ABSTRACT
In his pioneering treatise entitled The Four Elements of Architecture (1851), Gottfried Semper asserted that the twisting and knotting of threads, as opposed to the massing of blocks of stone, bares the foundation from which everything was derived, not only textiles but also buildings. He argued that the beginning of building occurs as the beginning of fabric and that the most fundamental element of both the building and the textile was the knot. In 1919 Walter Gropius declared gender equality at the Bauhaus, yet his pedagogical writings reveal that the “strong male gender” was directed toward architecture, whereas the “beautiful female gender” had to be content with weaving.
This study examines spatial innovations of textile forms and structures created by Gunta Stölzl, Benita Otte, and Anni Albers by exploring their influence on architecture, engineering, and contemporary design. The textiles produced by women at the Bauhaus were three-dimensional forms informed by the tensions between structure and material. Stölzl, the first female studio director at the Bauhaus, emphasized that it was essential to define experimentation, to shape experiences through material, rhythm, proportion, color, and form suitable for a new lifestyle. These designers should be recognized as key contributors to the canon of twentieth-century architecture.
