debauhaus1-10, Exercise 2: Three myths

Model answer (one possible choice):

1. "Bauhaus means white, flat-roofed boxes." The early Weimar school was craft-based and expressive, and the white-box look is a later and wider modern-architecture style, so the label fits one period of the school and many buildings that have nothing to do with it (check).
2. "It was about cheap design for everyone." Some Dessau designs, such as lamps and wallpapers, were made in volume by firms, but many of the school's best-known objects were low-volume and not cheap, so the aim was only partly achieved (check).
3. "The Bauhaus went to America." Individuals such as Gropius, Breuer, Mies and Moholy-Nagy took versions of its ideas into American institutions that had their own traditions, and modern design there had other sources too, so the influence is real but is a story of people and schools, not of one idea moved intact (check).