concept

the bauhaus

Much of what we recognize as modern design and architecture began in a small school in Germany: The Bauhaus. Led by Walter Gropius, an architect from Berlin, the school opened on April 1, 1919. Gropius established a new vision for education that brought together fine art and applied art to ‘build the future’.

Gropius and Johannes Itten imagined a new style of curriculum for their students: six months of preliminary courses, followed by three years of specialization. Preliminary courses focused on colour, form, composition, visual analysis, and life drawing. The idea was to look at beauty as a whole and learn the ‘letters’ of a common language. Dedicated to a hands-on approach for design, students then learned craft through specialized workshops in ceramics, weaving, carpentry, printing, and metalworking with building as the ultimate goal. In 1925, the school moved from Weimar to Dessau, a famously industrial area. This provided new opportunities to the school and solidified the importance of mass production with an emphasis on craft.

Although closing only 14 years after its birth, this revolutionary school formed the basis of the entire Modernist Art movement. Guided by the idea that ‘form follows function’, students were taught to make everyday objects more beautiful, while maintaining their accessibility.

learning and teaching flavour

Much of what we do centres on the question: "how would we study, learn, and teach flavour, if it was part of the Bauhaus curriculum?"

The Bauhaus offered its students a multidisciplinary study of both fine art and applied art. In our context, this looks like studying the theory and methods of flavour, where theory breaks down flavour into its component parts (taste and aroma), and method teaches practical applications, such as distillation, clarification, fat washing, etc.

Learning and teaching flavour is a dynamic process. It includes a range of activities: the interactions with have with our guests, the experiments we conduct in the workshop, the structured curriculum we offer our interns, and in future, the guest lectures and workshops we hold exploring art and flavour.

For many years, bars have been the community spaces where we socialize and share ideas. We wanted to further the conversation around art, and this venue inspired us to showcase, explore, and extend the Bauhaus movement.

The Bauhaus celebrated students and teachers working together as a community. With this in mind, we wanted to create a bar that fostered learning and teaching through flavour for our guests and staff. The venue walks guests through dedicated spaces that reflect the Bauhaus stages of design: to learn, develop, manufacture, and showcase. In each, you can meet us for conversation about art and flavour, and most importantly, enjoy a good drink.