BAUHAUS CENTENARY | DESIGN
record player range. Hans Gugelot played a central role in this context; an exponent of functionalism and a pioneer of system design, he was particularly influential in developing Braun’s new expression of form. His designs helped introduce cool and technical aesthetic forms to contemporary living rooms.” In 1955, a young
architect called Dieter Rams joined Braun. He quickly made a name for himself in the company, collaborating in a more networked way with technicians. His design of the SK4 record player, with Gugelot, was the first milestone of Rams’ long career with Braun. It was his idea to use acrylic for the lid of the SK4 player, which gained such wide attention that it was even given a nickname, “Snow White’s Coffin.” Braun says: “In a further development of the Bauhaus concept (and of the Ulm School of Design), Braun crucially influenced the concept of design at that time, and, in the process, established itself as an icon of industrial design.” Successively promoted at Braun, Rams was the
flag-bearer for the company’s design ethos throughout the 1960s and into the 70s. Carrying forward the functionalist design approach in Braun’s product range, which expanded to include new technologies such as calculators in the 1970s, Rams became a hero for designers at the top of their profession today. Apple’s Jonathan Ive is one of many designers who acknowledge the influence of Rams in their work. Housewares made from injection moulded plastics became the ubiquitous exemplar of Modernist design in the homes of the 1950s. Tupperware had a headstart when it launched its bowls in the US in 1948, but European companies also won customers looking to modernise their homes as austerity gave way to growing spending ability. Rosti was a plastics injection moulding company founded in Denmark by Rolf Fahrenholtz and Stig Jørgensen which began making plastic buttons shortly after the war. Looking to leverage the design capabilities and lower production costs of injection moulding, Rosti expanded into production of mixing bowls and dinnerware. It commissioned Jacob Jensen (who later became a leading light at Bang & Olufsen) in this product area and, in 1954, Rosti launched his Margrethe melamine mixing bowl design. The design became
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a plastics icon of the 1950s and Rosti went on to make large sales from whole ranges
of housewares that used the same simple design language. In Italy, another
plastics company in the 1950s was discovering the appetite among consumers for well- designed plastics goods. Kartell was
founded by Giulio Castelli, a chemical engineer who studied under Giulio
Natta, the inventor of polypropylene. The company started producing a wide range of household utensils in injection moulded plastics, all of them showing Kartell’s appreciation of the vibrant colours and sleek beauty that plastics could convey. The company commissioned a lot of leading Italian designers, including Joe Colombo, who pushed the boundaries of plastics engineer- ing while working on designs for Kartell furniture in the 1960s. Colombo’s 4860 Universale chair was the first adult chair to be completely made of plastics, and was first manufactured in ABS in 1968. Kartell’s love affair with plastic furniture has lasted a long time: its website currently has a video of the Mr. Impossible chair, designed by Philippe Starck, being injection moulded in two polycarbon- ate parts and then laser welded. Kartell explains its continuing use of plastics is driven not only by aesthetic possibilities but also by the innovation potential of plastic materials: “The ongoing evolution in the use of plastics and experimenta- tion with new technologies and processes are fundamental for Kartell, which has always strived to
Left: Rosti Mepal’s Margrethe mixing bowl is now injection moulded in PP. The original from the 1950s was made of melamine thermoset
Left: Braun SK4 record player with acrylic lid, 1956, de- signed by Dieter Rams and Hans Gugelot
April 2019 | INJECTION WORLD 27
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