Walter Gropius did not only design a school, he designed the houses for its teachers, and the Masters' Houses in Dessau are among the most elegant homes of the modern movement. Built in 1925 and 1926 on a quiet street at the edge of a pine wood, they form a row of white, flat-roofed, cubic buildings, each one a variation on the same set of simple geometric forms: three semi-detached pairs for the masters and a larger villa for Gropius himself. Their clean lines, large windows and balanced proportions were a statement of what modern living could look like.
The residents read like a roll call of twentieth-century art. Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee shared one house, each with a separate studio, and other masters, including Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Lyonel Feininger and Georg Muche, lived in the others. The street was a small community of artists, who held parties, talked late and experimented. The houses were designed with built-in furniture and colour schemes, and the interiors were painted in strong colours chosen by the occupants.
During the Second World War, bombing destroyed Gropius's house and one of the others, and for decades the remaining buildings were altered and neglected. A careful restoration brought the surviving houses back to their original appearance, and the missing ones were rebuilt as new interpretations in a design that suggests their shape without copying it. UNESCO listed the Bauhaus sites in 1996. Inside, you can see the colours and furniture, and learn how the residents lived.
The setting is peaceful, among tall pines, and the street is quiet. Dessau, about a mile and a half away, has fuel, cafes, supermarkets and hotels, and the Bauhaus building is a short ride. The surrounding region of Saxony-Anhalt is flat, with the Elbe and Mulde rivers and the Dessau-Worlitz garden realm, and the roads are good and quiet. Weekdays are calmer, and spring and autumn offer the best light. Book ahead if you want a guided tour, since slots can be limited.