bauhaus : by Taschen // part 4

HANNES MEYER: NECESSITIES, NOT LUXURIES 

"'Principles of Bauhaus Production', Gropius had declared the main goal of the Bauhaus to be the development of models for industrial goods. Meyer went a step further. The Bauhaus was to design models which suited 'the needs of the people', the 'proletariat'. Meyer thus assigned Bauhaus work a social aim which was soon to be condensed into the phrase 'Volksbedarf statt Luxusbedarf'- popular necessities before elitist luxuries." (pg. 174)

"The mot significant achievements of the joinery workshop included the furnishing of the General German Trades Union school, the Dessau labour exchange built by Gropius and the People's Apartment of 1929... the chair by Josef Albers in the apartment deserves particular mention. Collapsible and made of shaped laminate wood, it numbers among the most typical and at the same time, pioneering examples of Bauhaus design." (pg. 175)

Josef Albers Chair. Photo here

"Bauhaus wallpaper... proved the most successful of all Bauhaus products. A fine structuring of lines, grids, or flecks is usually combined with two shade of the same colour. With their matt surfaces, these barely- noticeable designs make a room appear bigger- quite the opposite of colourful floral patterns. Colours ranged from relatively clear, bright colours to shade of brown... Bauhaus wallpapers are still being produced today." (pg. 179) 

"'Building is only organization: social, technical, economic, psychical organization. '" -Hannes Meyer (pg. 190) 

"Meyer's most significant achievements as an architecture teacher at the Bauhaus remains the systematic and scientific bases upon which he placed the design process and its implementation in practical and theoretical teaching. A new breed of architect was to understand the determining of social needs and his own social responsibility as central to his profession. The teamwork model would enable him to better respond to the growing complexity of many building tasks." (pg. 193)

"Workshop activities were no loner based on primary colours and elementary forms, but on questions of utility, economy and social target groups. Solutions in the spirit of an aesthetic Constructivism disappeared; products became 'necessary, correct and thus as neutral... as  can possibly be conceived.'" (pg. 196) 

LUDWIG MIES VAN DER ROHE: THE BAUHAUS BECOMES A SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE

"Only a very few people know that- let's say- 90 percent of architecture is calculation, while the remaining ten percent is feeling. Mies is very reluctant to talk about this abstract part, since he hates "intellectual" drivel like the plague." (pg. 213)

"Exercises from the classes of Meyer and Mies can thus be distinguished on the basis of visual criteria alone. Mies dropped a fundamental aspect of the Bauhaus curriculum: the integration of theory and practice. But this was precisely what had always made the Bauhaus programme so remarkable, and had been respected by Meyer." (pg. 214) 

"Schmidt saw advertising as a source of information. It was to 'convince through its clear presentation of facts, of economic, scientific data' rather than through propaganda or persuasion." (pg. 220) 

"Left-wing forces grouped at the Bauhaus and, despite Mies' numerous expulsions, survived until the beginning of 1933. Right - wing, in other words, Nazi students only appeared during the school's last few weeks in Berlin." (pg. 227) 

"Opinions on the Bauhaus differed. Grote sought to present the modernity which the Bauhaus embodied as a German style:' The new style may be Marxist-Communist, but it may also be German and Classical.'" (pg. 230) 

Royal Ontario Museum

staircase of wonders

atrium

jarred crustaceans

Greek gold wreath

Athens Diorama

Greek busts

Cyprus iridescence

Greek Snake Bangle

Victorian ceramics

armour

dino

tiger glare

Chinese stone carving

Ancient Chinese Compass

Korean vanity box

Rex WOODS
Left: [Mme Pompadour valentine] Artwork for the cover of Canadian Home Journal, February 1935.
Right: [Majorette on Elephant] Artwork for the cover of Canadian Home Journal, September 1937.

Death of General Wolfe, Benjamin WEST 

bauhaus : by Taschen // part 3

DESSAU BAUHAUS: Institute of Design

"In the words of a contemporary visitor: 'I arrive in Dessau at dawn. Fog hangs over the city. Our headlights occasionally penetrate the damp air. But the eye is drawn to a dazzling beam of light. A giant light cube: the new Bauhaus building. Later, with sunshine and blue sky, the building remains a focal point of lightness and brightness." (pg. 122)

"At about the same time as the opening of the new school building, Gropius decided the Bauhaus should be given the subtitle 'Hochschule für Gestaltung' - Institute of Design." (pg. 134)

"Josef Albers entered the room with a bundle of newspapers under one arm, which he gave out to the students. He then turned to us with roughly the following words: 'Ladies and gentlemen, we are poor, not rich. We cannot afford to waste time or materials. We must make the best out of the worst... For the present we shall focus on skill, not beauty... Bear in mind that you often achieve more by doing less." (pg. 142)

"The Bauhaus will never calm down; if it does, it's finished. Everyone involved with it must make their own contribution, even if they don't want to." -Klee (pg.144-145)

"Under the direction of Marcel Breuer the joinery workshop achieved two outstanding successes in Dessau: firstly its furnishing of the new Bauhaus building and Masters' houses and secondly its further development of tubular steel furniture. The now classic interiors of the Masters' houses inhabited by Gropius, Moholy, Muche and Kadinsky are highlights in the history of 'New Living'." (pg. 153)

"Muche's aim was a redefinition of the role of the fine artist since - as a painter- he too, was Master of Form of a workshop. His verdict on the artist's role: 'The artistic form element is a foreign body in the industrial product. Technical requirements make art a useless extra.'" (pg. 161)

"Gropius' sudden announcement cause bewilderment among both students and Masters. A Bauhaus without Gropius seemed unthinkable. In explaining his decision, Gropius reasoned that the Bauhaus was now securely established and that he wanted to devote more time to building." (pg. 163)

ROM // Minerals Exhibition

A wonderful inspiration source for design and colour. 

popcorn minerals

5 Things

Pork Bone Soup at the ghetto Newin Centre- post haircut. Notice the Korean newspaper tablecloth. 

breakfast platters at "Over Easy" before a trip to the ROM

Early early morning yoga

tigger and a hedgehog

bananagrams at mcdonalds: free coffee for breakfast

bauhaus : by Taschen // part 2

ART AND TECHNOLOGY - A NEW UNITY

"...the Bauhaus was never at any stage in its history a rigid system, but was always ready to respond flexibly to changing circumstance and the lessons of experience." (pg. 61)

"Many of the exercises known today start from such elementary forms. Their function was to encourage a feeling for the organization of planes and an appreciation of the infinite potential of design; using proportion, rotation, reflection, etc., in conjunction with exercises in colour theory, they offered an inexhaustible field of activity." (pg. 64-65) 

"The metal workshops' new orientation was reflected in its preoccupation starting for 1923, ith the lamp. The lamp was decideldy not a traditional subject for gold and silversmithery... This period saw the creation of the famous Bauhaus table lamp." (pg. 77) 

Bauhaus table lamp create by Karl J. Jucker and Wilhelm Wagenfeld.
image source

"To start from elementary forms in the search for design solutions today strikes us as somewhat arbitrary. At that time, however, the processes of machine manufacturing were still insufficiently understood and it was believed that such elementary forms were particularly easily mass produced." (pg. 78) 

"Functional form can be seen particularly clearly in the many different tea and coffee services produced in the metal workshop. A teapot might look completely different to a coffee pot, while cream jog and sugar pot seemed not to match at all. 'Since each of them satisfies our requirements without disturbing the other, their combination creates our style. Their overall unity lies in their relatively best fulfilment of their specific functions', explained Marcel Breuer." (pg. 79) 

"Kandinsky was particularly interested in the relationship between colour and form, a relationship which he wanted to explore systematically. As a first step he distributed a questionnaire in which he asked everyone to mark which elementary form matched which primary colour. The majority chose the associations triangle-yellow, circle-blue and square-red. Despite repeated opposition these arbitrary assignments have remained 'valid' until today. They had been current at the Bauhaus even before the questionnaire was circulated." (pg. 88)

Wassily Kandinsky questionnaire.
Image source

"A chess set newly developed by Master of Craft Josef Hartwig was another successful Bauhaus product. Each piece was designed to relfect the directions in which it could move." (pg. 94) 

Josef Hartwig's chess set from 1924.
image source

"The first project which Gropius was awarded in his capacity as director of the Thuringian Bauhaus was the renovation of the municipal theatre in Jena in 1921. It was also the first building in which Gropius and Meyer abandoned the Expressionist log-cabin style of the Berlin Sommerfeld house and oriented themselves instead towards the architecture of De Stijl and Le Corbusier." (pg. 110)

"The modern design which developed in Germany in the wake of the 1918 Revolution was viewed by the Conservative Parties as 'Bolshevist' and 'left-wing.' These parties were opposed to the Bauhaus right from the start and fought the school at every political opportunity. Although Gropius denied that modern design had a political character, he was unable to protect the Bauhaus- by now a symbol of the modern age- against attack." (pg. 114)

bauhaus : by Taschen // part 1

Finally got around to reading this book that my uncle gave me two summers ago in Hong Kong. I figured it was good prep material to learn a bit about my exchange school's history. ;)

"'Quality  work' was one of the Werkbund's highest aims and favourite catchphroases in its efforts to safeguard Germany's position as s major industrial power. Its impressive list of founder artists and architects included Richard Riemerschmid, Joseph Maria Olbrich, Josef Hoffmann, Bruno Paul Fritz Schumacher, Wihelm Kreis, Peter Behrens, Theodor Niemeyer, Max Läuger, and J.J Scharvogel." (pg. 12)

"For the first time youth was taken seriously as a generation in its own right, instead of being treated as an intermediate stage on the road to adulthood." (pg. 14) 

"Gropius write: 'Let us together create the new building of the future, which will be everything in one form. Architecture and sculpture and painting.'" (pg. 18)

"'The ultimate aim of all creative activity is the building!'" (pg. 22)

"The early Bauhaus years were characterized by a powerful community spirit." (pg. 22)

"Itten taught under the motto 'Play becomes party - party becomes work - work becomes play.' The same link between work and play was in Gropius' mind when he wrote the Bauhaus manifesto: 'Theatre, lectures, poetry, music, costume balls.'" (pg. 37)

"Gropius described his style of leadership in a letter to one disenchanted with the Bauhaus, Ferdinand Kramer: 'My sole aim is to leave everything in suspension, in flux, in order to avoid our community solidifying into a conventional academy. Our initial resources may be few, but our spirits are high, receptive and excited, and that seems to me to be the most important thing right now.'" (pg. 50)

Happy Chinese New Years!

Happy Chinese New Years! Gong Hay Fat Choy! Look at all those red lanterns in the Mandarin... 

They went all out with their decor and their costumes and their dumplings.

The lobby was all glammed up for the festivities

As per tradition, this morning I awoke to find two red pockets under my bed mattress from my dad. 

It's supposed to be lucky or fulfilling, and parents usually put it there or under pillows.