Bauhaus Lab session - Final-2

Bauhaus Lab session - Final-1

Field Trip to the Seagram Building + Four Seasons Restaurant

The only building by a Bauhaus architect is the Seagram Building by Mies van der Rohe.  Phillip Johnson designed the interiors including the famous Four Seasons Restaurant. Trying to stretch our 'Small events Pizza Budget' we were treated royally by Assistant Manager De Santo to free appetizers, dessert, tour, kitchen and all! We were joined by Matthew W Smith, one of the authors of our class texts who happened to be in town.

Typographic design responsibility.

Typography is a main player in the visual landscape of modern commercial society. I see typographic design as a medium in itself which shapes and influences the understanding of text. There are many possibilities for typography as the structure of the medium in itself adheres to the Bauhaus concept of combining form and function. Typographic design not only has the ability to give life to text, but also to become an art in itself.

However, typographic design in modern society serves commercialism. It has transformed into a signifier of corporate values through labels and products. Instead of stimulating interactive public discourse, modern type designs become absorbed by mainstream society and translates into acts of consumerism. The “Coca Cola” type for instance represents capitalism, corporate identities, consumerism above anything else. A socially responsible type design should ideally be capable of conveying messages of democracy, individuality, and authenticity. While there is no perfect typeface, designers and consumers alike should be alert in the hidden social and political message behind design.

Economy of Design, Bauhaus, and Sustainability

The Bauhaus embraced the economy of design. They felt that design should be at the same time functional, innovative, durable, and aesthetic. They believed in establishing standards for design, and integrating all the parts to develop a condition where the sum of the whole is greater than the parts. The Bauhaus felt that this was the approach required to achieve a synergy in design.

From a conceptual standpoint, all this implies a certain desire to achieve efficiency. Efficiency is favorable to sustainability. Minimalism, by its very definition, is also favorable to sustainability, in that resources are kept in reserve and not exploited to the point of overuse. In contrast, excess leads to conditions that are unsustainable. Therefore, the Bauhaus, by promoting the economy of design, also promoted sustainable environments.

Sustainable Architecture

When Mies van der Rohe conceived the idea for a skyscraper in 1921, he was thinking how to do more with less. In fact he firmly believed "Less is more". Think of the early 20th century as a time of great hope and industrial grownth. People were actual encouraged to consume good and services. I think that Mies' high rises builds have contributed to a sustainable architecture that is now being matured in modern buildings. The use of glass and open spaces within Mies buildings, allowing natural light to fill its interior are now integrated in today's architecture. This feature I now appreciate. His builds have stood the test of time. His Lake Shore Drive apartments are still a valued asset to this day. Now some of his builds need to be updated as our attitude towards conservation and sustainability comes into focus.

Mies van der Rohe’s Crown Hall at Illinois Institute of Technology, is gem of Modern architectural aesthetics. An environmental conservation study revealed that, "After evaluating the building, monitoring temperature and humidity, and studying original drawings, Atelier Ten realized that Mies’s design helped foster a sustainable environment — before sustainability was topical." While Crown Hall is a single story build it embodies a prototype of sustainability.

His tall buildings can also be retro fitted with solar panels to utilized the Sun's energy to provide heat and hot water for it tenants.

On the other-side, think how skyscrapers centralize the creation and disposal of garbage. Here are a few facts about a famous American skyscraper (not designed by Mies)
# The Empire State Building contains 3,194,547 light bulbs,
50 miles of radiator pipe
70 miles of water pipe
1,060 miles of telephone cable
7,450 tons of refrigeration equipment.
# One hundred tons of trash and waste are removed from the building each month.

For more information on Crown Hall see the is link http://www.aiany.org/eOCULUS/newsletter/?p=366

The Bauhaus' Sustainable Typeface

When Herbert Bayer introduced his typeface Universal in 1925, he had a motive that was unlike previous typographic design practices before him. Bayer designed Universal to not only be mass produced, available and convenient for the general public, but also for reasons that today we would consider sustainable design. Unlike the bold, blocky headline fonts that had come before Universal, Bayer’s typeface was thinner than most other fonts in general, but also in key areas, such as thinner m and w letters, thus allowing more words on a page, and in Bayer’s vision, conserving resources such as paper and ink. This was all part of Bayer’s typographic manifesto that went to such extremes as altering the alphabet to be more streamlined and using all lowercase letters. The latter was strictly Bayer’s aesthetic and philosophy, but the former was also with the idea that a streamlined alphabet, along with a thin, utilitarian typeface would conserve paper and printing energy.

More on Bayer and his radical ideas, most of which had nothing to do with sustainability.

http://www.adcglobal.org/archive/hof/1975/?id=281