Wright suggested that simplicity of expression in harmony with machine technology arises naturally when that technology is properly understood: “Now let us learn from the Machine.

He outlined a sort of trade school in which industry and institution unite in a new synthesis of machine aesthetic, technology, crafts, and architecture: the “art and craft of the machine.” Wright proposed that rather than fleeing from machine technology towards an antiquarian Arts and Crafts approach, architects should instead embrace and exploit new technologies, and reconcile their aesthetic with them. It would take excursions to factories to learn industrial processes firsthand, with an eye towards improving the work produced by applying improved design.

Yet had he traced it back a little further, he would have found its truer origins in Chicago, where at Hull House in 1901 Frank Lloyd Wright gave his lecture, “The Art and Craft of the Machine.” In it, Wright suggested creating a machine-oriented crafts society, like a Guild, that collaborates with manufacturers.

He saw the Bauhaus and its principles as alien, even hostile, to the United States. Wolfe traced the origins of the Bauhaus to Europe following World War I. An overview of the Bauhaus highlights this.

Yet architects, since they straddle the fields of art and technology, have unique insight into the kinds of creative curricula now sought for STEM, and even more especially STEAM education. Far more often, architects shape the spaces in which learning occurs rather than the learning curriculum itself. The Bauhaus, established by architect Walter Gropius to promote a powerful fusion of art, technology, and craft, has renewed relevance now, when people are looking at ways in which education can stimulate creativity and innovation through learning that is more “hands on.” The Bauhaus (German for “build house”) was a “makerspace” par excellence. Tom Wolfe, in his book From Bauhaus to Our House, had it backwards: The Bauhaus, rather than being alien to the United States as Wolfe suggests, was originally home grown.

From our house to bauhaus