The rational branch of German modernity was of great importance for the development of functionalism in the interwar period. The main role in this was played by the founding of the Bauhaus, which in the 1920s became the center of modern art education in Europe. It arose in 1919 through the merger of two art schools in Weimar, which had previously been directed by A. Van de Velde. V. Gropius - the first director of the Bauhaus, was also the author of its first programs.
In 1923 V. Gropius came out with the principle of coordinating all creative forces on a rationalistic basis in order to achieve unity in architecture. He considered the goal of the Bauhaus to create collective works in which, as in architecture, there would be no boundaries between monumental and decorative arts. The organizational structure of the school, the choice of teachers and the pedagogical system, which included and methodically and practically united all types of creativity - from the visual arts through applied arts to architecture with its technical and social disciplines, is also based on these principles.
Under the leadership of Gropius in the Bauhaus immediately after its foundation, a teaching staff consisting of the most prominent representatives of European contemporary art - I. Itten, V. Kandinsky, P. Klee, L. Mogol-Nagy, O. Shlem Mer II, and many other artists gathered. Among the architects were M. Breuer, G. Mayer, Mies vam der Rohe, M. Shtam, and others. After the expulsion of the Bauhaus from Weimar, V. Gropius built a new school complex, including residential buildings, in Dessau (1925-1926). These buildings were among the first and at the same time stylistically the most mature examples of functionalist architecture in Europe. The Bauhaus gave birth to the basic principles of aesthetics of technical civilization, which Gropius developed and concretized by the example of the consistent rationalization and standardization of a prefabricated residential building for one family, consisting of typical metal volumetric blocks and the example of "total" theater (1927). After Gropius left school, there were partial changes in the activities of the Bauhaus. Gropius's successor, the Swiss architect G. Mayer, who had been in charge of the department of architecture since 1927, focused on the social motivation of architecture (the Czech theorist K. Teige taught a course in sociology here).
The last headmaster of the school was Mies van der Rohe. The Bauhaus was closed in 1933 after the Nazis came to power.
Soviet constructivism. The progressive trends in architecture of the period between the world wars include Soviet constructivism, which had the character of a broad collective movement inspired by the ideas of the October Revolution. Therefore, constructivism in Soviet architecture was understood not only as a change in the architectural principles themselves, but also as a movement for the creation of a new living environment. He represented a specific way of thinking and creating. Despite the unity in common ideological principles, constructivism included various ways of creatively expressing revolutionary events and the needs of the first socialist state.
The manifesto of constructivist architecture was the project of a metal spiral, called the tower of the III International (V.E. Tatlin), then the utopian projects of skyscrapers by E. Lissitzky (1924), the V.I.Lenin Institute designed by I.I.Leonidov, which symbolically represent grandiose and at that time unfulfilled designs expressed completely unique ideas of their time and country. Constructions were understood as expressive means taken to an extreme, in some proposals up to new architectural symbolism.
In the next phase of the development of Soviet constructivism, real tasks prevailed, but at the same time a programmatic differentiation of this movement took place. New creative groups have arisen, for example ASNOVA (Association of New Architects), headed by N. A. Ladovsky, E. Lissitsky and K. S. Melnikov - the creator of the workers' club of the plant. Rusakov (1928) and the USSR pavilion at the exhibition of decorative art in Paris (1925), which became the first piece of Soviet architecture presented on the international arena. The scientific approach to architecture75 was proclaimed by the OSA association (an association of modern architects founded in 1925), which included M. Ginzburg - the author of the theoretical foundations of constructivism and the program book "Style and Epoch" (1924) and brothers A. A., L. A. and V. A. Vesnin - the authors of the club of the plant. Likhachev in Moscow (1923). The magazine "Contemporary Architecture" became the tribune from which the then existing points of view were declared. The emergence of the third group of VOPRA (founded in 1929) led to a further exacerbation of differences between individual areas. Its representatives A.G. Mordvinov and A.V. Vlasov began to lean towards academism, and later towards historical schematism. The architectural design of the Lenin Mausoleum (1929-1930, author A. Shchusev), one of the most outstanding buildings in Moscow, bore the features of academic ideas.
For the beginning of the 30s, the further appearance of large constructivist projects and buildings was still characteristic. New types of mass theaters have emerged, for example, in Rostov-on-Don (1932-1935, authors V. A. Shchuko, V. G. Gelfreikh), buildings of the Izvestia newspaper publishing houses (by G. B. Barkhin) and the newspaper Pravda "(1934-1935, author PA Golosov) in Moscow, the Palace of Labor and Culture in Leningrad. The impetus for the emergence of many of them was open tenders for new types of public buildings, held in 1918-1923. The principles of new forms of collective housing in communal houses were also formulated, including institutions of daily public services. A prototype of collective housing appeared in the project (S.S.Serafimov), submitted for a competition in 1921 for the forms of a proletarian dwelling. Understanding architecture as a result of the spatial embodiment of socialistically understood functions led to the emergence of proposals for other new types of buildings, some of which have remained to this day exponents of the way of life in the Soviet Union, others had a more general meaning and spread throughout the world. The construction in the eastern regions of the Soviet Union of new cities for 50-200 thousand inhabitants, the design of which was carried out with the participation of foreign architects (E. May, G. Mayer, M. Shtam), caused disputes between the supporters of urbanization and de-urbanist tendencies about the best concept of the modern system resettlement. On the basis of this discussion, the most significant urban planning concepts of the 20th century appeared - the linear system proposed by Ginzburg, and especially the concept of the city, which was formulated in 1930 by N.A.Milyutin. This theory was based on the idea of the linear development of the city, organized in the form of parallel functional zones: industrial, transport, residential, recreation areas and agricultural production zones. By the beginning of the 1930s, constructivism reached its peak and merged with other trends. As a result, various groups are united in the Union of Soviet Architects. The dynamic movement of constructivism still found its expression, for example, in the architecture of the Soviet pavilion at the 1937 World Exhibition in Paris and other structures of the late 1930s. But their architecture already bore the features of academicism.