The Bauhaus heritage in contemporary furniture
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The history of the Bauhaus: a design revolution
In 1919, in Weimar, Germany, Walter Gropius founded a school that would forever transform our understanding of design. The Bauhaus was not just an art school; it was a radical philosophy that proclaimed that design and craft were not separate domains but a single practice.
The very name — Bauhaus, literally “house of building” — embodies this philosophy. The school sought to reconcile the fine arts with industrial production, creating a bridge between traditional craftsmanship and modernity.
From 1919 until its forced closure in 1933 by the Nazi regime, the Bauhaus was a hothouse of unparalleled creativity. The greatest artists and designers of the time — Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, László Moholy-Nagy — taught there alongside master craftsmen. The result was a generation of designers who understood both pure art and mass production.
The fundamental principles of Bauhaus design
Form Follows Function: the beauty of honesty
The central principle of the Bauhaus, inherited from American industrial design, states that form must follow function. No superfluous decoration, no ornament for ornament's sake. Every line, every curve, every material must have a reason to exist based on use.
This principle may seem austere, but paradoxically it creates an intense beauty. A Bauhaus chair is not beautiful despite its lack of ornament — it is beautiful precisely because every element serves a purpose. Bauhaus designers discovered that structural clarity was more satisfying than elaborate decoration.
This philosophy made mass production possible without sacrificing quality or integrity. Unlike Victorian furniture richly decorated and difficult to reproduce identically, a Bauhaus piece could be produced in series while remaining magnificent.
The unity of form and function
The Bauhaus rejected the separation between art and technology. A stool was not “almost” a work of art — it was a complete work of art. This integration elevated the status of everyday objects and democratised quality design.
The chair or stool were not “low-end” products for the masses. They were serious design problems deserving the attention of the greatest thinkers. This dignity given to everyday objects is a Bauhaus legacy we still explore today.
The Schemel Rowac: when Gropius chose his seat
A humble stool become emblematic
Among all industrial stools produced around the Bauhaus era, the Schemel Rowac holds a particular place. This simple stool — three legs, a circular seat, nothing more — was chosen by Walter Gropius himself as his working seat at the Bauhaus in Dessau as early as the 1920s.
Rowac is the brand created by Robert Wagner & Co, a Saxon workshop founded in 1888 near Chemnitz, historic supplier to German factories. The Schemel Rowac was developed there as the first piece of riveted sheet-steel furniture ever marketed — robust, functional, timeless.
That Gropius himself chose the Schemel Rowac as his daily seat was no marketing accident: it was a statement. It meant that Bauhaus design was not an ethereal theory, but a lived practice. The school's founder believed enough in his industrial stool to spend his days on it.
The puristic geometry of efficiency
The Schemel Rowac displays a geometry of remarkable purity. Three steel legs, spaced 120 degrees apart, offer absolute stability. The seat, slightly concave, invites a dynamic seated posture. There is no backrest, no armrests, nothing that is not strictly necessary.
This apparent simplicity hides a profound sophistication. The height of the legs, the angle of the base, the shape of the seat — every element has been carefully calculated. The result is an object that seems simple yet works magnificently, a design stool that comfortably supports intellectual work.
Antifer offers the authentic Schemel Rowac in two heights (50 cm for seated use, 75 cm for bar/counter use), continuing a tradition born in 1888 and reactivated in 2023 by German revivers who restarted the original tooling, in the same Saxon region.
The Bauhaus legacy in contemporary design
Bauhaus principles live on in modern design
The Bauhaus was closed in 1933, but its principles dispersed across the world. Bauhaus designers, forced into exile by the Nazis, brought these ideas to America, Scandinavia and beyond. The Scandinavian design we admire today carries the Bauhaus signature — the same rigour, the same faith in form generated by function.
Look at a Bauhaus piece, then look at a contemporary Scandinavian chair: you'll recognise the same principles. The absence of gratuitous ornament. The honest use of materials. The beauty engendered by structural clarity.
The Bauhaus didn't create an aesthetic that would wear out. It formulated principles — Form Follows Function, the unity of art and technology, the democratisation of design — that remain as relevant as in 1919. Each generation of designers re-learns these lessons and applies them to its own era.
Minimalism, refinement, structural honesty
The contemporary minimalist movement descends directly from the Bauhaus. The idea that less is more — that every object must justify its existence by its function and its beauty — is a pure Bauhaus legacy. Contemporary design that values clarity over complication, function over decoration, speaks the language the Bauhaus developed.
This approach creates an aesthetic and environmental economy. A Bauhaus-inspired chair uses less material than an ornamental chair while offering more formal clarity. It ages better, because its beauty does not depend on the trend of the moment.
Bauhaus pieces at Antifer
The Schemel Rowac: the original revisited
The Rowac Schemel stool is available at Antifer in 50 cm version and 75 cm version (bar stool). It is the continuation of a production restored to its original form by Saxon craftsmen using the original tooling.
The Rowac stool suits a contemporary office as well as a creative workshop. Architects and designers recognise it for what it is: an impeccably designed working tool. Its purity allows it to integrate into almost any context.
Why the Bauhaus remains relevant
More than a century after its creation, the Bauhaus continues to inspire because it was less a style than a philosophical approach to design. It was a radical insistence that design should serve humanity, not the other way around. That mass production should not mean a loss of quality. That beauty and function are inseparable.
In an age of programmed obsolescence and disposable design, the Bauhaus becomes almost subversive. The idea that a chair or stool should last decades, that it should be repairable, that it should improve daily life — that's no longer normal, it's radical.
At Antifer, we celebrate this Bauhaus legacy. Our selection includes pieces that respect these timeless principles: chairs, tables, stools and lamps that prove the Bauhaus is not a historical curiosity, but the foundation of durable and beautiful design.