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Portrait of Hannes Meyer, 1928

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eyer joined the Bauhaus faculty; an architecture department, as such, finally existed. Exhibition in village of Weissenhof, Stuttgart.

 

A Bauhaus delegation visited the Soviet Union. Exchanges were difficult because of language differences but gestures and key points came through. 

 

The Bauhaus published the first catalog of its own standardized (mass-production-ready) furniture. These were multi-use and fold-away pieces: metal folding chairs, extending tables, collapsible stools, and many other functional everyday items.

 

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Ivan Leonidov, Model of proposed Lenin institute of librarianship, 1928

 

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he school was renamed VKhUTEIN (Higher Art and Technical Institute).

 

Ivan Leonidov, the most talented of the Constructivist students, produced his renowned and influential (but never executed) plan for the Lenin Institute and Library. (Rem Koolhaas was drawn to architecture by the ideas of the Constructivists, specifically the Leonidov plan).

 

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Ivan Leonidov, Model of proposed Lenin institute of librarianship, 1928

 

Nikolai Ladovsky organized his psychokinetic laboratory in which experiments on form and perception were used to develop architecture students’ perceptual abilities, the idea being to explore and enhance the subject’s “spatial giftedness.” Ladovsky created a number of devices for such purposes. Ladovsky also used this approach to work out the volumetric and spatial qualities of his own designs, stressing the significance of perception in judging volumetric-spatial compositions.

 

Photo from the cover of Bauhaus magazine Vol.2, no.4, 1928

 

 

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Hannes Meyer at the construction site for the ADGB Trade Union School in Bernau, 1928

Photo by Hermann Funzel/ Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau 

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espite the criticism of Gropius’ tenure as head of the school there is never a doubt as to his success over many years in maintaining the school’s unique atmosphere, largely through his talent for recruiting exceptional artist-teachers. The situation changed in 1928; a shortage of capital, the lack of architecture faculty, political attacks and outside pressures forced his resignation. Hannes Meyer, a Swiss architect and a Bolshevik sympathizer, replaced him as director, altering the trajectory of the school.