Even if you don't think you've come across Bauhaus before, you almost certainly have.

The steel tubular chair you perch on nervously in the dentist's waiting room? Bauhaus. The nesting tables you picked up at Habitat? Bauhaus.

Your drip-free teapot? Quite possibly Bauhaus too. None of these things are likely to be 1920s or 1930s originals, but they might be designed by Bauhaus members, such as Marcel Breuer, Josef and Anni Albers, or Marianne Brandt, or the subsequent generations of designers inspired by their radical vision. Bauhaus-influenced design has become so ever-present, so synonymous with sleek modern living, paradoxically it's now almost invisible.

In 1919, in the devastating aftermath of the First World War, German architect Walter Gropius established a new, interdisciplinary school of art, design and architecture - the Bauhaus.

His aim was not to build mere houses, as the literal translation of the school's name (building house) might suggest. Rather, echoing the philosophy of earlier design movements like Arts and Crafts, he wanted to harness the creative power of artists and artisans and build a better world for ordinary people.

Over the course of its short 14 years of existence, the school moved premises from Weimar to Dessau and, later, Berlin. Its focus shifted too, from a celebration of craftsmanship to an embrace of industrial design and, in 1923, the school adopted a new slogan: 'Art into Industry'.

The Bauhaus students, known as Bauhäusler, were encouraged to strip everyday objects of any flashy ornament, reducing them to the bare essentials. Table lamps, teapots, textiles - all were redesigned following the no-frills philosophy, to make them simple, functional, but still pleasing and suitable for production at scale.