Design

Task 1: The Aspect of Movement in Design from the 19th Century
Entry 1

After the Industrial Revolution of the late 18th Century, the industry kept growing and developed new and more efficient ways to produce their products. Later during the time of Queen Victoria, Britain was going through a time of great prosperity and development. In fact It was not only progressing by itself but was also a great influence on western Europe and America. These where times of hardship and a lot of work. The poor were given the blame of their poverty and were mistreated by most employers of the time and sickness and infection where getting even more present. Apart from the poor, the talented craftsmen were also being walked over and ignored. Craftsmen were only seen as man able to work, and the rich employers put them on the assembly lines to work. By contradiction, industrial products were lacking in design and were not pleasing. This was not in line with the likes of the growing middle class, who wanted affordable, decent looking products with which to fill their homes. This gave rise to a movement named The Arts and Crafts Movement which got its name from the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, founded in 1887. This movements aims were to mix Craftsmanship and Industry into the products which where being produced by the movement. By making use of craftsmanship to produce prototypes for the industry and later adding a craftsman's touch to produce a mass produced yet unique products suitable for the middle class home.

William Morris was a great figurehead of this movement and his works are iconic in the movements products and is well known for his prints wallpapers and books. One of these prints is that for a wallpaper, which goes by the name Trellis. In this print the aspect of movement is strong and also working with a hint of stillness expressed by the wood. Movement can strongly be sensed by the curved posture of the birds, along with the curved lines used to form their shape. The branches also imply movement. Considering that this is a wallpaper, one can imagine the winding branches going all over the wall and creating a lively atmosphere to the room. This element of movement is also further enhanced with the lines representing the vines of the wood moving along the trellis which is holding the branches. An other small detail which adds to this aspect are the insects filling the spaces not occupied by neither the trellis not the birds nor the branches, by their forms made from curved lines.

William Morris, 1862, Trellis, < http://blog.designcouncil.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/williammorris.jpg > [accessed on 27th Oct. 2013]

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Entry 2

During the later years of the 19th Century an other movement was formed with its own ideas and reasons. The movement called Art Nouveau saw formed to call for the needs of the time. Life in society by the late 19th Century was very similar to the way we know it today and the Middle class that was rising during the early years of the century has by now became the common way of life for the larger part of society. This new lifestyle was calling for a new art ways and design products to accompany the modern houses and cities. Most of the works of the Art Nouveau movements is inspired by nature; mostly by floral patterns and sea life as well as animals mostly insects and birds.

Ernst Heinrich Haeckel, (unknown), Trochilidae, < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Haeckel_Trochilidae.jpg >
[accessed on 27th Oct 2013]

The artwork above is a product of the then new technologies and artistic views. It is a linograph named Haeckel Trochilidae done by Ernst Heinrich Haeckel and published in his book Kunstformen der Natur published in 1899. This linograph is a goldmine when it comes to discussion on the aspect of movement. Wherever the viewers looks in the linograph they are met by curved lines, swerved bodies of actual, different humming birds and flora. The positions of the birds' bodies are completely unnatural but as they are they increasingly communicate the motion and the energy found trapped within the image as if it wants to jump out.



 Bibliography
Information:
Images:
William Morris
Ernst Heinrich Haeckel


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Task 2
Inspiration from Design

Chairs have been around for almost as long as humanity itself, but not all chairs are the same. Most commonly a chair is seat with an attached back suspended on four legs, but some people have taken the chair design to a whole new level. Some of the most inspirational and aspiring chairs that been designed are those known as the cantilever chairs. The most iconic feature of these kinds of chairs is the lack of hind legs. The chair is suspended on only two legs from the front and by using the physics of levers keeps the chair upright and stable even when a person is sitting on it.

The idea of the cantilever chair was greatly developed during the 1920s and the 1930s. A most iconic developer and designer of this is Martinus Adrianu Stam (http://www.kettererkunst.com/bio/mart-stam-1899.shtml). who is more commonly known as Mart Stam, who developed the grounds of this idea while working with steal pipes and came up with the Steel Tubing Cantilever Chair (M. Stam, 1924).

Stam did not stop there. He continued working on cantilever chairs and developed numerous designs of them such as Armchair S33 (M. Stam, 1926).

Since Stam was a tutor at the Bauhaus, his ideas reached other designers very fast and others started designing their own models of cantilever chairs. One such designer was Ludwig Mies Van De Rohe. Mies Van de Rohe was “director of the Bauhaus from 1930 until its disbandment in 1933, shut down under pressure from the new nazi government.” (http://www.designboom.com/portrait/mies/bg.html). Some of Mies Van de Rohe's chairs are the Cane Cantilever Chair (1927) and theBrno Chair (1930).




The legacy of the cantilever chair did not end with the closing of the Bauhaus group. The style had caught up and other designers who had no relations with the group also created diverse models of these two-leg-supported chairs. Alvar Aalto, a designer of the International Style created his own cantilever chairs. One of these was the Model 31 Chair (A. Aalto, 1932). Such cantilever chairs especially Armchair S33 and the Brno Chair Are still manufactured today and are still in fashion when designing modern room and television sets.

In my project I am going to try to exploit the idea of cantilever by creating a kind of cantilever chair myself. In my opinion creating a cantilever chair of the same tracks of these great designers seems to be to impersonal and I feel like I am not doing my work properly. Therefore I am going to change the design from a frontal suspended cantilever chair to a rear suspended cantilever.

In my project I wish to design a living room seat rather then a dining or garden chair and so I am finding the cushioning styles of the four chairs above to be a bit lacking for long time seating and so I am going to look at sofas for inspiration about this matter.

This is the Barcelona chair by Mies Van De Rohe (http://diaoconline.vn/kham-pha/mach-ban-c6/do-noi-that-hop-thoi-i12409). Its cushioning is better than that of any of the chairs above and so would allow for someone to sit more comfortable on it for longer periods of time. A cushioning system like this would improve my design of a reversed cantilever sofa.

An other well cushioned chair is the Le Corbusier (1929) armchair by the Salon d’Automne. It has a very elegant style of cushioning which is suitable for any place designed in a modern fashion. The padding surrounds the person sitting in it giving a warm and comfortable experience.

After looking at cushioning techniques and cantilever chairs I can say that I have a good ground from which to further develop my still sketchy idea of the final product.Here on the left is a model of the final product as it is by now, still having room for further development.


 Bibliography
(all accessed on 16th December 2013)
Information:


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