The history of design: from prehistory to the birth of industrial design
At the turn of the century, Europe is a continent in great development.
Especially Germany, France and Italy experiment an enormous industrial growth
In the meantime, the United States created a new design style based on efficiency and economy.
This philosophy was generated by the needs of society in continuous growth in the American territory.
The debate that arose in those years was between the spirit of the project and the standard needs of man.
However, the standard object is supported by socio-economic reasons and by market demand.
In a nutshell: if man needs to move around the city, he could buy himself a bicycle. This is an object that was made in a standard way and not handmade, because it responded to a common need.
In that period and precisely in 1907 the German Werkbund or German craftsmen league was born in Germany.
It was an association, founded in Munich in 1907, on the initiative of the architect Muthesius, the entrepreneur Karl Schmidt and the Protestant pastor and liberal politician Friedrich Naumann.
The purpose of the association was to unite the gap between industry and applied arts that occurred during the recent economic development, proposing a new culture of industrial work in which, for each project, production costs, craftsmanship quality, had to be analyzed, the methods and times of production, trying to combine them with company policies.
The intent of the Werkbund was also to put Germany in step with the industrial development of England and the United States.
Its motto Vom Sofakissen zum Städtebau (from sofa cushions to city-building) indicates its range of interest.
The association, unlike the Arts and Crafts, did not aim exclusively at handicraft production, approving the methods of working in series.
It represented an important milestone in the development of modern architecture and industrial design, particularly in the subsequent foundation of the Bauhaus.
The vision of the German Werkbund also supported the need to design modern objects for modern culture born precisely from the new technologies.
For example, at the time public attention shifted to personal hygienic and this literally changed humanities’ habits.
The projects carried out by this group were functional, but still remained linked to the decoration of the jugendstil.
The movement remained alive until 1934 when it was suppressed by the Nazi regime and was revived in 1950 remaining in business until the sixties, losing, however, the weight and importance it had had in previous years.
The early twenties were profoundly marked by the outbreak of the First World War which involved the main powers and many of the smaller ones between 28 July 1914 and 11 November 1918.
It is called trench warfare to indicate a type of positional warfare in which the front line consists of a series of trenches.
Soldiers very often died or became insane during these wars due to poor hygiene, disease, malnutrition, extreme climatic conditions and few hours of rest.
In this context, during the First World War, the total losses can be estimated at more than 37 million, counting more than 16 million dead and more than 20 million wounded and mutilated, both military and civilians, a figure that makes the “Great War” “one of the bloodiest conflicts in human history.
Many protagonists of design, architecture, photography and fiction saw this conflict with their own eyes, completely changing the perception of society as they knew it previously.
In the world of art, towards the end of the conflict around 1917 a new style was born called Neoplasticism or De Stijl.
The term neoplasticism appeared for the first time in October 1917 with the publication of the first release of the magazine De Stijl founded by Theo van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian, to describe their art form: abstract, essential and geometric.
The other artists who formed the original formation, in 1917, under the leadership of van Doesburg, were the painters Bart van der Leck, Georges Vantongerloo and Vilmos Huszar, the architects Jacobus Johannes Pieter Oud, Robert van’t Hoff, Jan Wils and the poet Antony Kok.
This movement developed not only in art but also in architecture and design, influencing one of the most important schools in the sector such as the Bauhaus.
This movement used for more decomposed linear geometric shapes, combined with the use of primary colors in solid colors positioned in a pragmatic way by the artists of the time.
Looking at the paintings, it can be seen that this artistic style has ideally portrayed an explosion, bringing it back to the canvas.
In the field of industrial design a decisive role was played by Gerrit Rietveld, who having been a carpenter worked intensively in the production of furnishings and furniture.
His creations have now become icons.
These include the red and blue Chair designed in 1918, where color takes on a decisive meaning, and the Sofa Table from 1923 designed for the Schröder house in Utrecht, as well as the Zigzag Chair from 1932.Three objects that have profoundly marked the history of design , influencing future generations.
Analyzing the red and blu chair in detail, this is made up of fifteen beech wood slats, aggregated together in such a way as to form an intertwining of lines and planes based on verticality and horizontality: in this linear grid, then, two plywood boards are inserted, the backrest and the seat.
In full harmony with the poetics of De Stijl, the various constituent elements of the chair are assembled by simple overlapping without interlocking or interpenetrating.
This aggregative criterion generates a chair with constituent elements reduced to a minimum, almost devoid of mass or volume, which does not interrupt the space in which it is placed but emphasizes it, thanks – for example – to the particular joint of the backrest, or to the fact that this it is released from the rear legs, in such a way that the chair almost seems to float in the air.
The color treatment of the chair, where the individual parts and their specific formal functions are identified by the color used, are of particular interest.
The various slats are dyed black and have yellow headboards, while the backrest and seat are lacquered in red and blue respectively.
The interlocking of the backrest was also carefully studied by Rietveld, who wanted to create a piece of furniture that did not allow sleep but was comfortable enough for relaxation and to stimulate an “awakening of consciousness”, as the designer himself loved to repeat.
Rietveld’s architectural work represents one of the greatest expressions of De Stijl’s poetics.
He became one of the most sensitive interpreters of neoplasticism in architecture and furniture, activities in which he gave excellent proofs.
Another movement born in that period was Constructivism which started from Russia in 1913, shortly before the 1917 revolution, which rejected the cult of “art for art” in favor of art as a practice directed towards social purposes.
The Zig Zag Chair
In the field of industrial design a decisive role was played by Gerrit Rietveld, who having been a carpenter worked intensively in the production of furnishings and furniture.
His creations have now become icons.
These include the red and blue Chair designed in 1918, where color takes on a decisive meaning, and the Sofa Table from 1923 designed for the Schröder house in Utrecht, as well as the Zigzag Chair from 1932.Three objects that have profoundly marked the history of design , influencing future generations.
Analyzing the red and blu chair in detail, this is made up of fifteen beech wood slats, aggregated together in such a way as to form an intertwining of lines and planes based on verticality and horizontality: in this linear grid, then, two plywood boards are inserted, the backrest and the seat.
In full harmony with the poetics of De Stijl, the various constituent elements of the chair are assembled by simple overlapping without interlocking or interpenetrating.
This aggregative criterion generates a chair with constituent elements reduced to a minimum, almost devoid of mass or volume, which does not interrupt the space in which it is placed but emphasizes it, thanks – for example – to the particular joint of the backrest, or to the fact that this it is released from the rear legs, in such a way that the chair almost seems to float in the air.
The color treatment of the chair, where the individual parts and their specific formal functions are identified by the color used, are of particular interest.
The various slats are dyed black and have yellow headboards, while the backrest and seat are lacquered in red and blue respectively.
The interlocking of the backrest was also carefully studied by Rietveld, who wanted to create a piece of furniture that did not allow sleep but was comfortable enough for relaxation and to stimulate an “awakening of consciousness”, as the designer himself loved to repeat.
Rietveld’s architectural work represents one of the greatest expressions of De Stijl’s poetics.
He became one of the most sensitive interpreters of neoplasticism in architecture and furniture, activities in which he gave excellent proofs.
Another movement born in that period was Constructivism which started from Russia in 1913, shortly before the 1917 revolution, which rejected the cult of “art for art” in favor of art as a practice directed towards social purposes.
