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How did Walter Gropius connect the design of a chair to the design of a city?

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The Great Court at the British Museum in London features a large central rotunda surrounded by wide steps and a glass and steel lattice roof, with visitors walking throughout the space. — Architecture The Great Court, designed by Foster and Partners, 2000; in the British Museum, London.

Walter Gropius connected the design of a chair to the design of a city through his belief that all design should be approached in an essentially identical manner. He argued that whether one is designing a piece of furniture, a building, or an entire urban plan, the process must be rooted in a systematic study of the specific needs and problems involved.12

This philosophy was central to the Bauhaus curriculum, which Gropius founded to bridge the gap between the creative artist and the technologist. By emphasizing a practical understanding of modern construction materials, techniques, and the capabilities of machine production, Gropius sought to create a homogeneous physical environment where all arts—from applied design to urban planning—functioned as a unified whole.13452

Ultimately, Gropius viewed architecture as the matrix of the arts, and he believed that designers should focus on solving the social problems of an industrial society by applying the same rational, objective, and functional principles to every scale of the human environment.513