Abstract This paper explains the view of IKEA's inheritance of the Bauhaus movement in functional, minimalist design that is affordable by the masses. It explains that IKEA, however much it refers in advertising and promotion to the Bauhaus and Bauhaus ideals, is rather opposite, due to their sparse, attractive design, appealing to a fairly prosperous consumer market, their corporate agenda and the non-functionality of items in terms of limited durability, assembly design difficulties and cheap finishes.
From the Paper "IKEA vs. the Reform Ideals of the Bauhaus. Introduction The design purchased, now globally, from IKEA stores is popularly said to approximate Bauhaus furniture and philosophy of the early 20th century. This paper explores the degree to which this is so, finding an important difference in the overall concept of the Bauhaus and a pioneering design concept put into practical use, and the corporate agenda of IKEA, as it delivers sparsely designed, usually functional products whose clean lines appeal to many kinds of consumers. In the 21st century's hyper-consumerism that both drives and results from Globalization, the involvement of art and design in ordinary, strategic business activities is not new. (Darso & Dawids:2002)"
Abstract In this article, the writer presents a brief biography of Walter Gropius's early life, including education and influences. The writer discusses the role played by the Bauhaus Movement in the Imperial Germany of the 19th and 20th centuries in addition to describing the contribution made by the Bauhaus style of Architecture in the United States. The writer concludes that Walter Gropius was without doubt one of the most important architects of the previous century. The writer maintains that his significance lies in having realized the necessity of combining the previously separate fields of art and craft early in his career and in bringing the art of designing closer to the realities of the industrial age.
Outline:
Walter Gropius's Life
Early Influences and Work
The First World War and Marriage
Weimer and Dessau
Exile, Harvard and Death
The Role of the Bauhaus Movement in 19th and 20th Century Germany
Background
Influence of the Bauhaus Movement in Germany
Bauhaus Style Contribution in the United States
Conclusion
From the Paper "Even before of the end of World War I, Walter Gropius was invited to become the director of the School of Arts and Craft and the Academy of Fine Arts in Weimer. Walter accepted the position and took over as the director of the institutions in 1919 after the end of the War. It was a time of artistic confusion and architects and designers, as well as painters and sculptors who were mostly individual romantics seemed to be drifting directionless with their art. Amidst such confusion, Gropius knew exactly what to do: he was convinced that no distinction could be made between fine arts and practical crafts and immediately proceeded to unify the two schools, re-naming it the Staatliches Bauhaus Weimar. The move proved to be a pivotal moment in Gropius's life and modern architecture as it signaled the start of the Bauhaus movement. It was at Bauhaus, Weimer that Gropius introduced his new approach to design education that emphasized the principal of uniting art and technology that revolutionized modern design."
This essay examines the Bauhaus school of architecture which originated in Germany in the 1920 and remains the most influential architectural movement.
Abstract This paper looks at the Bauhaus architectural movement and its relationship to the massive technological advances of the early twentieth century. It examines the philosophical beliefs of the Bauhaus founders and evaluates their finest achievement, the Dessau Bauhaus, which was completed in 1925. It explains how the Dessau Bauhaus achieved its celebrated status in the world of architecture.
From the Paper "In the late the 19th and early twentieth century technological advances swept across the world with an undreamed of speed. The pace at which technology reinvented culture seemed almost preternatural, and amounted to the greatest alteration in man's view of the universe since Isaac Newton (Hughes 15). The study of the modern age (1880-present) and how artistic developments viewed cultural change would not be complete without a look at architecture's role. The work of an architect will by its nature influence society more than a painting and sculpture; its size and usefulness to poeple make that a certainty. Buildings surround us, we move through them, and they are part of our everyday life."
Tags: architecture, art, Bauhuas, dessau, modern, technology, twentieth, century
Abstract This paper will argue that were it not for the revolutionary spirit fostered by the war, the revolution in design that the Bauhaus represented would never have come to fruition.
Abstract This paper examines the furniture designs of one of the Bauhaus' most famous designers, Marcel Breuer (in the context of the Bauhaus and the modern movement). The paper argues that Breuer's furniture designs reflect the overall Bauhaus interest in the application of industrial mass production to the creation of domestic spaces defined by quality design. The writer explains that although the Bauhaus was to only exist for a few short years before its closing by Germany's Nazi government in 1933, its ethos can be seen to be reflected in much of Breuer's innovations in furniture design. The writer also notes that Marcel Breuer's furniture design would prove so enduring and popular that it came to be characteristic of the modern movement. The writer concludes that in situating Breuer within the context of the Bauhaus, we can see how his modernist vision evolved from an emphasis upon aesthetic principles to a focus upon the primacy of industrial design that may be inexpensively reproduced through mass production techniques. An annotated bibliography is appended.
Outline:
Introduction
The Bauhaus Vision
Marcel Breuer and Modern Furniture Design
Conclusion
From the Paper "The Bauhaus School that came into being in Germany in the wake of the First World War represented arguably the single most influential school in the history of modern design. Headed by figures such as Walter Gropius and Mies van der Rohe, and defined by a socially egalitarian ethos that envisioned industrial production as the key to presenting quality designed products for the general public, the Bauhaus was to play a critical role in the shaping of how the twentieth century perceived modern design."
Abstract This paper examines the changes in Western art perceptions of design and aesthetics in the early 20th century by analysing the influence of the design that produced the Bauhaus aesthetic. This essay argues that a political agenda gave direction to this change, one that was enabled by changes in industrial production technologies. In this paper, several artifacts and interiors of this period are discussed, and the author here demonstrates how the objective of the Bauhaus aesthetic was to liberate the mass public through the transformative power of well-designed, affordable living space.
Abstract Discusses the history and aims of this movement. The Bauhaus and work of architect Gropius as a response to German industrialization and commerical standardization. Ideology of this New Architecture. Need for artists or architects to recognize their obligation to the community. The German Craft Association. Life, work and influence of Gropius.
From the Paper "Walter Gropius and the Bauhaus
In the first decade of the twentieth century, the Deutscher Werkbund or "German Craft Association" was formed with the expressed aim of improving the aesthetic quality of manufactured goods and industrial architecture while producing both less expensively (Adams, p. 477). The creation of this Association was very much a response to two complementary pressures. On the one hand, Germany was undergoing a period of rapid industrial development in which the factory and the machine were replacing the cottage and the craftsman's hands as the locus and source of production. On the other hand, a sense that many of the machine-made products and machine-serving buildings and other structures were of less aesthetic quality (and greater cost) than was desirable was also emerging."
Abstract This paper will be a discussion of the two very important schools of design which were started after World War I. They are: The Bauhaus school which was a German perspective on design and Art Deco. Both of these designs or ways of thinking and doing design were very important and very influential in this 20th century.
Abstract This paper reviews the historical evolution of typographical design as it has influenced new media technology, including film and computers. The author examines ten historical periods starting in 1900 and ending in 2007. The author expresses that he prefers new type designs that deal with the traditional concerns of legibility, readability, economy, flexibility and transparency.
Table of Contents:
Objective
1900 to 1910 Art Nouveau
1910-1920 "Futurist"
1920-1930 - The Bauhaus Movement
1930-1940 "End of Bauhaus - Typographic Journey"
1940-1950 - Hollywood Film Credits
1960-1970 - Youth Culture & Change
1970-1980 - Experimentation and Weingart
1980-1990- IBM launches PC Typography
1990-2000 - Digital Technology and TrueType Internet and Multimedia
2000- 2007
From the Paper "Lester Beall is stated to have assisted in launching the modern movement in American design during the decades of the 1920s and 1930s. During the last twenty years of his career, Beal pioneered corporate identities for corporations including Martin Marietta, Connecticut General Life Insurance and International Paper Company. During this time period immigrants that were talented reached America from Europe and American design was known to be: "...pragmatic, intuitive, and more informal in its approach to organizing space.""
Tags: typeface, sans serifs, title sequences, truetype opentype
From the Paper "The achievement of the Bauhaus school of architecture and design consisted of its novel pedagogical approach and its distinctive modernist style of design. While both of these aspects of the Bauhaus movement originated in its innovative aesthetic and were intrinsically linked while the movement flourished, the style was to be replaced by different design ideas that sometimes derived from aesthetics similar to that of the Bauhaus and, very often, from training based on Bauhaus methods. There was no necessary connection between Bauhaus style, which might have developed in various directions, and Bauhaus educational principles, which eventually supported the teaching of many kinds of design. These achievements were, therefore, of different kinds. On the one hand, the style developed by the teachers and students was enormously influential..."
Compares 19th Cent. British & 1920s German art schools. Looks at the origins, critiques of society & modernization, leadership, love of beauty & utility.
1,350 words (approx. 5.4 pages), 5 sources, 1996, $ 47.95
From the Paper "The Arts and Crafts Movement, that began in nineteenth-century Britain, and the Bauhaus movement, that started in Germany in the 1920s, had many goals in common. Both movements were interested in uniting all the arts and crafts and giving them equal dignity. Both movements were also deeply concerned with the role of the artist as worker and with the nature of work in general. Most importantly, both movements believed in beautiful design and well-made work as an enhancement of life. The importance of industrialized production and its aesthetic effects was a central question for both movements, but this was also the main point on which they disagreed. Both movements held that the industrialized production of goods had transformed the world. But, while the original Arts and Crafts movement largely rejected the machine age and all its productions, the Bauhaus.."
A brief examination ofsome 19th century developments in German architecture focusing on the early 20th century rise of the Bauhaus school under Gropius and later Van der Rahe.
1,125 words (approx. 4.5 pages), 3 sources, 1992, $ 39.95
From the Paper "Germany - Architecture
Architecture in the nineteenth century was not stylistically unified. There was a nostalgia for the past which resulted in a revival of a number of styles, another link with the Renaissance period. Karl Freidrich Schinkel was the most important early Romantic architect. There was a Gothic revival in this era that was seen by critic John Ruskin as opposed to the evils of capitalism and as symbolic of the freedom allowed to medieval artisans (Lucie-Smith 375). After 1830 European design and fashion had imitated historical styles in an archaeological, patriotic, and bourgeois manner. In Germany, new ideas derived from engineering, and a revolutionary industrial aesthetic were introduced around 1900. Yet these ideas were only hesitantly accepted. Jugendstil was the German version of Art Nouveau..."
Abstract William Morris and Marcel Breuer were architects that took two different physical approaches in removing worthwhile design out of palaces and putting it into the homes of ordinary people. Both brought to their design philosophy a substantial political agenda and, in fact, a substantially similar political agenda. The paper shows that Morris's politics had the gentle color of his native England in the second half of the 19th century and of one of its great philosophers, John Ruskin. In comparison, the paper shows that Breuer's political inspiration came, not from his native Hungary, but a post-WWI Germany and its socialist leanings and, later, from American abundance and willingness to experiment. The paper shows that where Morris's ideas reflected the natural life of a still somewhat pastoral England that surrounded him (especially as he had the means to choose his locale), Breuer's ideas reflected a more muscular, sinewy, hardened landscape of assembly lines and relentlessly turning crankshafts and gears. Where Morris was organic and 'green,' Breuer was skeletal and 'steely gray'.
From the Paper "Despite the intent of both men to bring good design down to earth, the results could not have been more different. Morris, because of the time in which he worked, was limited to traditional furniture materials, mainly wood and metal used only in joinery and sometimes in decoration. In fact, it was in decoration that Morris excelled. His use of curvilinear carving in his wallpapers and furniture, especially his dining chairs, makes clear his connection to the pastoral settings so familiar to educated Englishmen. In addition, because his belief demanded that the overburdened workingman have a respite from the world of shoddy utilitarian objects, (or ugly goods, as he might put it), embellishment suitable to the object and its use was essential."
Abstract This paper looks at the life and architectural career of Walter Gropius, as well as German architecture and Gropius's contribution to architecture during his lifetime. The paper looks at Gropius's contribution to functionalism and abstraction and Germany's rejection of these schools of art.
From the Paper "Germany's high culture of the late medieval period was followed by a slow decline. In the seventeenth century the Thirty Year's War wrecked her material and political potential for more than a century. In the late eighteenth century, during a period of political importance, classic German literature was produced in the small princely courts. In the early nineteenth century, a thin layer of highly cultivated individuals began to produce Romantic poetry and music, at a time when Germany as a whole was pervaded by a depressing political reaction, which expressed itself in bitter opposition to economic freedom in the development of commerce and industry."
Abstract More than any other architect of the 20th century, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe represents the ascendancy of Modernism in its most Minimalist incarnation. While this emphasis on the importance of spare lines and lack of fussiness is understandable, given what had come before in terms of both architecture and decorative arts, this does not necessarily make it more palatable from the perspective of the 21st century. This essay focuses on two specific buildings by Van Der Rohe: the 1930 Tugendhat house in Moravia and the 1929 German Pavilion that he designed for the International Convention in Barcelona, Spain, as a way of delineating the strengths of his work, as well as serving as a reminder of the distinct limitations of Minimalism within the realm of architecture.
From the Paper "When we look at Tugendhat House what we see is a building that rather aggressively protrudes from the hill to which it is anchored. Mies set the building apart from the hill both in terms of color ? it is gray and black, entirely lacking in the greens and earth-tones of the surrounding hillside ? and in terms of form. The hill is rounded, gently sloping, its curve emblematic of the ways in which water and geological stratigraphy and wind shape the earth. The building's exterior is none of these things: It is not only rectilinear (as are most structures in the modern world) but it flaunts this rectilinearity. Its solidity emphasis the human-constructed nature of the structure: We would never (no matter from what distance we viewed this building or from what angle) confuse this with something created by nature."
