As we celebrate Family Day here in Canada under loosening Covid-19 restrictions this long weekend, I have been thinking about how central “the home” has been to the experience of the pandemic. Finding ways to comfortably inhabit a space for long periods of isolation forced many of us to pay careful attention to the architecture of family dwellings. What may surprise many, however, is how directly the historical avant-garde has impacted the way we imagine, plan, and arrange the spaces of our homes. In particular, the Bauhaus— a German art and design school that flourished in Germany’s Weimar period from 1919-1933— transformed the architecture and traditions of 19th century living spaces to the modern ones that predominate our contemporary lives. The radical departure embodied in the Bauhaus mantra “form follows function” lead to a reimagining of family dwellings as purpose built spaces that privilege how individuals actually live instead of forcing preconceived ideas of how individuals should live.
Flex-spaces, for example, derive from this ethos, along with open plan family rooms, sliding walls, and outdoor living space that extend the experience of indoor spaces to the natural environment. In Bauhaus Dream-House: Modernity and Globalization, author Katerina Rüedi Ray examines the profound social, cultural and spatial transformations that the Bauhaus had on family home design in the decades following WWII. She writes: “The rejection of academic autonomy, historicism and aestheticism was central to the curriculum. The Bauhaus saw the past as discredited, and the task of the artist, designer and architect as beginning with a 'tabula rasa' - a clean slate -and disregarding old hierarchies between the arts, crafts and architecture (p. 26).” If you look around your own home today, you will see traces of Bauhaus influence at every turn. If you don’t believe me, simply watch the “Bauhaus Explained” video linked here and think about the freedom of spatial design you may be taking for granted in your own dwelling. Wishing you all a happy Family Day— enjoy the links!
