debauhaus1-8, Exercise 1: The Weissenhof estate

Model answer:

The Weissenhof estate was built in Stuttgart in 1927 as an exhibition of the Deutscher Werkbund, directed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (check). It consisted of model housing designed by about seventeen architects from several countries, among them Gropius, Le Corbusier, Peter Behrens, J.J.P. Oud and Mies himself (check the list). It was meant to show, in real buildings, how people might live in the modern city: with plain white forms, flat roofs, large windows, open plans and new construction methods. It drew large crowds and strong criticism, and some opponents called it un-German (check).

How it relates to the Bauhaus: Gropius and Mies, two of the Bauhaus's directors, designed buildings there, but the exhibition was the Werkbund's and not the school's, and most of the other architects had no link with the Bauhaus. So Weissenhof belongs to the wider New Building movement, of which the Bauhaus was one part.