Architecture lovers can live like Bauhaus students once did

Dessau - Visitors to the East German city of Dessau can live like students of the Bauhaus did 90 years ago. Within the complex of this art school, which is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, around 20 rooms are available for architecture enthusiasts, exuding the atmosphere of a groundbreaking era to this day. There is greater interest in this exceptional accommodation than usual. Bauhaus is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.

"It's a bit like a small town," says Monika Markgrafová, the head of the local building archive, about the striking complex consisting of several interconnected block-like buildings. "Each of these individual parts of the Bauhaus building has its own function. There is the school, there is the workshop, and here is where people live," she notes about the group of buildings designed by Walter Gropius in 1925 and 1926.

Students had everything in one place – they studied, created, and also lived and ate there. The modernity lay not only in the concept of the entire complex but also in its furnishings. "Rooms over 20 square meters were quite large for the time, and they also had built-in wardrobes," emphasizes Markgrafová, highlighting a feature that remains popular today. The basic configuration of well-lit rooms with large windows and linoleum on the floor included a large work desk with a lamp, a chair, and a bed, above which was space for storing a suitcase and other items.

Students who paid around 20 marks per semester for accommodation also had access to shared toilets and a kitchenette on each of the four floors. All 28 residents, including women on one floor, shared showers on the ground floor and a large terrace on the roof of the building. However, the most popular element was the individual balconies off the rooms on the eastern side of the building. "These were the center of the local social life," notes Markgrafová, who claims that photographs show that up to 14 people could fit on one of these tiny balconies at once. "There was a great demand for these rooms also because of the atmosphere of the dormitory," adds Markgrafová.

There is still interest in them today, where regular visitors can also be accommodated. Instead of paying 20 marks per semester, they will pay 40 euros per night for single rooms and 60 euros for double rooms, but they can enjoy a unique atmosphere that is not found in a regular hotel.

Just like 90 years ago, the rooms today are furnished elegantly and very austerely. The only furniture consists of a wooden bed, a wardrobe, and a table with chairs. Visitors will not encounter TVs, minibars, or other similar amenities here. Toilets and bathrooms are communal on each floor. Today's architecture enthusiasts can dine just like former students in the communal cafeteria.

In the cafeteria and other common rooms, the specific atmosphere is enhanced by the unconventional use of colors. "Colors were meant to strengthen the architectural delineation, the architectural expression," explains Markgrafová, according to whom structural and other elements were differentiated by color. Each floor also has a distinct color – blue, yellow, or red – on its ceiling.

In order for the dormitory, which underwent a major reconstruction in 1976 during the times of the German Democratic Republic, to be in the best possible condition for the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Bauhaus, it has undergone facade restoration at the turn of the year. It will be ceremonially unveiled along with other reconstructed Bauhaus buildings in Dessau on April 18.

Many observers may recall that not long ago, the entire complex in the Saxony-Anhalt city, where Bauhaus moved from Weimar due to increasing political pressure, might not have existed at all. "In January 1932, a proposal came from the Nazis to demolish it," recalls Markgrafová, who points out that the Nazis completely rejected the art school, associated with figures like architect Mies van der Rohe and painters Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee.

At that time, the Nazi proposal did not gain a majority in the city council. Fortunately, when Adolf Hitler's supporters came to power a year later throughout Germany, they found that the building could still be well utilized for their needs and did not need to be demolished. Just as before, it housed a school, albeit one with a completely different focus.