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Comment by dgut | Hacker News Reader

I visited the Cité U in Paris recently where different countries have residence housing for students, each respective building designed in a particular architectural style.

Germany's Maison Heinrich Heine, constructed in Bauhaus style [1], didn't particularly impress me. It was dull and rather uninteresting. I had the opposite feeling of what one generally fells in a place like this, surrounded by trees and Greek and Roman-inspired architecture like Fondation Rosa Abreu De Grancher [2].

[1] http://www.ciup.fr/maison-heinrich-heine/en/history/

[2] http://www.ciup.fr/fondation-abreu-grancher/en/

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I think it is a victim of own success. The bauhaus school design has creeped in so many parts of our modern life that the originals no longer seem as interesting. That was a little bit of the vibe I get when I went to the Bauhaus museum in Germany the past summer. It is still beautiful, nevertheless.

Try proposing them in the US.

Indeed. Bauhaus is the precursor of many modern design schools, like Mid-century Scandinavian.

And modern buildings in this style are a total delight to be in. Functional, simple, bright, cozy and often inexpensive.

But as you say original Bauhaus looks conventional because we judge it by modern standards.

Except in US residential construction where it is vanishingly rare.

Yes, same in UK where sadly designs tend to be quite bland and quality is atrocious.

I agree with you. I've had experiences where I'll see a building or piece of furniture and ignore it, only to find out that it's not a "modern" or new building, but was designed and built decades earlier than I may have thought - sometimes even a century ago. In context you realize how important they are even if we've grown used to the look and feel.

In the past I thought the same. But after visiting the original Bauhaus buildings [1] in Dessau / Germany my mind changed. There is a beauty in this simple, clear and elegant design especially considering the contrast to typical corny buildings of that time.

https://www.bauhaus-dessau.de/de/architektur/bauhausbauten/m...

I had the same feeling. The elegance and human-centeredness of the original is often lost in lesser implementations of the style.

Totally agree. There’s simply too much bauhausinspired architecture out there, so now it looks unimaginative and dull.

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