Bauhaus Archive

In 1962, after the famous return of the Bauhaus and the lost son Ludwig Mies van der Rohe to Berlin, the founding director of the Bauhaus Archive (Hans Maria Wingler) asked Walter Gropius if he would propose a building for their headquarters. Who else could know more about the Bauhaus and its needs than its father - Walter Gropius? The final design, which appeared in plan like a slightly shifted printing letter H, was originally to be located at Rosenhöhe in Darmstadt. Wingler accepted the project without objections but could not politically advocate for it. The city council of Darmstadt found the location, as well as the entire newly established institution, too boldly conceived. However, during one of his visits to Berlin, Gropius managed to impress the building councilor Rolf Schwedler with his project for the Bauhaus Archive. When the archive moved to Berlin in 1970, a suitable building began to be sought for it. The choice once again fell on the original project from 1964, despite the fact that its author was already deceased. Gropius's team of collaborators, led by Alexander Cvijanovic (TAC - The Architects Collaborative), adapted the project originally intended for sloping terrain, rotated it 180º, and added access ramps. In contrast to the realized skeleton of prefabricated parts, the original design was monolithic. The light gray concrete surfaces are thus interrupted by dark joints. The high northern-facing ceilings are insufficient to illuminate the 870 square meters of exhibition space, so the exhibitions cannot go without constant artificial lighting. Relationships between the large collectors' storage (224m²) and the archive (112m²) are very limited in contrast to the collecting tendencies.
The story of the building continues. Since 1997, the building has been under heritage protection. After a quarter-century of operation, the archive no longer meets the needs of the institution. In November 2005, the Japanese firm Sanaa won the competition for the expansion of the Bauhaus Archive.