Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the most important school for Modernist design, the Max Kade Institute will hold an international conference to explore the influences of Bauhaus ideas, theories, concepts, and principles around the world from the second half of the twentieth century until today.

Bauhaus was on the move from the start. Opened 1919 in Weimar, forced to move on to Dessau 1925, then Berlin in 1932, until the school was shuttered by the Nazis and many of its members migrated internationally, not only to the United States.

On the 100th anniversary of its founding, Bauhaus Transfer will explore the role Bauhaus designers played in the history of transnational design. How can we trace the spread of Modernist design globally through the movements of Bauhaus students and teachers? How are different sites in the world linked through Bauhaus principles? What routes did Bauhaus design take after leaving Germany? How did the urgent needs of these new locations revise Bauhaus design principles or pedagogical practices? How did Bauhaus networks extend beyond the German and English-speaking world into Soviet, Indian, Brazilian, African, and East Asian contexts?

Organized by Professor Ute Poerschke, Architecture (uxp10@psu.edu) and Professor Daniel Purdy, German (dlp14@psu.edu)

Supported by the Max Kade Research Institute, Stuckeman School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, Palmer Museum of Art, and Wolkenkuckucksheim|Cloud-Cuckoo-Land

Conference Schedule