VR-Installation: Bauhaus Reflected in the Mathildenhöhe
A project from the Experimental Design course held at Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences. Summer term 2019, Supervision: Prof. Philipp Thesen
CASE STUDY
Founded 100 years ago in Weimar, Bauhaus wrote a global history in architecture, design and painting. Lesser known than the school of design itself are its references to Darmstadt‘s Mathildenhöhe, the birthplace of the international Art Nouveau movement and the early setting for the activities undertaken by many Bauhaus legends. Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus, worked here in the architectural office of Peter Behrens, as did Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, which made the Darmstadt architectural office of particular importance. The famous Bauhaus Archive, planned by Walter Gropius and erected on Berlin‘s Landwehr Canal in 1954, was originally designed for Darmstadt’s Rosenhöhe and refers through the shape of its roof to the five-finger tower of Mathildenhöhe. The city of Darmstadt had rejected its placement there when Gropius had offered to reopen the Bauhaus in the city of Darmstadt after the Weimar facilities were closed, as it was unable to finance the building in its original design. Just as it had done in 1920.
CLIENT
Hochschule Darmstadt, Fachbereich Gestaltung
PROJECT
Das Bauhaus im Spiegel der Mathildenhöhe
TYPE
VR-Installation
ROLE
Professor
YEAR
2019–2020
In 2019, the Bauhaus is located in Darmstadt
All these connections gave a group of six students the opportunity to engage with the history of the school located on the Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt. Its relationships to the Bauhaus were considered as part of a semester thesis to mark the 100th anniversary of Bauhaus. The students researched the choice of location on Mathildenhöhe for the planned relocation in 1920. They simulated the famous Bauhaus building on a partially unoccupied site bordering the School of Arts and Crafts – today‘s Department of Design, opposite the Darmstadt artists‘ colony. The students built it completely in 3D and took great effort to animate it. Workshops and furnishing details of the Bauhaus were set up on the basis of historical photos and original floor plans using Blender; it was animated in Unity.
Virtual Reality makes history come alive
This resulted in an interactive VR experience that allows the user to move within the architectural utopia of the Bauhaus construction on the Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt. This allows the user to discover charming details about the relationships between the two institutions of Bauhaus and Mathildenhöhe as well as the people who lived there. For example, in the drawer of Walter Gropius' desk in his study there is a secret letter from Alma Mahler, who - as research into historical events revealed - was having a liaison with Joseph Maria Olbrich from Darmstadt.
The resulting VR installation is a digital extension to the Bauhaus Reflected in the Mathildenhöhe exhibition (Das Bauhaus im Spiegel der Mathildenhöhe) put on by the Department of Design at the Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences. The exhibition illuminates the connections between the Bauhaus and the Darmstadt artists' colony at the Mathildenhöhe, some of which have gone unnoticed. It thus aims to open up a new, remarkable perspective on the Bauhaus for its centennial anniversary.
The exhibition was on display at the Designhaus Darmstadt from October 2019 to January 2020.
AWARDS
The Bauhaus in Dessau was built according to plans by Walter Gropius as a school building for the Bauhaus art, design and architecture school between 1925 and 1926.
Darmstadt's Mathildenhöhe is considered the birthplace of art nouveau, or Jugendstil. The wedding tower from 1906 and the exhibition building from 1908 were designed by the architect Joseph Maria Olbrich.
VR-Installation: Bauhaus Reflected in the Mathildenhöhe
A project from the Experimental Design course held at Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences. Summer term 2019, Supervision: Prof. Philipp Thesen
CASE STUDY
Founded 100 years ago in Weimar, Bauhaus wrote a global history in architecture, design and painting. Lesser known than the school of design itself are its references to Darmstadt‘s Mathildenhöhe, the birthplace of the international Art Nouveau movement and the early setting for the activities undertaken by many Bauhaus legends. Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus, worked here in the architectural office of Peter Behrens, as did Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, which made the Darmstadt architectural office of particular importance. The famous Bauhaus Archive, planned by Walter Gropius and erected on Berlin‘s Landwehr Canal in 1954, was originally designed for Darmstadt’s Rosenhöhe and refers through the shape of its roof to the five-finger tower of Mathildenhöhe. The city of Darmstadt had rejected its placement there when Gropius had offered to reopen the Bauhaus in the city of Darmstadt after the Weimar facilities were closed, as it was unable to finance the building in its original design. Just as it had done in 1920.
CLIENT
Hochschule Darmstadt, Fachbereich Gestaltung
PROJECT
Das Bauhaus im Spiegel der Mathildenhöhe
TYPE
VR-Installation
ROLE
Professor
YEAR
2019–2020
In 2019, the Bauhaus is located in Darmstadt
All these connections gave a group of six students the opportunity to engage with the history of the school located on the Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt. Its relationships to the Bauhaus were considered as part of a semester thesis to mark the 100th anniversary of Bauhaus. The students researched the choice of location on Mathildenhöhe for the planned relocation in 1920. They simulated the famous Bauhaus building on a partially unoccupied site bordering the School of Arts and Crafts – today‘s Department of Design, opposite the Darmstadt artists‘ colony. The students built it completely in 3D and took great effort to animate it. Workshops and furnishing details of the Bauhaus were set up on the basis of historical photos and original floor plans using Blender; it was animated in Unity.
Virtual Reality makes history come alive
This resulted in an interactive VR experience that allows the user to move within the architectural utopia of the Bauhaus construction on the Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt. This allows the user to discover charming details about the relationships between the two institutions of Bauhaus and Mathildenhöhe as well as the people who lived there. For example, in the drawer of Walter Gropius' desk in his study there is a secret letter from Alma Mahler, who - as research into historical events revealed - was having a liaison with Joseph Maria Olbrich from Darmstadt.
The resulting VR installation is a digital extension to the Bauhaus Reflected in the Mathildenhöhe exhibition (Das Bauhaus im Spiegel der Mathildenhöhe) put on by the Department of Design at the Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences. The exhibition illuminates the connections between the Bauhaus and the Darmstadt artists' colony at the Mathildenhöhe, some of which have gone unnoticed. It thus aims to open up a new, remarkable perspective on the Bauhaus for its centennial anniversary.
The exhibition was on display at the Designhaus Darmstadt from October 2019 to January 2020.
AWARDS