In front of the concave rear wall, views of the buildings of twenty-seven internationally renowned architects were integrated in double rows into a constructive grid of black wooden slats.
With this compilation, Bode hinted that he was interested in ensuring that the first documenta did not appear solely as a presentation of fine art. For with a total artistic claim — which, however, could only be realized to a limited extent for cost and space reasons — the exhibition as a cultural synopsis should also include the so-called »sister arts,« including music, literature, theater, and architecture.
With twenty-five photographs, the only existing view of the projection wall covers less than half of the panels. It shows, however, that in this parade of international avant-garde architects, alongside Erich Mendelsohn, Hans Scharoun, Le Corbusier, Alvar Aalto, Frank Lloyd Wright, and others, the Bauhaus directors Walter Gropius and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe were also included with important buildings. Designed by the latter, the Barcelona Pavilion of the 1929 International Exhibition was represented with two views.
Walter Gropius is present with his house in Lincoln (Mass.), which he designed for himself and his family in 1938 after emigrating to the USA, where he lived until his death in 1969. Also on view is the Harvard Graduate Center in Cambridge (Mass.), which Gropius, appointed head of Harvard University’s architectural department, conceived as an ensemble of eight buildings from 1949 to 1950 as the mastermind of the Architects Collaborative (TAC) he founded in 1945.