Our Bauhaus Heritage / Unser Bauhaus-Erbe

Our Bauhaus Heritage: Where Do We Encounter the Myth in Everyday Life? (German: Unser Bauhaus-Erbe: Wo begegnen wir dem Mythos im Alltag?) is a bilingual book edited by Sandra Hofmeister and published in 2019 by Edition Detail, a publishing house specialized in architecture. On the occasion of the Bauhaus’s 100th anniversary, the publication takes a new critical look on what remains of the Bauhaus today, especially in contemporary architecture. To explore this aspect, ten international authors – including Aaron Betsky, Kenneth Frampton, Raquel Franklin, Anna Ramos, Hilde Strobl, Philip Ursprung – contributed on whether or not the Bauhaus left its mark on contemporary creation and architectural events. This textual part is accompanied by a photographic essay by Berlin-based artist Friederike von Rauch.

Wiegand von Hartmann (Sophie von Hartmann and Moritz WIegand) designed the book as a 168-page softcover, in a small format of 22 cm × 16.5 cm. Inspired by the colorful photographs of Friederike von Rauch, the designers chose a bright blue cover, with the text set in Media Sans by Production Type, printed in a contrasting red ink, putting up a radicalism that echoes the Bauhaus ethos. Indeed, the typeface was conceived with the idea of shouting headlines, especially when used in caps. Here used in its condensed width, Media Sans stands tall and can legitimately be qualified as architectural. Besides, the double reading of the title in English and German initiates a meandering view, which makes the title look like a construction sketch.

Inside, the book is divided into two parts: the essays, printed in black and white including the pictures, and the photographic work printed in color, in order to emphasize the quality of the images. Through this simple principle, the book acquires a practical use that comes as a visual evidence. The texts are set in Signal by Emmanuel Besse and also available from Production Type, a legible “no-nonsense” sans – a nod to the typographic creations of the time, where geometry and the rationalization of letter construction were a the center of reflexions about type. In the end, Our Bauhaus Heritage succeeds in educating us not only about the Bauhaus legacy in architecture, but also what is still visible in contemporary graphic design.