Design context: May 2013

Sarah Goldthorpe

OUGD401: Design Context

CONTEXT & CHRONOLOGIES: Critical writing essay.

Focusing on specific examples, describe the way that modernist art and design was a response to the forces of modernity.

'Intellectuals across Europe engaged in a revolutionary project to set western civilisation upon a new foundation: Modernism. Rejecting classical and traditional ideas of aesthetics, Modernists insisted that the arts should be founded upon new forms, practice's and values derived entirely from the contemporary moment and orientated towards the future.' ( Walz, R: 2008: p3)

Modernism, born out of the late 19th century prescribed a better and more improved life for its society, propelling the world from crisis to a place of social reform and political progress. Offering the chance of a better life, to be modern was to improve upon its predecessors, it offered no illusions, but the reality of the utopia of which artists and designers had been long striving for. The forces of modernity were the backbone to this great revolution of which impelled these designers, thus accelerating the person’s domain into Modern life. An anti-historicism movement, Modernists endeavoured to leave all breath of precedents behind and looked forward with optimism to design and build.

Those who lived in the country moved forth into the city, the habitat of where industrialisation took place. Industrialisation and Urbanisation radically changed and developed the Western world introducing new materials such as reinforced concrete, steel and glass. These would soon provide the structures of the future. With cities attracting a higher concentration of population, new housing solutions were required to resolve the overpopulation of what could not be housed in these now seemingly small areas. Life became more regulated for those who were pulled in by the magnet of the city; their lives were no longer commanded by night and day but by factory shifts. Advanced modes of transport became available, the first mechanised rail transport became accessible in the 1820’s followed by the invention of the first modern automobile in the 1880’s, These new forms of rapid transport spurred the demand for more space. What were once walking promenades were adjusted to make access for cars in this constant development for a better life.

Modernism was adopted as a religion that followed a set of beliefs/principles in which when people began to follow these, they believed they were living in a new age. Humanity believed the key to improvement was to reject all religious systems that once ruled and replace them with the notion of the civilised state. It exhaled a truth, kept a distance from illusionary design that would create false impressions. Design was foremost to fulfil its function, and then followed by form which would be dictated by its concern and objectives and not by its manifestation. Modernists embraced the new technologies and designed for all, abolishing class boundaries, and offering standardised alternatives, made cheaper and more efficiently than the individual handy-craft through mass production. Design was stripped of any historical and cultural references in order communicate with people of any culture, to reach a wider, international audience. Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus proclaimed, 'Our guiding principle was that design is neither an intellectual nor a material affair, but simply an integral part of the stuff of life, necessary for everyone in a civilized society.' (O'Dwyer, D. 2011: p54)

Gropius too believed that ornamentation should be ruled out from design and to commit to such detail is superficial, that design should not disguise its function with decoration but promote the materials and process in which it was created. The Bauhaus (Fig.1) lay at the very heart of Modernism, as a machine in which pumped these principles through its veins, obvious in the design process taught at the Bauhaus and the outcomes that emerged from these.

‘The legacy of the Bauhaus has been shaped by the tides of the twentieth century itself.’ (Bergdoll,B. and Dickerman,L. 2009: p12)

It was the very advancements brought on by the forces of modernity that provoked artists to design in these new exciting ways. The Bauhaus would leave a legacy, not only inspiring the designers of its day but leaving behind footprints in which designers of the future would soon follow.

The fall of the German economy after Germany’s defeat in WW1 left the country in devastation. The war had hit Germany’s economy hard which left an extensive dent in both money and food supplies. However the most evident transition took place in the country’s political system. People began to commit to communist views and the Kaiser was forced to step down from rule. The Weimar republic stepped up to rule and occupied this space which Kaiser Wilhelm II had left behind. The country was liberated of the oppression which the previous government had overcast over Germany leaving behind new opportunities for design where radical ideas could soon be tested and experiments could take place. Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus (house for building) in Weimar, a cultural nerve centre, in 1919 which combined previous institutions Weimar academy of fine arts and Weimar school of arts and crafts under one roof, In thought the school would be used to help repair the desolation of the first world war and help reform the social structure.

‘Aiming to rethink the very form of modern life, the Bauhaus became the site for a dazzling array of experiments in the visual arts that have profoundly shaped the world today.’ (Bergdoll,B. and Dickerman, L. 2009: Inside sleeve)

Gropius’ aim for the Bauhaus was to impart his students with a progressive education that did not look back on the past but produced forward thinking students that would learn, develop and leave with a new school of thought, readily equipped for modern life.

‘The student, architect or designer should be offered no refuge in the past but should be equipped for the modern world in its various aspects... So that he may function in society not as a decorator but as a vital participant.’ (Bayer,H. 1938: p6)

Gropius along with his tutors at the institute including, Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe, Kandinsky and Paul Klee directed disciplines, not individually like traditional and prior schools had previously taught, but scoped all of these practice’s together to produce a more well-rounded student. The Bauhaus, ‘brought together artists, architects, and designers in an extraordinary conversation about the nature of modern art’. (Bergdoll,B. and Dickerman,L. 2009: Inside sleeve)

They professed that owning an individual craft would be no use for the modern society in which they would design for; they needed to be unified, to own skill in several disciplines. They would be taught to produce design that combined both art and craftsmanship with an eye for the machine aesthetic and the ability for mass production.

‘Most students should face the fact that their future should be involved primarily with industry and mass production rather than with individual craftsmanship.’ (Bayer,H. 1938: p6)

'Proponents of the Bauhaus movement believed that form follows function, and perhaps even more revolutionary was their cannon that art, craft, design, photography, sculpture, architecture and other facets of fine art should be grouped as one. In fact they maintained that craft was the basis for all art and that functionality was the means by which to judge it.' (Ryan, W. and Conover, T. 2004: p52)

The Bauhaus proclaimed that function should not be disguised by decoration but stand prominent in design, glorified by the process in which it was produced and not creating illusions that are dishonest to the materials that have been used. In architecture the materials that came out of industrialisation were celebrated and it was imminent that form would illuminate the function. The Bauhaus wanted to start an ideology that did not define art from craft but unified them in design. The Bauhaus in Weimer was put under political stress and was closed by the far right in 1925. Gropius pursued a search for a new location in which he could rebuild the Bauhaus; he sought this area in Dessau, a significant industrial hub of the time, a considerable disparity to the old home of the Bauhaus in Weimer. Gropius had no limits when designing the new institute, he needed to gain no permission for any construction work, and the land he was building upon was detached from the rest of the city by a railway line. He could design a school in which was compliant and advocated the new modern and machine aesthetic (fig.2) , sincere to the needs of his students and workshops. The building cut ties with any historical architectural references, this is obvious in the choices that Gropius made when considering each element to the school. The entrance to the Bauhaus did not stand out from the facade, but stood subtle within the walls craving no attention, showing no correlation to classic architecture, in which the entrances transcended opulence and breathed grandeur, most of these recognized as the focal point of a building. The Bauhaus in fact has no main focal points, only visual elements.

‘The Bauhaus building at Dessau was architecturally the most important structure of its decade.’ (Bayer,H: 1938: p6)

When the Bauhaus first emerged upon the Dessau landscape it stood as a heroic statement and was recognized for its radical forms. The building itself compromises three wings that are combined by a reinforced concrete skeleton, paying homage to technological advancement brought on by the forces of modernity. The concrete is left unpainted, to further commend harvesting these new materials.

‘The glass curtain wall suspended in front of the load-bearing framework defines the exterior of the workshop wing and openly shows the constructive elements.’ (Bauhaus-dessau, N.D.)

The building of the Bauhaus would not have been successful without Gropius, his co-architects and his students and can be considered a reflection of the learning process that students would experience and adapt to at the institute. The curriculum that Gropius had written himself and then taught at the Bauhaus along with the assembly of tutors was considered a‘Revolution in art education’. (DxExNxNxIxS, Bauhaus Documentary (1), 02:44) He felt that students needed to be taught via certain methods and wanted to bridge the gap between, ‘The machine and the artistic individual.’ (DxExNxNxIxS, Bauhaus Documentary (1), 03:16)

In order to put this concept into practice he allotted workshops where his students would learn and develop both as an artist and a craftsman, employing both artists such as Kandinsky and Klee and a technical team whom were employed to teach craft. Kandinsky composed paintings with an abstract essence, a style which he had developed before the war, he had abandoned the facets of previous movements such as art noveau which made heavy references to organic forms and often nature, and replaced these with a new simplistic artistic language of geometric forms, pushing any strains of previous movements into the shadows. There was no mention of culture or history in his paintings, the new language that Kandinsky had developed meant that his art was accessible and understandable by any class; he designed for everyone, an aspiration of Modernity. Gropius argued that the institute was not only the core of learning, but a pivot in which would prepare those who attended for the modern world and industry. Students were encouraged to make flexible and work within their individual abilities, the Bauhaus had evolved from traditional schools where middle class people would congregate and in sessions would paint the same observation in one media, of a certain building. Josef Albers another artist who was part of the faculty at the Bauhaus trained his students to work more so like apprentices and engineers rather than the artist. He employed an exercise where students were given a yard of paper, with it they were to fabricate a space, they could manipulate the paper with any technique or apparatus, this was an example of the formulae of the Bauhaus, students were to discover and develop design possibilities not by writing and drawing but by making. Through these activities students cultivated awareness for the material and found they could ‘Make folds that man could stand on’. (DxExNxNxIxS, Bauhaus Documentary (2), 05:00)

An ideology of the Bauhaus was that students should produce everyday items for everyday people, products designed under consumerism should be low cost reflecting the use of cheaper materials, functional, not distracted by form and easily replicated through mass production. No class was to be assumable from the object or its price; it was to be afforded by everyone. Due to the rule of mass production items often had an appearance that was commanded by the use of the machine. Designs were not based upon native, organic forms and so the work produced throughout the era of the Bauhaus and decades afterwards were considered radical when compared. The ideologies of the Bauhaus as a response to the forces of modernity can be seen in the work brought into existence by the tutors and students who were able to experience the institute.

Herbert Bayer, whom began his career at the Bauhaus first as a student in 1920, was appointed leader of the printing and advertising workshop when the institution moved to Dessau. Bayer with the Support of Moholy- Nagy changed the framework of workshops and began to implement classes and exercises that could be identifiable with the work done in industry. Bayer began to take orders from outside the school in which students were rendered the opportunity to fulfil, devising a breadth of graphic design. He neglected previous methods for incorporating type into design such as the letter press and approached design with a more constructivist attitude using resources like photomechanical reproduction. Moholy- Nagy had complained in 1925 that, ‘We do not even possess a typeface that is correct in size, is clearly legible and lacking in any individual features and that is based on a functional form of visual appearance without distortions and curlicues’. (Jobling,P. and Crowley,D, 1996: p140) In the same year Herbert Bayer started experimenting with designs for his now named typeface, Universal (fig.3). He revolted against the pre-set conventions of typography and the German routine.

‘The letterforms in a classic typeface have subtly varied strokes, curves, and angles that take their cues from renaissance calligraphy or eighteenth century penmanship.’ (Bergdoll,B. and Dickerman,L. 2009: p200)

Bayer began to develop his typeface using pre-existing industrial typography for inspiration. He used only a compass and a triangle to compose each of the characters, replacing the French curve used in ornamental type. Universal conveyed a conversation of geometric forms focusing on vertical lines and curves, an avante-garde extreme compared to previous German typographic systems. Fraktur was the typeface traditionally used in Germany, which then initiated the materialization of several black letter typefaces; they were rich in historical and cultural reference. Designers with a more forward thinking inclination persevered to overthrow Fraktur (fig.4) and create a typographical language that would be used across Europe and the United states, to be understood by an international audience. However the most profound change was not the new visual language, but the avocation of one case.

‘Why should we write and print with two alphabets? Both a large and a small sign are not necessary to indicate one single sound. We do not speak a capital A and a small a.’ (Bayer,H, 1938: p147)

Bayer argued that writing an alphabet in two cases was phonetically valueless; there is no change in sound when moving from a lowercase to an uppercase character. Bayer decided to erase any representation of the uppercase from his Alphabet. This particular decision was considered subversive, due to the system of German writing in which nouns, and unusually proper nouns all began with capital letters. However deleting this case from the alphabet provided the perfect reasoning with the forces of modernity, Typewriting could become more quickly comprehended, the lack of letters would mean a simpler formation, and a cheaper output, as well as the acceleration is a child’s written education.

The Bauhaus moved to Berlin in 1932 where it succeeded for a year until it was closed by Hitler when the country succumbed to Nazi rule. Before the oncoming of WW2 Bauhaus tutors and leaders immigrated to the United States to avoid persecution. When tutors such as Mies Van der Rohe and Gropius had travelled to the US the ethics that once cultivated within the Bauhaus walls travelled with them, helping establish the International style. The maxims of the Bauhaus spread globally, and influenced designers from all over the world. Swiss born, French architect Le Corbusier was deemed the father of the International style. The very force that pulled the citizens into the city became a struggle in which Le Corbusier spent the best part of his architectural life striving to ease. The effect of modernity on the city meant that these industrial cores were overwhelmed by the increased population, thus provoking the housing shortage. Le Corbusier used his designing expertise to solve the problems that arose from the housing deficit; Unite d’habitacion (fig.5) completed in 1952 depicted the high rise living Le Corbusier believed would solve the dispute. Unite built in Marsielle, France, aimed to resolve the lack of residence in result of the effect of WW2.

'Completed in 1952, the 12-storey block was built to house 1,600 people and was famously conceived as a vertical city in the sky, with integral community facilities such as shops, nursery and restaurant.' (Building Design, 2011: p16)

‘Built as a prototype, it was the result of an experimental collective housing solution containing all the facilities required by 1.200 people living in a community.’ (Sbriglio,J, 2004: p40)

The roof of the building compromised a gym, a sick bay and shops, all of which were available for the occupants to use. Corbusier used this spatial arrangement in other architectural structures such as the Villa Savoye, Corbusier wanted to recreate the space upon which he had built his building, on flat roofs, to sustain the fabric in which he had built upon. Whilst the space underneath the elevations of the building meant that this expanse could still be used. Unite was defined as a city within a city. Inside it is clear to see that Le Corbusier spent time in thought about spatial design and the relationship between this space and the human figure, as these apartments were to espouse functionality. Each apartment encumbered two floors and ranged the length of the building, to exercise space; this was then followed by an outside balcony.

Corbusier developed a system which he inputted into many buildings he designed called the Modular (fig.6). The modular was a proportioning system that worked specifically with the human scale, taking into consideration the use of each module by the human and the size in which these were most compatible and practical. The interior design of the building and each apartment was therefore harmonious and sincere to human register, meaning that the space was highly functional and ergonomic. Designing in modules, was less costly, as the arrangement of the apartment was reproducible and was therefore repeated throughout the building. Although Unite did not breathe the luxury of ornamentation found in classic architecture, people found beauty in a more modern sense. Unite, constructed from reinforced concrete, the most economically friendly material of Europe at the time of assembly, was instead praised for its beauty in functionality, the needs of its inhabitants, which it fulfilled, and the harmony in which it bridged these.

'What we derive from this approach is this: Whenever a specific task or problem is resolved in the most economical, exact and complete way, we achieve without any extraneous aesthetic considerations, the purest modern beauty.' (Teige, K. 2000: p338)

It is clear firstly from the evidence in this text, through the points put forward through the words of Herbert Bayer and Walter Gropius, then followed by the methods in which we communicate, that modernity was the pivot of amendment. The forces of modernity catapulted a once broken Europe, into optimism. Modernity broke the thirst and hunger of a race that craved a better life. Modernity spurred the process which led to such designs that encapsulated the criterion of improvement. The work of such modernist furniture designers could not have been produced, without materials and processes brought on in the modern age such as the evolution of tubular steel. Many formations such as the Bauhaus itself would not have been possible without the availability of sheet glass after the industrial revolution. This was furthered by the employment of steel and concrete that took on the structural loads, meaning that glass could be used more extensively. The new materials introduced by modernity relished in the city, where people began to congregate and so a new more standardized way of living was in demand in order to house the city’s new inhabitants. The Unite d’habitation is a representation of this functional architecture that was needed in the housing shortages that occurred both from the popularity of the city and the Second World War. This rationalized design could not have been built without the avocation of these new materials of which it celebrated in its raw structure. With the oncoming of a modern life, and rapid ways of transport becoming available, easy means of communication were to be heightened. The functionality of modern life, was to be communicated through text, Herbert Bayer’s Universal typeface is a reflection of the more operative and simple written communication that the people of modern life needed. A society who could now travel and communicate more promptly was in need of a visual written structure that would echo this. Universal was the perfect solution. The forces of modernity pushed for a revolution in design and renewed vitality in life all of which would not have been feasible without the opportunities they produced.

Bibliography

Bauhaus-dessau (N.D.) The Bauhaus building by Walter Gropius [Online] (Updated N.D.) Available at: http://www.bauhaus-dessau.de/index.php?The-bauhaus-building-by-walter-gropius [Accessed 22 December 2012]

Bayer, H (1938) Bauhaus 1919-1928, United States of America: The museum of modern art, New York.

Bergdoll, B and Dickerman,L (2009) Bauhaus 1919-1933: Workshops for modernity, New York: The Museum of modern art, New York.

Building Design. (2011) INSPIRATION: UNITE D'HABITATION - Le Corbusier's machine for living in. Tonbridge, United Kingdom: CMP Information Ltd.

Jobling, P and Crowley, D (1996) Graphic Design: Reproduction and Representation since 1800, Preston: Carnegie publishing.

O'Dwyer, D (2011) Walter Gropius 1883-1969. Irish Times, Dublin, Ireland: The Irish Times Ltd.

Ryan, W. and Conover, T. (2004) Graphic communications today. Clifton Park, NY: Thomson/Delmar. Learning.

Sbriglio, J (2004) Le Corbusier: The Unite d’habitation in Marsielles, Germany: Birkhauser – Publishers for Architecture.

Teige, K (2000) Modern Architecture in Czechoslovakia and other writing. Los Angeles, California: Getty research institute.

Walz, R (2008) Modernism, Harlow, England: Pearson Longman.

Youtube (2010) Bauhaus Documentary (1) [Online] (Updated N.D.) Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZOqTFtEHAw [Accessed 21 December 2012]

Youtube (2010) Bauhaus Documentary (2) [Online] (Updated N.D.) Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyEDZD0rl6U [Accessed 21 December 2012]

(fig.1) uni-weimar (N.D.) Bauhaus-Universität Weimar [Online] (Updated March 19 2012] Available at: http://www.uni-weimar.de/cms/en/university.html [Accessed January 26 2013]

(fig.2) thebreman (N.D.) The Weimar Republic [Online] (Updated N.D.) Available at: http://www.thebreman.org/exhibitions/online/1000kids/weimar.html [Accessed January 26 2013]

(fig.3) type (N.D.) Herbert Bayer, A study of Bauhaus typography [Online] (Updated N.D.) Available at: http://www.type.nu/bayer/univer.html [Accessed January 26 2013]

(fig.4) identifont (N.D.) Fraktur [Online] (Updated N.D.) Available at: http://www.identifont.com/show?24O [Accessed January 26 2013]

(fig.5) architecturalmoleskine (N.D.) LE CORBUSIER: UNITÉ D'HABITATION IN BERLIN [Online] (Updated N.D.) Available at: http://architecturalmoleskine.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/le-corbusier-unite-dhabitation-in.html [Accessed January 26 2013]

(fig.6) wikispaces (N.D.) RSTT [Online] (Updated N.D.) Available at: http://zules.wikispaces.com/RSTT [Accessed January 26 2013]

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