I found a pamphlet from a local real estate agent in the mailbox yesterday, sporting a “Bauhaus” property for sale in the immediate vicinity, which instantly upset me so much that I decided it had to be blogged. Take another look at the picture, if you please. Does this even remotely resemble Bauhaus, you think? Granted, the angles are sharp (which, by the way is no prerequisite for Bauhaus), and the house is most definitely very square, flat roof and all, with the occasional extremity, but it ends there.
Of course, I knew that real estate agents lack a hint of… je ne sais quoi… history and cultural understanding, but I’m more than just a little flabbergasted to learn that it even applies to architecture. I’m sure this would cause Walter Gropius to spin in his grave. I know I would, were I only dead, seeing as I’ve been passionate about Bauhaus for decades.
If you’re a real estate agent, please read this (which I expect is common knowledge for the rest of you).
Maybe he had the idea that the building was constructed with material bought at that ghastly all-in-one shop at Liertoppen? And that that really was a good thing?
God forbid, KEE! But come to think of it, I used to live in an Oslo Bauhaus “enclave” no more than a couple of years ago, and was surprised to learn that quite a few of the so-called Bauhaus villas were partly wooden-panelled, but honestly, that’s not Bauhaus, the way I’m used to think of it.
An apology also, to the real estate agents. Collectively, that is. A very good friend of mine, who spent years in the real estate trade, definitely knows his Bauhaus, although I suspect most of his colleagues could use an elementary crash course.
By the way, I used to maintain a number of (long-since gone) Bauhaus web pages back in the mid-nineties, but let me assure you: The pages themselves were everything but Bauhaus. Terribly designed, with textured backgrounds and — hang on to your hat — framesets. Then again, back then, that was the way of the web, but I have to tell you, they were a discredit to everything Bauhaus.
I suppose the moral of the story is that stone-throwing is best left to those completely devoid of sin.