Thouhts on: Bauhaus philosophy

Travel back in time to Weimar Germany, 1920s. You could literary use money instead of wallpapers, wrap your bakery in it, go to the water closet with it. Dead economy.

What can You do? Nothing... unless you are an ambitious young engineer or architect. In that case, you should join Ludwig van der Rohe or Walter Gropius.

It is much likely that you would have to work on pure enthusiasm some time, or even get fired. However, soon you see that those ideas of yours change the world around.

Here are some important uplifting aspects of BauHaus philosophy and attitude:

- Make your poverty your advantage. If you are poor, make your own sense of the word "luxury". Some bright examples include social housing in Dessau-Törten (1928) and another truly modernist design from a distant part of the world: an X-shaped crossed staircase at a simple, modest apartment block on Hasima Island, Japan (1930s). Those buildings look stylish with their simple and expressive lines, despite being meant for low-paid workers.

- Do not make yourself work too much; be inventive. (Look at the transformable, light-weight Bauhaus furniture and mechanisms to open upper window sections with minimum efforts.)

- Don't be ashamed to influence and inspire. People who are influential make changes in urban environment, 1920s designers thought. In fact, if you look at many buldings of our century, you will still notice the ideas of Bauhaus, a hundred years after. That is because those ideas were intended to influence. This principle concerns literature, too.