Is it a home or a radical statement? Here we are at the Haus am Horn in Weimar. It’s more than just a house. It’s a testament to the Bauhaus movement’s revolutionary ideas.
The Haus am Horn was designed by Georg Muche. It was built for the 1923 Bauhaus Werkschau exhibition. This show displayed works. The Haus am Horn became the first structure embodying Bauhaus design principles. These principles reshaped 20th-century architecture and aesthetics.
Imagine stepping inside this cubic home. Its flat roof and simple design reflect a new way of thinking. Steel and concrete form its structure. Energy efficiency was key. Memories of World War I fuel shortages were still present.
The Haus am Horn’s layout is unique. The clerestory-lit living area forms the heart of the house. Other rooms surround it. Only the work niche faces outward directly. A basement provides space for utilities like laundry. The walls have three layers. There is a concrete exterior. Peat-based material provides insulation. Interior walls complete the design. Windows are larger on the south and west. The north side has almost no windows.
Four bedrooms include a lady’s room. There is also a gentleman’s room. A children’s room and guest room complete the private quarters. The house also features a kitchen and pantry. A separate dining room complements the living space. There’s a separate toilet and bathroom too. Coal-fired central heating warms the house. A gas-fueled boiler heats the bathroom. A gas kitchen stove facilitates cooking. Heating and ventilation shafts are in the living room corners.
The Haus am Horn sits apart from the main Bauhaus campus. It is located at 61 am Horn. This street features upper-middle-class villas. Previously, the plot was a vegetable garden. It supplied produce for the Bauhaus canteen.
Everything inside the Haus am Horn came from Bauhaus workshops. Lászlo Moholy-Nagy designed the lighting. Marcel Breuer designed furniture including built-in cabinets. Alma Siedhoff-Buscher created the children’s room furniture and toys.
Benita Koch-Otte designed the kitchen. Erich Brendel built it. It inspired Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky’s Frankfurt kitchen in 1926. Theodor Bogler designed the kitchen ceramics. Labels identified each item’s contents. Koch-Otte also designed the children’s room carpet.
Alfred Arndt and Josef Maltan planned the interior color scheme. They used calming green-yellow for the living room. Brighter colors were used in colder rooms. This color scheme was rediscovered during restoration in 1998-99.
During the Werkschau exhibition, the Haus am Horn drew crowds. Locals nicknamed it “die Kaffeemühle”. This means “the coffee grinder”. Its shape resembled a typical coffee grinder. Media reception ranged from admiration to rejection.
Despite mixed reviews, the children’s room toys were popular. Walter Gropius worried this would hurt the school’s academic image. Architects like Mies van der Rohe admired the design. Traditionalists like Paul Schultze-Naumburg were critical.
The Haus am Horn was meant to be a model home. It was for an envisioned Bauhaus campus. This campus was to have housing for teachers. This never happened. The house is sometimes called “Musterhaus”. This means show home in German.
Gropius planned to design it himself. Students chose Muche’s design instead. Muche planned it for himself and his wife. The Bauhaus lacked an architecture department. Gropius’ firm completed the project in four months. Adolf Meyer oversaw construction. Adolf Sommerfeld financed the project. He provided an interest-free loan.
After the exhibition, Sommerfeld sold the Haus am Horn. He moved the furniture to Berlin. Most items disappeared over time. The Bauhaus Dessau Foundation has a dressing table. It also has a glass cabinet. The Bauhaus Museum Weimar has a copy of the toy cupboard. These pieces were recreated for the 2019 restoration.
In 1938, the German Labour Front acquired the house. They planned to demolish it. World War II stopped these plans. In 1945, Soviet forces confiscated the house. Weimar City Council managed it. In 1951, it became public property.
Bernd Grönwald rented the house in 1971. He restored the house. He also obtained historic monument status for it in 1973. He set up an exhibition about the house. Over 40,000 people visited.
From 1998, the Freundeskreis der Bauhaus-Universität Weimar leased the building. They restored it. In 2017, the Klassik Stiftung Weimar acquired the Haus am Horn. A major restoration occurred in 2018-19. It reopened on May 18, 2019. This was Walter Gropius’s birthday. The Haus am Horn stands as a reminder. It reminds us of the Bauhaus movement’s lasting impact on design.