Referral: Essay - Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer

Walter Adolf Gropius was a German Architect, born on May 18, 1883 in Berlin. He received education in Munich in the years 1903-04 and in Berlin, Charlottenburg in the years 1905-07 where he studied architecture like his father. Although throughout his lifetime he matured as his ideas transferred from one Modern understanding of Arts, to another, he remained famous for his Bauhaus work and development of projects and ideas. Working with Adolph Meyer initially, and with great names such as Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe, Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, forced to emigrate from Germany, he moved to London, and then to Harvard University, where he taught Architecture and shared his ideas and concepts. Some of his most popular designs are: 

Bauhaus Building Dessau, 1915

Fagus Works, 1911

The fagus factory is located in Alfeld an der Leine, Germany. It is made from steel, brick masonry and glass and has an early modern style. It was materialized due to his connection with Peter Behrens and in co-operation with Adolph Meyer, as had been the case with most of his early structures. 

Gropius House Lincoln, MA, 1937

"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" - Walter Gropius (quote found on website: RUGU, 2013, Walter Gropius Quotes [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.rugusavay.com/walter-gropius-quotes/ [Accessed at: 06 March 2014] 

Marcel Lajos Breuer was one of my favorite architects. He focused on developing new technologies and materials into a creative style; the International Style. He was born in the year 1902, Hungary on the 21st of May and his name grew in the 20th century as one of the greatest architect and designer. With his amazing artistic abilities, he managed to win a scholarship to Vienna. He studied at the Bauhaus school in Weimar, Dessau and also worked there for a year. Right after he took the position of head of the carpentry workshop where he was known as the "young master" as the website says. Here was the place where he met Walter Gropius and with whom he moved to London to work with in 1935. In 1941, he set up his own office, which he moved to New York in 1946. Apart from architecture, Breuer became famous for his work as a furniture designer. These include 'The Wassily Chair' which was inspired by the handlebars of the bicycle. 

The Wassily Chair No. B3, 1925

This design was made specifically for Wassily Kandinsky, that is why the chair is named after him. The chair was made from a tubular steel which was polished, bent and later became chrome plated. This material is also affordable, no need for springs and hygienic. As for the rest, it was made from fabric, possibly black leather. Breuer's designs were classified as designs for modern living. 

Alvar Aalto used to make plywood furniture and these chairs are both inspired from his works. 

"The artist works with the highest level of feeling.

The technician works with the highest level of logic." - Marcel Breuer (found on website: Pinterest, 2014, Marcel Breuer quote - Bauhaus [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/2111131046728277/ [Accessed at: 06 March 2014] 

References:

- InfoLinks, 2014, 'A World History of Art', [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.all-art.org/history580-2a.html [Accessed 20 Jaunuary 2014] 

- Design Technology Department, 2014, 'Marcel Lajos Breuer' [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.design-technology.org/MarcelBreuer.htm [Accessed 20 January 2014]

Futuristic Design

What does future design hold? Today designers focus more on the ergonomics of the product. I did research on some different futuristic concepts, not yet produced that give us a glimpse in a better futur world. 

The first concept product that really got my attention was the 'Cloud Sofa'. It has that illusional effect of an actual cloud floating in air. The design concept was created by D.K. Wei. The base has pretty much a magnet that generates enough magnetic force to keep it floating. It looks comfortable but I believe it lacks safety.

Cloud Sofa - D.K Wei

Then there's the 'Incredible LED Watch'. It is has that idea that we would think that it is just a bracelet but as soon as it lights up, it would become a watch. This was created by Hironao Tsuboi. 

Incredible LED Watch - Hironao Tsuboi

The future shark car 'Audi Shark' designed by Kazim Doku. This is a flying, two-seater sports car. Combination of: the speed of motorcycles and the shape of the aircraft. I think it looks quite safe for its design and very eye-catching but I seriously do not see these type of designed cars going around in the streets!

Audi Shark - Kazim Doku

Modern Rocking Wheel Chair - Mathias Koehler

What is inspiring about this is its circular form. My main inspirations are curves and circles so that is why this caught my eye. It is developed from the original rocking chair but in a more unique and futuristic way.

Another conceptual design which caught my eye is this 'Amazing Lamp' by Julien Bergignat. It has a normal traditional design but with the functionality of being both portable and free standing structure. It can be useful in such cases.

Amazing Lamp - Julien Bergignat

To be honest, I saw some concepts which I think were a bit useless to the human being. Like for example: "Watch Displaying Time in Sand". Design today is only for business. For me, I think that if more and more designs will be produced and sold to this business world, it may make the human life easier, but us humans, we will most probably become too lazy to function, honestly speaking. 

Reference:

WDD, 2010, '100 Amazing Futuristic Design Concepts We Wish Were Real' [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/04/100-amazing-futuristic-design-concepts-w-wish-were-real/ [Accessed at 20 January 2014]

Zaha Hadid - High Tech

Zaha Hadid is an architectural designer born in the year 1950, in Iraq. She studied architecture at the Architectural Association and after graduating in 1977, she joined the Office of Metropolitan Association. Some of the co-workers of this association helped Zaha where she taught at the Architectural Association. These were Rem Koolhaas and Eila Zenghelis. 

Zaha was best known worldwide for her outstanding work such as:

Vitra Fire Station - 1993

Ski Jump in Innsbruck, Austria - 2002

Rosenthal Centre for Contemporary Art in Ohio - 2003

And also for several exhibitions being held along with work exhibited in museums. To produce her investigation before designing, she uses painting and drawing as her techniques. 

She started her own procedure in the year 1980 in London and later won an illustrious and impressive competition for the Hong Kong Peak Club. In the website that I researched, I found this paragraph which describes exactly how Zaha Hadid really works her magic. It says:

"Known as an architect who consistently pushes the boundaries of architecture and urban design, her work experiments with new spatial concepts intensifying existing urban landscapes and encompassing all fields of design, from the urban scale to interiors and furniture."

Reference:

The Hyatt Foundation, 2014, 'Zaha Hadid - 2004 Laureate - Biography [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.pritzkerprize.com/2004/bio [Accessed at: 26 January 2014]

Ettore Sottsass

Ettore Sottsass is an Austrian designer and philisopher who was born in the year 1917 and died in 2008. He "worked throughout his career to shake the static ways in which people thought about design and to try to create a body of work outside of what he thought were 'hierarchic bureaucratic structures of industry' ". 

He studied at the Turin Polytechnic. His specifications of work where based on making new designs that were completely different but worked wonders. He is known in the anti-design movement but there was always questions. He never stopped indicating the importance of design in this world. He says that, "to me design.. is a way of discussing life. It is a way of discussing society, politics, eroticism, food and even design."

He worked for the company Poltronova in the year 1945 as a designer and a consultant. He became known worldwide after working for Olivetti's electronics department from 1958 onwards. 

Some of his designs which were produced for Olivetti were:

1963 - 'Praxis' typewriter

1969 - 'Valentine'

These were some typewriters which Sotsass designed for Olivetti, along with other designs. The 'Valentine' was the most popular and was often seen in vibrant red plastic. 

He was also highly influenced by Pop Art and produced:

 

 Hanging Light in 1958.

A vase from 'Ceramics of Darkness' in the year 1963.

After those, there was a bedroom known as "La Casa Abitata" which was influenced by Japanese aesthetics and was also exhibited in 1965.

Sotsass was the founder of the Memphis group in 1981. The interest was to produce "radical objects and furniture that debated the relevance of modern design". These designed objects include:

'Teodora' chair - 1986

'Casablanca' 1981

Reference:

- R & Company, 2014, Ettore Sotsass [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.r20thcentury.com/biography_detail.cfm?designer_id=104 [Accessed at 26th January 2014]

Dieter Rams

Dieter Rams is an industrial designer born in the year 1932 in Germany. His inspirations were his grandfather who worked as a carpenter. In 1955 he applied for a job at the German electrical products company named Braun. His job in this company was to remodel the interiors of the company and was a protection "protege" to very important people in the Ulm School of Design, Hans Gugelot, Fritz Eichler and Otl Aicher. He instantly was elaborated in product design where he added a clear perspex into this radiogram which was produced in the year 1956, known as SK4 radiogram shown below.

From the years 1961 till 1995 he became head of design at the Braun Company. Since like I mentioned before, his job was remodelling of the interiors he produced this sketch as an initial to his first year at the Braun Company in 1955.

He wanted to design furniture besides the main job he had so he asked Erwin Braun if he could design for Niels Vitsoe and Otto Zapf and he specifically replied "Yes, It will help the market for our radios". In 1960, which was a year later since he asked permission to Erwin, the wall-mounted shelving system shown at the back of the initial sketch was produced. 

Rams focused on “increasing and irreversible shortage of natural resources”, believed that "good design can only come from an understanding of people, Rams asked designers – indeed, everyone – to take more responsibility for the state of the world around them." 
“I imagine our current situation will cause future generations to shudder at the thoughtlessness in the way in which we today fill our homes, our cities and our landscape with a chaos of assorted junk."
He became known worldwide due to his exhibitions.

References: 
Vitsoe, 2014, Dieter Rams [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.vitsoe.com/gb/about/dieter-rams [Accessed at: 25 January 2014]

The VW Beetle

The Volkswagen Beetle idea came from Hitler himself, while he was in prison. He planned to make the people’s car that would be affordable to most people. A special task was given to Stuttgart, aimed to design this ‘Beetle’ in less than 10 months, as specifically instructed by Hitler when he got in power. It was a family car aimed to transport around 5 people, while keeping the engine running cost as low as possible for the families. Also it could not be marketed at more than £86. Known as the Type 60 it ran with a 4-cylinder engine, that was the best economical option and was the VW engine design for more than 30 years. Production started in 1939, but was halted due to WW2. In 1939 only more than 150,000 units where produced.  

After the war, production continued with different models. In 1950 the first convertible beetle was produced known as type 2. Though through the years different models were introduced none was as successful as the original model of the beetle. This forced the VW company to go back to the original beetle like model of the 1930’s. In fact in 1970 the 1302 model was released. In 1973 the 1303 was also introduced. These models kept with the original model of the old beetle, but the interior and engine were completely changed. As new technologies were introduced these were implemented in the beetle to be more comfortable and also the engine was increased to a 1.6ltr. in 1972 the Beetle broke the record of the most produced car. Only 2 years after VW announced that they had made a loss of 140 million sterling. This was the beginning of the end for the beetle. In fact in 1974 the Wolfsburg company ceased its production of the beetle and started producing the Golf.

 

In 1994 the beetle re-emerged, this time a modern beetle that was a copy of the old but more modern. VW sales increased as soon as it was put in the markets, also thanks to the new powerful engine that was increased in size, with an average of same consumption of the old engines.

References:

- A Brief History of the Beetle, 2014, 'A brief History of the Beetle' [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.vsvwa.freeservers.com/bughist2.html [Accessed at 25 January 2014] 

Kodak Cameras

The Kodak story began with George Eastman who grew up in Rochester New York. He founded Kodak in 1880. There are a few different types of Kodak cameras including: The box camera, folding camera and the 8mm motion picture camera. 

Box Camera was the first camera that was introduced by Kodak. It is made out of cardboard so it is very light weight and imitation leather. It's a 100 roll film and could take up to 8 snapshot. Because of it's small size, it made it very popular; also with it's cheap prize of only 1$. Due to popularity, 250,000 of these models were sold so the company decided to continue selling them but more models were improved over the years. 

Brownie Box Camera 

The folding camera was the second camera that could take up to 120 roll film. It was launched in the year 1902 and its materials are similar to the box camera, cardboard and leather. It has two small reflecting view finders for vertical or horizontal shots. Since it was an improved camera from the first one, the price increased to 2$. However they stopped making folding brownie cameras in 1926

Brownie Folding camera

The 8mm motion picture was made from aluminum instead of cardboard. Its price increased to 3$. They used to be found also in colors which their price was at 4$. Several different motion picture cameras were launched in the late 1950's. It doesn't use batteries or electricity, but just by simply winding the spring loaded motor to make it work.

8mm motion picture Brownie camera

The vast majority of Brownie cameras that Kodak made were the low cost box cameras. However a limited number of folding cameras were introduced during the years 1904 to 1926. Although the folding cameras had a limited number produced, they had a few more options than the box cameras such as changing aperture and the shutter speed. They have 1 reflective view finder and they came in larger sizes as shown in the previous image that can print postcard sized. The larger sized folding cameras were a bit more expensive: up to 10$ - 15$.

Eastman Kodak stopped at making Brownie cameras in the late 1960's. Although, the Kodak cameras changed the human experience by enabling people worldwide to capture and enjoy images of their own lives. Neil Armstrong also used the Kodak camera in 1969 by taking pictures of the first moon landing. Nearly every movie that has won Best Picture Oscar was shot by Kodak Camera. In 2004 Kodak stopped selling re-loadable film cameras.

In 2012, the Kodak company failed for bankruptcy after 130 years in business. 

Why?

 "Because what they are doing now they are saying that they want to survive by selling or licensing their patterns" says Barry Fox, a contributing editor for Consumer Electronics Daily, "which protect some of those very clever inventions they come up with but patterns expire, patterns only last the most 20 years, so you can not run a business from revenue which is coming from a resource which is quickly expiring. I visited them in America many years ago, and even then you just knew these people are doomed because they will not see that the future is digital". (saying found on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNdAYqlKfqY)

47,000 employees out of more than 60,000 where laid off from the Kodak company. The Kodak cameras and film failed to keep pace with the move to digital images. They were in a competition with Fuji. 

References:
- Kodak, 2010, 'Super 8mm film History' [ONLINE] Available at: http://motion.kodak.com/motion/Products/Production/Spotlight_on_Super_8/Super_8mm_History/index.htm [Accessed at 25 January 2014]
- The Franklin Institute, 2014, 'The Kodak Brownie' [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.fi.edu/learn/sci-tech/kodak-brownie/kodak-brownie.php?cts=photography-recreation [Accessed at 25 January 2014]
- Historic Camera, 2002, 'No. 2 Folding Brownie by Eastman Kodak' [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.historiccamera.com/cgi-bin/librarium/pm.cgi?action=display&login=no2foldbrownie [Accessed at 25 January 2014]

The Evolution of the Mini

In 1957, the Suez Crisis had steep prices and people were concerned if it was worth it to buy a vehicle. Leonard Lord who was a designer working for the Morris Company: Morris Motors challenged one of his engineers named Alec Issigonis to design a small, fuel-efficient car who is adequate to carry four people within "economic reach of just about everyone". 


 Issigonis started modifying the vehicle. To have more room he thought of "pushing the wheels all the way out of the corners and turning the engine sideways giving the car more stability in tight turn and more passenger space on the inside." People were a bit baffled after the launching of the first Mini but then they realized that the Mini was not just a simple car. It was a "unique combination of classic British style in a low-cost, small size, fun and nimble package" which came to symbolize self-determination  and inspirational to others. The new Mini was an enjoyable and effective.

Issigonis and the new Mini

In 1961, the birth of a rally racing Mini was born and was first driven by a legend racer John Cooper. The name of the vehicle was 'Classic Mini Cooper 997'. 

10 years since the launching of the first Mini, over 2 million models have been sold worldwide. Several years later, in 1977, the popularity of the Mini got even bigger; 4 million models were sold except in America because in the late 1960's the new emissions regulations forced Mini to give up its U.S green card

In 1999, the concept of the new mini were revealed at the Paris Auto Show. Not much changes were made except the leather pull straps, body color spats, a bit the bumper, and of course different instruments of the interior.

In 2003, there were a huge amount of positive feedback about the new mini from owners. Since today the Mini have continued to expand, from 3 door to 4 door, bigger bodies and more extras. It was phenomenon and probably still will be of all the success it made. 

References:

Mini.com, 2014, 'Over 50 years of Motoring' [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.miniusa.com/content/miniusa/en/why-mini/why-mini/over-50-years-of-motoring.html [Accessed at: 20 January 2014]

Claes Oldenburg

Oldenburg is a Swedish artist born in the year 1929. He became an American citizen after the year 1950. He graduated from Yale University in 1951 and then registered to the Art Institute in Chicago. He was attracted by environmental art through Allan Kaprow, and after several years, in 1959 he exhibited wood sculptures, newspaper structures and painted papier-mache objects. 

Giant BLT (Bacon, lettuce, tomato) - Claes Oldenburg - 1963

This Giant BLT sculpture is composed of nineteen separate parts. The bread, olive, bacon, lettuce, and tomato are made of vinyl stuffed with kapok, and the toothpick is made of wood. Claes Oldenburg makes sculptures of ordinary objects, and in the process, he changes them in various ways, including their size and scale. Since the early 1960s, he has transformed all kinds of everyday objects, including home and office appliances, food, clothing, and musical instruments. This type of chaire encourages the audience to see familiar things in unexpected ways.

'Floor Burger' was made with fabric. Oldenburg was helped by his wife, Patty Mucha, a skilled seamstress. Claes was inspired by the grand pianos in midtown showrooms and luxury cars. Before using the fabric material, he was concerned about what to work with. He thought about using plaster but it was an ill-suited material and very fragile so that is why they chose fabric in the end. This sculpture along with several others was exhibited in the Green Gallery in September 1962. 

Other sculptures which were also exhibited include:

Floor Cone - Claes Oldenburg - 1962

Floor Cake - Claes Oldenburg - 1962

References:

- The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), 2014, 'Claes Oldenburg' [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2013/oldenburg/ [Accessed at: 25 January 2014]

- RoGallery, 2013, 'Claes Oldenburg - Swedish/American' [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.rogallery.com/Oldenburg_Claes/oldenberg_bio.htm [Accessed at 25 January 2014]

- The New York Times, 2009, 'Going Softly into a Parallel Universe' [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/arts/design/17kino.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 [Accessed 25 January 2014] 

Alessandro Mendini

Alessandro Mendini is an Italian designer, painter, architect and journalist born in Milan in the year 1931. He worked for Domus, Casabella and Modo. He made part of the Radical Design/Anti Design movement and joined one of the Radical groups; Studio Alchimia. Also worked with Ettore Sottsass and Michele De Lucchi. 

He was known around a lot of countries as he designed several buildings such as: 
Omegna, Alessi's residence 
Teatrino Della Bicchieraia, theater complex
The forum museum of Omegna in Italy
Memorial Tower in Hiroshima and many others.


One of his designs was the 'Lassu' chair produced in 1974. Mendini put two chairs and burned them both named 'Lassu' to give them that Dadaist treatment, burnt. He did this process in front of the offices of Casabella (magazine). The materials he used was colored wood. 

Shown below is one of the chairs that remained stable while the other one which was almost burned completely, the remains are in the archives of the University of Parma. The texture of the burned wood on the chair was symbolizing life and death 

Alessandro Mendin - Lassu - 1974

Another product which he produced was the 'Proust' chair.

This chair on the other hand is more colorful with painted wood material. It was one of the most popular chair in the time of the 80's. With this chair, Mendini produced several designs known as 'redesigns' in which he redesigned their shape and embellishment previous existing chairs which were popular at their time. The chair was covered in colorful dots which were inspired from a painting done by Paul Signac, pointilism. It was inspired by Impressionism and the Baroque Style. 

Alessandro Mendin - Proust Chair - 1978

Some other designs produced by Mendini: 

- Zig zag Chair - 1978: Re-designed from Gerrit Rietveld's design 

And then there is the 'Thonet' chair produced in 1978. Mendini wanted to interpret science and technology. 

Reference:

- RoGallery, 2013, 'Alessandro Mendini - Italian' [ONLINE] Available at: http://rogallery.com/Mendini_Alessandro/mendini-biography.html [Accessed at: 24 January 2014]

- Vitra Design Museum, 2014,  'Lassu - Alessandro Mendini' [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.design-museum.de/en/collection/100-masterpieces/detailseiten/100-lassu-alessandro-mendini.html [Accessed at 24 January 2014] 

- Vitra Design Museum, 2014, 'Poltrona di Proust - Alessandro Mendini' [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.design-museum.de/en/collection/100-masterpieces/detailseiten/poltrona-di-proust-alessandro-mendini.html [Accessed at 24 January 2014]