A walking tour through Henry van de Velde’s Art School buildings in Weimar
Every Saturday morning in September and October, students of the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar will guide their guests through Van de Velde’s famous ensemble of Art School buildings. Both buildings, which he constructed between 1904 and 1911, represent the pinnacle of his architectural legacy in Weimar. The ensemble was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 1996.
On the walk through the main building and the small Van de Velde Building, the students will point out numerous architectural details and describe how the Belgian architect influenced their design. »Balustrades, doorknobs and staircases reveal a lot about how the Belgian artist thought and worked. When he designed the Winkelbau, for instance, he chose not to use ornamentation or other decoration, but worked with the lines and let the material speak for itself. It’s these kinds of details which reflect his role as a pioneer of modernity«, explains Theres Rohde from the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. Together with fellow students, she helped coordinate the new guided tour. »We’d like our guests to get to know Henry van de Velde better as a person. His bright, timeless architectural style continues to inspire generations of students who now develop their own projects in the studios and rooms he designed,« she says.
The student guides will also take visitors on an exciting journey though the social circles in Weimar, in which Van de Velde moved.
The Van de Velde tour is the first event of a series of activities at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar which commemorate the 150th anniversary of Henry van de Velde in 2013. They are part of a larger range of exhibitions and events, initiated by the Erfurt-Weimar-Jena impulse region to celebrate the life and work of the »all-round artist« Henry van de Velde.
The Van de Velde tour will take place on the following days in autumn 2011:
3 Sep., 10 Sep., 17 Sep., 24 Sep., 1 Oct., 8 Oct., 15 Oct., 22 Oct. and 29 Oct. 2011.
Tours begin at 11 am at the Bauhaus.Atelier, the visitor information centre of the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar at Geschwister-Scholl-Straße 6a. Tickets can be purchased from the student guides on location prior to the tour. The ticket price is 5 euros for adults and 3 euros for pupils and students.
Here you find more information about the Van-de-Velde Walk
For information about the activities planned by the Erfurt-Weimar-Jena impulse region during the Van de Velde commemorative year, visit: www.vandevelde2013.de.
If you have any specific questions, feel free to contact David Fritzsch of the Bauhaus Walking Tours by e-mail at: bauhausspaziergang[at]uni-weimar.de