Hands-On: The Gropius Touch

My story on the Museum of Modern Art’s Bauhaus Lab and the 3D workshop led by Ati Gropius Johansen, daughter of Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius, student of Josef Albers at Black Mountain College, wife of Harvard 5 architect John Johansen is up today on The Moment, the T Magazine blog.

This was a thrill to write: I couldn’t believe no one else had noticed that Johansen was coming to MoMA, and it seemed like a piece of history. The Bauhaus may have ended in 1933, but there are still students and teachers who learned from the founders, and who believe that design education starts with a blank sheet of paper. I can’t speak to that, but there was something completely Zen about watching Johansen limit a room of 20 adults to one piece of paper, one fold, one rip, one roll.

If you haven’t seen it yet, Bauhaus 1919-1933: Workshops for Modernity closes next Monday. It is (as I wrote when it opened) not to be missed, something for everyone, no excessive hagiography. For a look at the building today see Adrian Shaughnessy’s recent account of sleeping at the Bauhaus.

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By Alexandra Lange

Alexandra Lange is an architecture critic and author, and the 2025 Pulitzer Prize winner for Criticism, awarded for her work as a contributing writer for Bloomberg CityLab. She is currently the architecture critic for Curbed and has written extensively for Design Observer, Architect, New York Magazine, and The New York Times. Lange holds a PhD in 20th-century architecture history from New York University. Her writing often explores the intersection of architecture, urban planning, and design, with a focus on how the built environment shapes everyday life. She is also a recipient of the Steven Heller Prize for Cultural Commentary from AIGA, an honor she shares with Design Observer’s Editor-in-Chief, Ellen McGirt.