque wash that highlights the flatness of the buildings orderly forms. The interiors are monochromatic; the walls, floors, and ceilings have been rendered with varying tones and textures that give the space both depth and difference as the sun moves across the sky.