The Laws of the Bauhaus

The Bauhaus, founded by Walter Gropius in Weimar in 1919, taught through workshops in which artists and craftsmen worked side by side. Imad's short poem turns the school's ideas into Bauhaus rules declared in Gropius's voice: no separation between art and craft, the building as the final goal, learning that begins with the hand and the material, no ornament without necessity, and design as a social mission for everyone.

في عامٍ تكسّرت فيه الجدران،In a year when walls were shattered,

ونفضت أوروبا غبار الحرب،And Europe shook off the dust of war,

وُلدت مدرسة لا تشبه سواها،A school unlike any other was born,

مدرسةٌ جعلت من البيان دستورًا،A school that turned a manifesto into a constitution,

ومن الحلم قانونًا.And transformed a dream into law.

قال غروبيوس:Gropius declared:

There is no separation between art and craft.

لا فصلَ بين فنٍّ وحرفة.

فالنجّار أخٌ للرسّام،The carpenter is brother to the painter,

والحدّاد شريكٌ للنحّات،The metalworker is partner to the sculptor,

والخطاط يكتب على جدارٍ،The calligrapher writes upon the wall,

كما يكتب المعماري بالزجاج والحديد.As the architect writes with glass and steel.

وقال:And he declared:

The building is the ultimate goal.

المبنى هو الغاية.

هو القصيدة الكبرى،It is the great poem,

تتداخل فيه الألوان والخطوط،Where colors and lines intertwine,

والكراسي والأبواب والنوافذ،Where chairs, doors, and windows,

كأنّها أبياتٌ في نصّ واحد،Become verses within a single text,

كلّها تنشد وحدة المعنى.All seeking the unity of meaning.

وقال:And he declared:

Begin with craft, with the hand, with material.

ابدأ من الحِرفة، من اليد، من المادة.

دع الطالب يلمس الطين،Let the student touch the clay,

ويجرّب الخشب،Let him experience the wood,

ويعجن اللون براحتيه،Let him mix color with his own hands,

قبل أن يقرأ نظريات الجمال.Before reading theories of beauty.

وقال:And he declared:

No ornament without necessity.

لا زخرفةَ بلا ضرورة.

فالشكل يتبع الوظيفة،Form follows function,

والخط المستقيم أصدق من ألف حليّة،A straight line can be truer than a thousand ornaments,

والبساطة أكثر وفاءً للإنسان،And simplicity is more faithful to humanity,

من زخارف تخدع العين.Than decoration that deceives the eye.

وقال:And he declared:

Design is a social mission.

التصميم رسالة اجتماعية.

ليس جدرانًا وحسب،It is not merely about walls,

بل وعدٌ بعالمٍ عادل،But a promise of a more just world,

ومدينةٍ تتسع للجميع،A city with room for everyone,

ومقعدٍ مريحٍ للعامل والفيلسوف سواء.And a comfortable chair for worker and philosopher alike.

ومن هنا،And from here,

انطلقت قوانين الباوهاوس،The principles of the Bauhaus emerged,

كأنها تراتيل للحداثة:Like hymns of modernity:

وحدة الفنون والحِرَف.The unity of art and craft.

المبنى غاية الجمال.The building as the ultimate artistic goal.

التعلّم بالممارسة.Learning through making.

الشكل يتبع الوظيفة.Form follows function.

And design is life for everyone.

والتصميم حياةٌ للجميع.

واليوم،And today,

ما زالت كلمات البيان تصدح،The words of the manifesto still resonate,

في كل كرسي بسيط التصميم،In every simply designed chair,

وفي كل نافذة من زجاجٍ صريح،In every window of honest glass,

وفي كل مدرسة فنون تُعلّم طلابها،In every art school teaching its students,

أن يمزجوا الفكر باليد،To unite thought with the hand,

والخيال بالمطرقة،Imagination with the hammer,

والجمال بالوظيفة،Beauty with function,

والفن بالحياة.And art with life.

وأن يبنوا لا لأنفسهم فقط،And to build not for themselves alone,

بل للإنسانية كلّها.But for all humanity.

The laws are told at length in The Epic of the Bauhaus: When Architecture Decided to Begin the World Again, and the manifesto behind them in The Bauhaus Manifesto: From Gropius's Principles to Villa Tugendhat.