"Courtyard House A" floor plan (1931) by Eduard LudwigBauhaus Dessau Foundation
Eduard Ludwig arrived at the Bauhaus in late 1928 when Breuer and Fieger had already left Dessau for Berlin. Trained as a carpenter, from his fifth semester he was taught architecture by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the third and last Bauhaus Director.
Mies van der Rohe was a believer in architecture as an aesthetic pursuit. He trained his students in this spirit, and primarily explored the harmony between free space and its boundaries. A typical class assignment was to design a terrace of low-rise buildings with their own residential courtyard.
"Courtyard House A" design inside (1931) by Eduard LudwigBauhaus Dessau Foundation
Eduard Ludwig followed his master in designing these court houses, which were closed to public space on their north side and opened with floor-length windows to the inner courtyard.
Interior and exterior merged; the courtyard served as an extension of the living room.
Ludwig, too, based his ideas on his master’s materials and forms. It’s no coincidence that a Weissenhof chair, designed by Mies van der Rohe in 1927 for an estate of that name in Stuttgart, takes pride of place here in his sketch.
By Frank ScherschelLIFE Photo Collection
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, like Walter Gropius, emigrated to the USA and took the Bauhaus avant-garde out into the world. In 1953, he said, “The Bauhaus was an idea, and I believe that the cause of the gigantic influence that the Bauhaus has had in the world can be sought in the fact that it was an idea.”
Explore one of the best expressions of that idea by stepping into a 3D model of one of Eduard Ludwig's court houses, inspired by Mies van der Rohe's tutelage, here.
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