Humanising Approach to Design

The term for International Style was first used in 1932 by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson in their essay titled The International Style: Architecture Since 1922. So instead it got its name from a poster like Art Nouveau and Art Deco did, this got its name from a catalogue for an architectural exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. The International style is mainly characterised by the works of Frank Lloyd Wright and Walter Gropius by their use of rectilinear forms, light, plane surfaces that have been stripped of any ornamentation, the use of open interior spaces and the fact that the buildings have a sense of weightless quality due to the use of reinforced-concrete cantilever slabs. Other characteristics are the combination of simple and natural materials with modern building materials, such as glass and concrete with wood and stone. 

Even furniture was to be free of ornamentation and had to imply clarity, transparency, elegance and rationality. But apart from the Architectural design we also have the Organic Design of International design. The humanizing approach to design was first pioneered by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Frank Loyd Wright continued to work on these ideals. Their principle was the unity of the whole total effect matters more than the sum of all the parts. A building had to capture the spirit of nature and the interiors were made to connect with the architecture. Architecture was made to connect with its surrounding nature although organic forms were seldom used.

An important designer we find in the Organic Design of International Design is Alvar Aalto who studied architecture in Helsinki, then travelled to Europe and Scandinavia. His travels, as well as his homeland, are going to influence his designs and his way of thinking. Aalto started to experiment with the bending of wood which later led to his revolutionary chair designs which also inspired other designers such as Ray and Charles Eames.  His belief was that natural materials fulfilled the functional and psychological needs of users.

One of Alvar Aalto’s 1930s plywood experiments.

He also designed his house in Turku in 1927 which was regarded as the first example of Scandinavian Modernism.

Although it is constructed using geometric shapes it is still considered as organic since it blends with the surroundings. Even the materials and colours blend with its surrounding nature.

Chair by Alvar Aalto, Model 31, in comparison with the Red and Blue Chair by Gerrit Rietveld. Both are following the same principles, that of simplistic in form and without decorations. But in Aalto’s design we get more curves of the wood and only done in two parts, rather than the angular multiple pieces of Rietveld design.

Alvar Aalto iittala vase

Alvar Aalto Stackable Stool

Aalto pioneered a humanizing and modern organic vocabulary of form, with soft flowing curves instead of rigid formalism. His main concern was both the functional and emotional impact his products had on the consumer rather than the possibility of universal transcendence.

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