Influences on Designers Mies Van Der Rohe and Breuer, Europe, 1920's

Though the start of the modernisation may trace back to the beginning of Industrial Revolution. “Modernism in the design world did not exist in a fully developed form, until well after First World War.” (Wilk, 2006) Causing the great loss of lives and other countless damage to the world, it reshaped many people’s way of thinking the world. With the inspiration of early avant-garde movement, the modernism began to emerge advocating an utopian future and shared certain core principles by various styles of modernists: rejecting the past and applied ornament; forms follow function, a preference for

The Bauhaus was an art and design school that operated in Germany from 1919 to 1933 (Smith 2005, p. 31) and was a major component of the Modernism movement. In 1923 the schools’ founder Walter Gropius called for “a new unity” between art and technology. Subsequently, one of the main aims of the Bauhaus was to merge art with mass-­‐production, however this ambitious aim often eluded the Bauhaus (Bergdoll and Dickermann 2010, p. 15) and its products were criticized as being for an elite. This essay will investigate the extent to which the Bauhaus achieved its goal of mass production through an exploration of the different phases and individuals of the iconic school.

In Gehry’s house, he used big openings, unique wall surfaces and light conditions in a large room or visible framework, they all showing the postmodern style and making relationships between architecture and its origin. Gehry tried to “make a very tough sculptural

“American corporate designers were learned in Modernist theory, but nevertheless found bulbous aerodynamic bodyshells an appropriately slick garb for wares of a vigorous, efficient society with an aggressive faith in its future. Flashy exaggeration at the hands of the stylists, ever compelled to ‘improve’ on last year’s model, gave streamlining a bad name.” (Hodges, Coad, Stone, Sparke, Aldersey-Williams, The New Design Source Book, 1992, p.158) Discuss in relationship to the ‘innovation’ in household designs of the 1950’s, how do these designs compare to similar examples of today? Do designers today feel “compelled to improve on last years model?

The compelling shape and size of the unique Lim L table lamp certainly seem reminiscent of a fine art piece, possibly using emotional persuasion. It is likely that this lamp makes up for its hidden technological reasoning with its “emotional” draw. Like with Buchanan’s example of the unusually curved wrench, spectators may take a liking to the Lim L lamp’s uncommonly sleek look, regardless of whether they know the exact purpose of the piece. On the other hand, the Sanrio Hello Kitty table lamp is so kitsch-based and so reliant on its commercial appeal, it is difficult to classify it as something on the same level as fine art. That is not to say, however, that there is no emotional component to the piece, especially because this lamp is intended for a younger audience. As stated before, the table lamp is very inviting and encourages play, even if a child were to be unaware of the ever-popular Hello Kitty character. In this way, the lamp also serves as a piece that, as Buchanan stated, is “transformed into [an object] for pure contemplation, valuable in [itself] rather than as the means to some other

Brancusi's revolutionary reversal of the base from passive podium to generative element has likewise informed Didier Vermeiren, who is best known for his large corpus of works based on the assemblage of two identical pedestals. In Vermeiren's so-called pedestal on top of a pedestal, pedestal and sculpture form replicas of one another. Elevating the element that is ordinarily used for the display of works gauged more valuable, all these artists have cunningly received, aesthetic orders. In the process, they have problematized and restructured the power relations between high and low, aesthetic and functional. Similarly, in different versions of the Endless Column, Brancusi played categories of pedestal against sculpture, and sculpture against architectural unit, until formal and functional elements performed an intricate self-cancellation. Unquestionably, next to the producer of the readymade, Brancusi was a legitimate "transformateur Du Champ."

With works in every known medium, from every part of the world, throughout all points in history, exploring the vast collection of the Museum of Modern Art was an overwhelming experience. The objects in the Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts are an important historical collection, reflecting the development of a number of art forms in Western Europe. The department's holdings covered sculpture in many sizes, woodwork and furniture, ceramics and glass, jewelry, and tapestries. The gallery attracted my appreciation of the realistic qualities of the human body often portrayed in sculpture.

Moreover, I explained how each image is an example for the core principles of modernism as mentioned in the overview. In brief, modernist design is innovative. Space, form and structure is based on the functional requirements. Designs became simple and without overwhelming traditional aesthetic concepts. Therefore, technology together with simpler design made the product easy to be mass produced. After the first World War, designers in central Europe intended to change the world for better through art by rejecting ornamentation as it resembled of the past generations whom withstood the unpleasant effects of war and poverty (Smith, 2005). Dormer (1993) writes that:

Mies van der Rohe is one of the most prominent figures in modernist architectural history, the man who popularised some of the most influential phrases of the era, e.g. “less is more”, and strove to push his ideas and philosophies, not just on what he thought a building should be, but of what he thought architecture itself was. He changed the cityscape of America, showing the world a style that was simple and elegant, with such a controlled palette of expressions that shone through in its geometric beauty.

In the United States, modernism began in the late 1910s, was at its peak in the 1920s, and

Modernism began in the late 19th and early 20th century mainly in Europe and North America just before World War I. Modernism started as a reaction to existing kinds of

Le Corbusier, inspired by modern painting, the floating floor and transparency in his design is an echo of what was modern painting. In 1915, he drew six reinforced concrete pillars that held three horizontal slabs, which were connected by a staircase (fig.1). Ferroconcrete in his hand was like a sculpture’s clay used to express his ideas. Le Corbusier transmuted the concrete skeleton developed by engineer to a means of architectural expression that no one before him had tried.

“Design is for living”. The adage fashioned a widespread shift in design during the 1940s and 1950s. It revolutionized the form by creating an electrifying visual language that signaled a new age and a fresh start- two of the powerhouses were Charles and Ray Eames. The Eameses were a husband and wife team whose unique synergy led to a whole new expression in furniture and architecture. The couple advocated the principles of Modernism through the adaptation of innova¬tion from wartime technology .Their design style can be branded as “California Modernism,” a term that is often used interchangeably with “Mid-Century Modernism.” This distinct style embodied an approach to design that opposed the “social conscience” of the Bauhaus in order to embrace looser, warmer design which was both more expressive of local character and in touch with the realities of commerce and salesmanship. With the west-coast coming-of-age, economy shift from making goods to producing information and the global expansion of American culture; their lives and work embodied some of America’s defining movements. They contributed to architecture, film, industrial and graphic design. They were known as pioneers of affordable mass production and residential constructions. The evolution from furniture designers to cultural ambassadors validated their bents and overlaps with country’s interest and projected how design can enhance the lives and practical needs of ordinary people and not just the elite.

The Bauhaus school was founded in 1919 in Weimar by German architect Walter Gropius (1883 - 1969). In 1923, Walter Gropius introduced the agreement between “creative artists and the industrial world”. The Bauhaus is most famous for the idea of combining forms and functions. They combined both fine arts and design elements to create a curriculum that trained artists and designers to be capable of producing both functional and aesthetic work. One of the main goals was to bring design and technology together. During the Bauhaus period, Fine art and craft were combined together and aimed toward problem solving for an innovative, modern and industrial society. Nowadays, the Bauhaus legacy continues in modern designs, such as minimalism, or design brands like IKEA. In this essay, I will analyze Bauhaus’s influence on modern design, including architecture and furniture design by exploring different examples from different periods of time.

The book consists of twelve chapters that propose this idea that designers should explore the nature of our senses’ response to the spatial built forms that people invest their time in. It tries to cover a specific topic in each chapter that in order to deconstruct the book, it is necessary to cover each chapter individually.