American Design vs. German Design
The teachings from early in the design history allow the designers today to be the most functional and stylish. Among many of these important and historical revolutions in design teaching, the ideology of International Style and Functionalism are tremendous influence to our designers. In addition to many movements including Dutch De Stijl and Constructivism have been great contributions towards building the great design history. However, most importantly, the World War 1(1914-1918) impacted the most. The great destruction left after this tragedy allowed many designer to think in a way which we now refer to as Bauhaus ideology.± It was 1919, one year after the end of war the Bauhaus was born in Weimar despite the fact economical and political chaos plagued the nation. The Bauhaus revolutionized our ways of designing everything from a pen to an airplane. Especially influencing the German designers, the designers from Germany grew with the Bauhaus' ideology. Bauhaus itself was the beginning of modernism in the industrial design. Therefore, relating German design± with Bauhaus± is a perfect match. Walter Gropius, the founder and the first president of Bauhaus had dreams to achieve.
This will allow them to use low cost, easy assembly and appropriate materials for the specific function. The modern or the German design require the 4p±(product mix, price mix, promotion mix and place mix). The utilitarian architecture that would both use the new materials and satisfy society's new building needs were the major point of International Style. Bauhaus believed that studying and analyzing the characteristics of materials were important to know as a designer. The use of technology and availability of cheap mass-produced iron and steel also contributed in starting International Style. The name itself has serious meanings and from these aspects we have to pay respect and attention. The German designers' willingness to design for the people by improving on function aspects enabled the to become the legend. Similar with German designers idea that form follows function± and a house is a machine for living±, Functionalism have constantly believed good architecture is automatically produced by applying practical needs for the building. Americans were willing to accept German designers into their culture and expected a new design era. International Style design were sold for high price, however, the cost for manufacturing cost no more than modern and Functionalist designs. It does not fulfill the philosophies of the German design history. The Functionalism in modern German design emphasizes on unification of design and engineering. He had opened the New Bauhaus±, which evolved into the Chicago Institute of Design. American design in my personal opinion is more of styling than design. This modern conception set apart the fact that even the most fancy and decorative architecture with no function is useless and architectural design should derive from the challenges of function of the environment demands.
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