Paving the way to the Bauhaus Movement

One of the most influential and important architects of the 20^th century was the famous Frank Lloyd Wright. He is the one who introduced a new understanding of architecture as well as design, in which he considered the building as an artistic whole. In which the interior had to compliment the exterior instead of treating them as two separate entities. He also combined simple and natural materials with modern building materials such as glass and concrete with wood and stone. He became the most important force of the Modern Movement by 1910. 

The house with which we are mostly familiar with is Falling Water built for Sir. Edgar J. Kaufmann in 1936. But for a figure as important as Wright it is bound to be more works, in fact he designed over 800 buildings like the Larkin Building 1904 in New York and the Oak Park House in Illinois.

Wright did not follow traditions. As can be seen in his Falling Water house, Wright made the fire place the centre point of the interior. Also he made use of asymmetrical layouts for the rooms. The use of functional straight lines gives the structure a low profile which creates interest. It is organically embedded in the surrounding nature. Wright was the first to apply reinforced-concrete cantilever slabs in this construction. 

Later, designers such as Walter Gropius, Mies Van Der Rohe and Peter Behrens will be influenced by the works of Frank Lloyd Wright.

When talking about Frank Lloyd Wright one cannot not mention the Modern movement in which he was a major force. The Modernists reacted against the over decorative elements of Art Nouveau and the decline in standards of craftsmanship. They linked art to the industry, encouraged bold geometric forms and asymmetric layouts. It was a new way of doing things. While in the US we have Frank Lloyd Wright, in Italy we have the Futurist movement and in Russia we have the Constructivist movement. 

In the meantime we have the Deutsche Werkbund which was an organisation formed in Germany to replace the Jugendstil. It was formed in 1907 by a group of artists, businessmen, architects and public figures. Their model was the English Arts and Crafts movement, in which they furthered the credo of William Morris. But they had an important difference, their aim was to standardise and rationalise forms for machines to improve production. They wanted to produce machine-made, mass produced goods of good quality similar to that of craftsmen and affordable to the working class.

Peter Behrens was one of the founders and here we are seeing one of his works The Kiss. There are still elements from the Art Nouveau but the whiplash curves are less pronounced. Also this work is done by wood cuts which are very reminiscent of Japanese prints and woodworks. Behrens is making use of block colours with very little detail. It has bold lines and is more flat.

Here is an example of a Japanese woodblock print to show comparison.

Peter Behrens pioneered and defined the field of modern industrial design with his product design for AEG. AEG was the first company to ever have a complete Corporate Identity.

This AEG kettle is in an octagonal shape which is very geometrical yet elegant, with very little detail whatsoever. It has enough curves in the handle to balance the whole thing out. It has a modern look to it due to the fact that Behrens paid more attention to functionality over the beauty aspect. Also it does not look very expansive making it possible for the working class to buy it as well.

The Little House Window design. 1998. Wright on the Web: Seventeen Buildings by Frank Lloyd Wright. [online] Available at: http://www.wrightontheweb.net/flw8.htm [Accessed on: 15th November 2013]

Petr Končal Design History Research: Perer Behrens. [online] Available at: http://designhistoryresearch.wordpress.com/category/peter-behrens/ [Accessed on: 15th November 2013]

Abdulaziz. March 2011. Art Nouveau: Peter Behrens and the corporate type design. [online] Available at: http://abdulazizfarache.blogspot.com/2011/03/art-nouveau-peter-behrens-and-corporate.html  [Accessed on: 15th November 2013]