Bunking in the Bauhaus

I revere Bauhaus, and especially its architecture. I’ve always been thrilled by its efficient use of material and color, its minimalism and clarity. One of its central tenets was that beauty arises from purity of function. I’ve already visited many different places where Bauhaus flourished: Weimar, where Bauhaus was founded in 1919. Berlin, where it disbanded in 1933. And the White City of Tel Aviv, where the legacy of Bauhaus can be felt.

But until now, I had not made it to Dessau, the unprepossessing postindustrial city on the Elbe. From 1925 to 1932, this is where the Bauhaus experienced its most productive years. Dessau is where the world-famous School Building with its Bauhaus logo is located, along with the Masters’ Houses, the Kornhaus, the Törten Estate, and many other buildings.

Since 2013, guests are welcome to stay overnight in one wing of the School Building. That was something I definitely wanted to try.

Journey back to modernity’s beginnings

From the main railway station in Dessau, I walk only a few hundred meters to arrive at the main building. Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius designed the asymmetrical complex himself, joining together several interconnected wings.

One wing is the five-story studio building. It features the characteristic small balconies, which look almost like diving boards when viewed from the side. Maybe they were intended to inspire the Bauhaus members to an intellectual awakening.

Beginning in 1926, especially talented students and "young masters" were housed there. After all, Bauhaus was not supposed to be merely a synthesis of handicrafts and art. It was also intended as a philosophy of life, which also encompassed the private sphere.

The Bauhaus members worked in the main building, but that's also where they celebrated, staged theater performances, had love affairs - in short, it's here they lived. There are also accounts of wild parties in which ten students would cram onto a single balcony and clamber over the flat railings into the neighboring rooms.

What was it like here, back then? What was the feeling in the air, in a place where so many like-minded spirits from a variety of disciplines - from craftsmen to painters to architects - came together to create an entirely new approach? Is the spirit of those days still tangible when you spend the night in one of the studio rooms?

Minimalism in 24 square meters

My first view of my room for the night is a disappointment. Because an artists' workshop is taking place then, the only available room is on the north side, and it doesn’t have a balcony. But at least nearly the entire outside wall is windows. Through them, I look out directly upon the wing of the main building that contains the workshop and instructional rooms. Today it is a museum and home to the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, founded in 1994.

The white walls and glass surfaces opposite me reflect additional light into my room, which is already bright with sunlight. The heat of the day seems to have collected in my room. It dawns on me that the Bauhaus style, which otherwise placed such a premium on practicality and efficiency, still had a ways to go when it came to insulation and ventilation.

The room itself is minimalist. A grey bed, a black desk, two Bauhaus steel tube chairs, a simple clothes-stand and an orange-grey sideboard all stand in a room with white walls and a terracotta-colored linoleum floor. Most of the furnishings are reminiscent of the bygone age.

I enjoy the sense of clarity, but the bare walls remind me a bit of a sterile hospital hallway. I find myself seized with an impulse to apply paint to large surfaces. I wonder how radical this style must have seemed to the students at first, nearly 100 years ago.

No luxury, but authenticity

I also have my own sink with a mirror, but the shower and restrooms are shared in the hallway. Back at the time, this would have been the height of luxury for the students. Today it’s a touch of authenticity – and it helps explain the affordable overnight prices. A single room starts at 35 euros ($38), while a double starts at 55 euros per night. And if you reserve early at the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation you might even be able to overnight in one of the personalized rooms. These rooms have been furnished with designs by the artists who lived there, among them Marcel Breuer and Marianne Brandt.

After a brief meal in the stylistically authentic Bauhaus bistro, I head toward the Masters' Houses in the early evening. This is where many Bauhaus instructors lived, among them Walter Gropius, Paul Klee, Vassily Kandinsky, Lyonel Feininger and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe: The houses were designed and built especially for them.

The spirit of renewal in the Masters' Houses

Nestled between tall pine trees is a row of white, semi-detached cubes, which are open to visitors during the day. Now, in the evening hours, the artists taking part in the workshop are working on their installations. The projects have to do with waste, recycling and sustainability.

I end up speaking with Juan Aranguren, an architect from Madrid and a Bauhaus fan. "It must have been incredibly lively here back then," he said over a beer. "But I don’t like it that people don’t live here anymore. It’s as though they thought they could deep-freeze the spirit of modernity."

Adam Drazin, an anthropologist who works on design at University College London, likes the minimalist architecture of the Masters' Houses, but he also has a few words of criticism. The rooms tend to be bare, which means that sound echoes, making them less than ideal for families with young children. I appreciate the artists' forthright approach to the venerable Bauhaus buildings and legacy. For them, modernity did not stand still with the Bauhaus. And that, I presume, is exactly the way the Bauhaus teachers would have wanted it.

I take this swirl of impressions and retire to my Bauhaus-style studio room in the main building. In the morning, I awaken to renewed appreciation of what is a one-of-a-kind experience: The opportunity to experience life as it was in the Bauhaus, and to spend the night in historic building. It’s almost like spending the night in a museum after everyone else has gone home.