If you’re looking for a little bit of design inspiration in your work, or you read my post about the Bauhaus Archive a few weeks ago, you can head on over to Harvard’s new digital gallery of all the great Bauhaus works.
The Bauhaus has a long history with Harvard – nearly 100 years, in fact. Such was the influence of Bauhaus’s design inspiration that the first modern designed building on the campus was created by Walter Gropius – a graduate student center. You can imagine the shockwaves created by using a building of this style in contrast with Harvard’s iconic early Georgian building style.
The Gropius Complex – Wikipedia
What a relief too. By allowing themselves to be heralds of design, Harvard soon commissioned renowned architects such as Le Corbusier to design their Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts in 1963. This building is the only Le Corbusier in the entire United States!
Courtesy Foundation Le Corbusier
Design Inspiration
The point to droning on about old buildings is that one great design is often all it takes to spark more. Harvard recognized that and has since been fortunate to have some very inspired designs in their 660 building campus. Go check out their graciously provided Bauhaus Archive and search through the over 30,000 objects that include paintings and furniture all the way to class notes.
You can find the link here: Harvard Bauhaus Tour
Please share this post if you have friends that are always finding inspiration in things. It’s a great resource for us all. Many thanks to the fine folks at Harvard for creating this resource – I’m sure I’m not the only one that’s thankful.
The legacies of the Bauhaus are visible today, extending well beyond modernist forms and into the ways we live, teach, and learn.
-Harvard Art Museums