The architect Walter Gropius was 85, when he was commissioned to design a new residence for the German Ambassador in Buenos Aires. One of his most spectacular projects, but it was never.
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Walter Gropius in Argentina
Great Design, bad Timing
Walter Gropius and his Team designed the end of the 1960s, this residence for the German Ambassador in Argentina. One of the last projects of the then 85-year-old Bauhaus-architects – and some say one of his best. The construction works were delayed due to a military coup, and finally, a new Ambassador with a different taste and put the project to an end.
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Walter Gropius in Argentina
A tree house of a special kind
The first designs were criticized by the authorities in Buenos Aires. They feared that the building could block the views of the surrounding Park. The Argentine employees Amancio Williams suggested an increased residence with an underground reception and administration area. “Put the house in the trees,” said Gropius to his colleague William Roesner.
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Walter Gropius in Argentina
Where is the model?
The architects built, as at that time usual, a complex and expensive model of the residence, which offered the customer something Representative for your money. In 1970, the model was shown in a travelling exhibition in Buenos Aires. It was designed for the Bauhaus-Archiv, but it disappeared on the way there. The designs involved the architect William Roesner is still in search of it.
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Walter Gropius in Argentina
Many drawings, many Changes
After Roesner, 1968, “The Architects Collaborative” (TAC) was joined, he was tasked to work with Gropius on the residence project. It was a continuous optimization process, which called for numerous designs. This Aerial view was finally accepted. “Gropius was always elegant and friendly, neither particularly critical nor is he praised a lot,” recalls Roesner.
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Walter Gropius in Argentina
What it could have been
Alexander Cvijanovic, a senior TAC architect, said later that the residence of the Ambassador “is possibly the most beautiful building that emerged from the Design school of Professor Gropius”. Also Roesner agrees: “it would have been an extraordinary building – a house in the trees.” But it was not to be.
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Walter Gropius in Argentina
A good Team
Only six months Roesner has worked together with Gropius, before the Bauhaus’s founder, died in July of 1969. The image of Gropius, with the Rose and hat (top right, rear) was on his 85. Birthday celebration in Harvard included. The image of Roesner front (R) was created in the “Gropius house” in Lincoln, Massachusetts, where this year’s annual Meeting of the TAC-the architects took place.
-
Walter Gropius in Argentina
Great Design, bad Timing
Walter Gropius and his Team designed the end of the 1960s, this residence for the German Ambassador in Argentina. One of the last projects of the then 85-year-old Bauhaus-architects – and some say one of his best. The construction works were delayed due to a military coup, and finally, a new Ambassador with a different taste and put the project to an end.
-
Walter Gropius in Argentina
A tree house of a special kind
The first designs were criticized by the authorities in Buenos Aires. They feared that the building could block the views of the surrounding Park. The Argentine employees Amancio Williams suggested an increased residence with an underground reception and administration area. “Put the house in the trees,” said Gropius to his colleague William Roesner.
-
Walter Gropius in Argentina
Where is the model?
The architects built, as at that time usual, a complex and expensive model of the residence, which offered the customer something Representative for your money. In 1970, the model was shown in a travelling exhibition in Buenos Aires. It was designed for the Bauhaus-Archiv, but it disappeared on the way there. The designs involved the architect William Roesner is still in search of it.
-
Walter Gropius in Argentina
Many drawings, many Changes
After Roesner, 1968, “The Architects Collaborative” (TAC) was joined, he was tasked to work with Gropius on the residence project. It was a continuous optimization process, which called for numerous designs. This Aerial view was finally accepted. “Gropius was always elegant and friendly, neither particularly critical nor is he praised a lot,” recalls Roesner.
-
Walter Gropius in Argentina
What it could have been
Alexander Cvijanovic, a senior TAC architect, said later that the residence of the Ambassador “is possibly the most beautiful building that emerged from the Design school of Professor Gropius”. Also Roesner agrees: “it would have been an extraordinary building – a house in the trees.” But it was not to be.
-
Walter Gropius in Argentina
A good Team
Only six months Roesner has worked together with Gropius, before the Bauhaus’s founder, died in July of 1969. The image of Gropius, with the Rose and hat (top right, rear) was on his 85. Birthday celebration in Harvard included. The image of Roesner front (R) was created in the “Gropius house” in Lincoln, Massachusetts, where this year’s annual Meeting of the TAC-the architects took place.
The story of the Bauhaus architects Walter Gropius and the construction of the German Ambassador’s residence in Argentina is scarcely known. It is also more complicated, marred by political intrigue, where the various architectural designs ultimately failed.
But this Bauhaus-Episode shows how the rigorously conceptual, Walter Gropius, was regarded as a “master of collaboration”, up to the time of his death was working on. He developed a methodology of team work, especially, he benefited from the ideas and designs of his colleagues and assistants. He is regarded as one of the greatest architects of modern times, but could not draw well.
100 years of Bauhaus in Harvard
After Gropius in 1934, had fled from Nazi Germany, he lived first three years in the UK. After that, he went to Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, to assume the presidency at the “Graduate School of Design” in Harvard. His move played a decisive role in the direction that it should take the modern architecture in the United States later. At the age of 63 years, Gropius moved to the architecture firm TAC (The Architects Collaborative), next to the Harvard Campus.
The creative influence of Gropius on both institutions was strongly influenced by his Bauhaus-in the past. This revolutionary, multi-disciplinary school he had founded after the First world war in Germany as a contribution to the Modern and internationally oriented architectural style that developed at the beginning of the 1920s.
In the course of the hundred years of its existence, the Bauhaus school, the architectural heritage of Walter Gropius in 2019, with a series of lectures and a presentation of almost 200 works by 74 artists will be celebrated at Harvard. It is also a other great architectural projects of the famous Bauhaus teacher.
Design for the German Embassy residence
In December of 1968, William Roesner, a local architect and a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (mit) moved to the architecture office TAC, one of the Top addresses for creative architects in the United States. In collaboration with Gropius, he was entrusted with a draft for a new German Ambassador’s residence in the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires. Roesners first draft based on 16 slender columns, which should carry the entire building. He was discarded.
Roesners first draft of the Ambassador’s residence contained 16 slender columns, which were, however, rejected
Anyway, there were some problems around the boat in the partnership project. The Plan of the German government to build the new residence at the Plaza Alemania, met with a growing resistance to the mayor and the city Council members of Buenos Aires. They were concerned that the large-scale structure of the building could obstruct the views of the surrounding Park.
The task of Roesner was now to design a less conspicuous design concept for the future message based on a preliminary draft of a colleague. On Roesners first design of shafts, underground facility with a green roof and lots of Light, reacted Gropius reserved. “We don’t want a Bunker,” said the Maestro is polite with his deep German accent, the he had maintained all his life. “We have to put the house between the trees.”
In this time, the project seemed to fail, however, rather to the policy, as to the design philosophy. And the battle-hardened architect Gropius could not use in his later years.
Policy against architecture
The Problem arose as early as 1964. At that time, the German Federal President Heinrich Lübcke and the Argentine President, Arturo had agreed Illia to swap the small Villa of the Federal government against a larger, more representative property is in the Plaza Alemania in the Palermo district of Buenos Aires.
Two years later, Illia was overthrown by a military coup by General Juan Carlos Onganía, the plans for the German residence were put on hold. In the midst of this political upheaval, the Argentine architect Amancio Williams turned to Gropius, to win him for a cooperation partnership for the construction of the new residence. Gropius refused, with the reference to heavy workload and extensive travel.
Williams (l.), Gropius and Cvijanovic brainstormten every day for two weeks on the draft.
Working with Gropius
At this time, the aged architect busy designing the new University in Baghdad – in many ways, the most ambitious project – and the Bauhaus-Archiv in Berlin. His previous experience with the military coup in Iraq could have been a reason for his initial reluctance. It was only when the Federal government, in 1968, turned directly to him and he agreed to take the assignment – in collaboration with his colleague Williams.
In November 1968, spent Gropius and his closest collaborator, Alexander Cvijanovic two weeks in Buenos Aires to discuss with Argentine employees the ideas for the residence. Back to the drawing Board Roesner designed the building with generous spaces to allow the to 16, slender, 10-Meter-high pillars graced with a reception hall, which was under the earth, for a completely unobstructed view on the Park.
The architectural design of Roesner overlooking the main entrance
A process of constant optimization: Walter Gropius met with Roesner over a period of four months, once per week to a 10-to 15-Minute meeting at the work table. “It was always so, that I jumped up, he took my place and I stood on his left side,” recalls Roesner.
“He had a cigar, and I can remember how he showed in clouds of smoke with his Finger on the changes he wanted. He said that his ideas are the same, there was never scribble.” His corrections are not brought Gropius to paper.
“I can’t draw a straight line”
To draw Gropius’ Talent was very limited. This weakness had worried him already, as he had worked alongside Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, in the prestigious office of the Berlin architect Peter Behrens, the ground-breaking designs to paper brought.
In a letter to his mother, Meldina, he has left to his biographer Reginald Isaacs, wrote to Gropius: “to My complete inability to draw the Simplest, on paper, is very discouraging and I often looked sadly on my future profession. I can’t draw a straight line.”
Watch the Video 04:23
Bauhaus classics re-interpreted
Maybe the architect left at the beginning of his career – out of necessity – on the cooperation with others he made later to an “art form”. Creative team work has been the leitmotif of this man, who had a lot of ideas, but not always the means to illustrate them.
“Everyone wants to see him as one of the greatest designers in the world, but he was not there. He was one of the biggest [Design] philosophers of the world,” said Sally Harkness, a co-founder of the renowned architectural firm TAC once about Walter Gropius.
On the final straight to the residence
Gropius liked Roesners first sketches, but insisted on two significant Changes: four large L-shaped pillars instead of a plurality of thin pillars and a frieze that should surround such an ornamental Band on the lower part of the building.
“L-shaped pillars, it’s an aesthetic call, of the architectural Trend towards a brutalist at this time, reflected. goods I wanted a rather more elegant, structural, and General expression,” said Roesner. The idea is to hide the upper living spaces surrounded by trees, originated by Amancio Williams. He had designed on a piece of forest for his father, Alberto, a prominent musician and composer, a similar house, stretched on pillars over a Creek.
TAC-architect William Roesner checked again at that time, his designs for the residence of the Ambassador
A project doomed to Failure
The final Design of the German Embassy residence – a collaboration between Williams, Gropius and Roesner – made in the international press and in the architectural industry for attention. The Opposition to the redesign of the Plaza Alemania was to become even sharper. The modernization, recovery was quick, especially after the sudden death of Walter Gropius in July, 1969.
Williams was first in 1971, again in favour of the project with the newly-elected Argentine President Alejandro Agustín Lanusse further. Had shown an interest, but a year later, the Federal government gave up the Plan entirely. The new German Ambassador Luitpold Werz had not fallen, the extremely modern Design, anyway.
And so the story ended is the, what is called Cvijanovic, a close associate of Gropius, as “possibly the most beautiful building” that was designed under the leadership of the late Bauhaus Professor Walter Gropius.
The exhibition “The Bauhaus and Harvard,” runs in the US until the 28. July 2019 and Museum of art is in the gallery of the Harvard in Cambridge, to see Massachusetts.