What does Bauhaus Design mean
I am positive you’re aware of the term ‘minimal’. A term that’s frivolously thrown around these days to describe many things, from webpages to watches. Minimalism revolves around the concept of ‘less is more’. A common misconception is that the legendary designer, Dieter Rams, coined this phrase. It was, in fact, found in a poem, Andrea del Sarto, 1855, by Robert Browning:
Who strive - you don't know how the others strive To paint a little thing like that you smeared Carelessly passing with your robes afloat,- Yet do much less, so much less, Someone says, (I know his name, no matter) - so much less! Well, less is more, Lucrezia.
That phrase is commonly associated with the architect and furniture designer Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe (1886-1969), one of the founders of modern architecture and a proponent of simplicity of style.
However, this principle of simplicity and clarity in design emerged very widely through a school which in-turn became an art movement itself, the ‘Bauhaus’. The Bauhaus School (literally meaning ‘building house’ in German) was founded in 1919 by Walter Gropius in Weimar, then the capital of post WWI Germany.
What did Bauhaus stand for?
While producing a breadth of work in textile design, furniture, architecture and many other fields, Bauhaus’s fundamental principle behind all of them was - Form Follows Function.
To explain that a bit further, the product (of any nature) is built based on the function it is supposed to serve. This may seem obvious at this point but it wasn’t so before Bauhaus. During the times before this principle was widely enforced, many regular items were grandiloquent, at times with unnecessary additions to the design. This made them expensive to make and reduced the access to the masses, even to the ones who could afford it.
In the simplest way I can put it, with my level of understanding: If there was a chair to be designed, the function that it must primarily serve is to enable sitting on it, by being stable. You can always have N number of functions for the chair. You can define a function that the chair must also serve as a table or it should be rust-resistant. There’s no limit on them, however, the primary function still is to enable sitting. And, people from Bauhaus saw this requirement, the following chairs were be their results:
Source: dezeen.com & Knoll
You’d assume that this seems very common to today’s furniture. And, yes, you’re right. But let’s look at a few chairs from the 1800s,
Source: Google Images search results for Chairs from the 1800s
The most obvious difference would be the lack of all those ornamentations on the legs, the back, and other parts in the Bauhaus chairs. The next thing you should notice is lack of all the fancy curves and shapes in them. Last, but not the least, would be the material changes.
Now, I am not saying that the 1800s chairs aren’t pretty or they’re useless. They definitely served their purpose. But, Bauhaus made it so much simpler to make these chairs. And, at scale. While the elegance factor is debatable, one can’t deny that the Bauhaus chairs are functional. It’s far easier to train a machine to do the Bauhaus chairs than the 1800s models. Let alone, the costs involved with those cuts. Thus, taking good design to the masses.
Another great principle about Bauhaus was the choice of materials and choosing modern technologies in manufacturing. You can see this from the choice of using metal on the chair.
The Bauhaus Principles
The website www.art.art summarizes the principles of Bauhaus succinctly. I am putting a few from that list here below.
- Form follows function: According to this idea, simple but elegant geometric shapes were designed based on the intended function or purpose of a building or an object.
- Gesamtkunstwerk or the ‘complete work of art’: Gesamtkunstwerk means a synthesis of multiple art forms such as fine and decorative arts. A building and its architecture was only one part of the concept. The other part is design.
- True materials: Materials should reflect the true nature of objects and buildings. Bauhaus architects didn’t hide even brutal and rough materials.
- Minimalism: Bauhaus artists favoured linear and geometric forms, avoiding floral or curvilinear shapes.
- Emphasises on technology: Bauhaus workshops were used for developing prototypes of products for mass production. The artists embraced the new possibilities of modern technologies.
- Smart use of resources: Bauhaus ideology is characterised by the economic way of thinking. The representatives of the Bauhaus movement wanted to achieve controlled finance, productive time-consuming projects, precise material use, and a spare space.
- Simplicity and Effectiveness: There is no need for additional ornamenting and making things more and more ‘beautiful’. They are just fine as they are.
- Constant development: Bauhaus is all about new techniques, new materials, new ways of construction, new attitude – all the time. Architects, designers, and artists have to invent something new all the time. Thus Bauhaus influenced the new forms of arts like graphic design which emerged 100 years ago. Bauhaus also led to the emergence of new forms of interior design.
You could see most of these points being reflected in the chair designs you saw previously. At this point, you might be thinking that all of these seem like rules and are restrictive in nature. And, you aren’t wrong. I feel like they can be both great and puzzling. I’d like to point out a couple of examples, one for a great and another for a puzzling Bauhaus design.
These are called the Bauhaus Nesting tables by Josef Albers. Let’s break down the design:
- Simple form factor - easy to manufacture
- Height differences are optimal - easy to stack without stools rubbing against each other
- Have the opening only one of the legs, the other sides have a horizontal bar in the bottom, which is easy for someone to push it inside without getting confused
Now, let’s have a look at an iconic Bauhaus design which I find puzzling.
This is the Bauhaus Chess set by Josef Hartwig. The website Dezeen.com describes the above design as follows:
…a 32-piece chess set for the Bauhaus between 1923 and 1924 using minimal lines, circles and squares, to reduce the pieces to their basic function of movement.
For example, the X-shaped bishop represents its diagonal movements, while the near-limitless movements of the queen are represented with a sphere on top of a cube. By eliminating all religious and monarchical symbols typically used in chess, the German designer aimed to redesign the game for a modern age.
Every chess piece has a function: to move in a certain rule-driven way. Now, Hartwig did a literal interpretation of that in designing the form of the chess pieces. Bauhaus principle, check. Very easy to manufacture due to lack of intricate carvings like traditional chess pieces. Another Bauhaus principle, check.
But, while that is said, is it for the masses? No. A common person, while he/she may understand why the pieces are designed the way they are, would still find it awkward to play with this set. For him/her, a Knight is always a horse head shaped piece. A cube with a section missing will never be as convincing.
I feel this is a great example of a Bauhaus driven design that was overdone. While these Bauhaus principles are fantastic to follow, it's important to keep in mind the context and familiarity are a major factor in design.
Concluding notes
You can find the principles of Bauhaus embodied in various brands these days. Many companies frivolously throw around the word Bauhaus for branding and marketing and that’s what made me learn about the school and its principles. A company that beautifully embodies these principles is IKEA. Simple looking products, made from easily available materials, and for the masses. Checks every box of the Bauhaus principles.
If you’re wondering what happened to this great and revolutionary school, here you go with a short history of its end, from history.com:
TLDR: Nazis did this.
In 1928, Swiss architect Hannes Mayer took over from Gropius, but his tenure was a troubled one, with student-teacher ratios becoming a big problem for the school and various disputes with Communist students and anti-Communist faculty members. He was dismissed in 1930. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (The same guy who I mentioned at the beginning of this story who was commonly associated with the concept of ‘Less is More’) was considered the top architect in Germany when he was tapped by Gropius to take over as school director that same year.
Under his leadership, the school moved during a struggle for survival with Germany’s ever-encroaching National Socialist Party, whose interference demanded experimental work be toned down as it seized control of the school.
Mies van der Rohe’s solution to Nazi intervention in the school was to move it to an empty telephone factory in Berlin and designate it a private institution. But the National Socialists continued to harass the school, attacking what the Nazis perceived as a Soviet Communist ideology and demanding that Nazi sympathizers replace select faculty members.
The faculty flatly refused to work with the Nazis, and rather than cooperate with them, the school was closed in 1933 by the faculty’s vote. Following this decision, Mies van der Rohe, Gropius, the Albers and many others within the Bauhaus school fled to the United States, where they continued to have a profound and lasting influence on 20th-century art and design.
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That’s it for today! Have a great weekend!