BAUHAUS CENTENARY | DESIGN
Bauhaus and its lasting role in plastics design
On the 100th that influenced the course of 20th
It has been 100 years since the Bauhaus art and design school opened its doors in Weimar, Germany. It only operated for the 14 years from 1919 to 1933, when it was closed after sustained opposition from the National Socialists had forced the institute to move to Dessau and then, briefly, to Berlin. But the influence of the Bauhaus has been far-reaching and continues to today in the disci- plines of architecture and product design. Design- ers still acknowledge the debt they owe to the Bauhaus in the designs they create in furniture, homewares and other consumer products, in which the harmony of form and function is seen in characteristics such as clean lines and curves and simplicity of use. The Bauhaus teachers and students may not have used plastics in their work, but the ideas and aesthetics they espoused were vital to designers and company leaders during the rapid growth of plastics design and manufacturing that was to follow in the 1940s, 50s and 60s. The Staatliches Bauhaus was founded by
architect and designer Walter Gropius in the period immediately after the First World War when artists all across Europe were creating works that re- sponded to the modern world. Expressionism and
www.injectionworld.com
anniversary of the Bauhaus, the German institute century design, we look at how
its legacy has been critical to plastics design. By David Eldridge
Constructivism were two of the many movements in art that collectively have been labelled Modern- ism for their rejection of old styles and embrace of new trends and technology, such as mass produc- tion of cars. Gropius saw design as essentially a democratic practice, one that could serve the needs of society and was best executed by bringing together art, design, architecture and crafts in an all-encompassing education. The Bauhaus style was developed from the idea
that integration of form and function would answer society’s needs in the buildings, furniture and utensils used by people in their everyday lives. In this concept, the Bauhaus was not the first group to react against the decorative styles of the 19th century. The Bauhaus style’s absence of ornamen- tation, simplified forms and human-centred functionality were trends also followed, for exam- ple, by the Deutscher Werkbund, which predated the Bauhaus by a decade. The Deutscher Werkbund was founded by a
group of German designers, including Peter Behrens, who was appointed as AEG’s first head of design in 1907. It was formed with an objective of helping Germany’s economic competitiveness
Walter Gropius founded Bauhaus in April 1919 and was its director until 1928. The main image shows updated chairs designed by Charles Eames, one of the linking designers between
Bauhaus and plastics design
April 2019 | INJECTION WORLD 25
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