Resultados

CAFÉ DE UNIE BUILDING FACADE Rotterdam, Netherlands

J. J. P. Oud (1890–1963), Architect Rotterdam, Netherlands

1925

Café de Unie, designed by J. J. P. Oud in 1925, is a seminal example of the de Stijl art move- ment and a twentieth-century visual benchmark for graphic design in the built environment.

Jacobus Johannes Pieter (J. J. P.) Oud (1890–1963) was a Dutch master of contem- porary architecture. He studied architecture at the Quellinus School of Applied Art and at the Rijksnormaalschool voor Tekenonderwijz- ers, both in Amsterdam, from 1904 to 1910, and at the Technische Universiteit in Delft, before joining the offices of several architects in the Netherlands. Together with artist and architect Theo van Doesburg (1883–1931; see page 79), Oud cofounded the famous artists group and magazine de Stijl with painter Piet Mondrian (1872–1944), designer Vilmos Huszar (1884–1960), and writer and poet Antony Kok (1882–1969) in 1917.

Oud designed the famous Café de Unie facade in 1925. Located in Rotterdam, Neth- erlands, the building’s facade illustrates his attempt at applying de Stijl principles to graphic design and architecture, treating it as a pure, singular graphic composition, articulated with bold geometric Deco-style sans-serif typogra- phy, also designed by Oud, and in bright primary colors of red, yellow, and blue, with black and white. The facade clearly illustrates Oud’s vi- sion of visual order, harmony, and balance on a monumental scale.

Here, graphic design and architecture become one structure, one sign, one message, and, ultimately, one integrated identity.

THE MODERN A GE 1900–1950 II

DESSAU BAUHAUS

Walter Gropius (1883–1969), Architect Berlin, Germany

1926

The Bauhaus was one of the most important design institutions of the twentieth century and a major influence on the development of mod- ern graphic design and architecture.

Established by architect Walter Gropius (1883–1969) in Weimar, Germany, in 1919, this unified school of art—which he named Bauhaus (Building House)—was based on the belief that hands-on learning was an essential element of education and that ultimately good design should serve the needs of ordinary people. Its system of teaching was culled from the early

teaching methods of William Morris (1834– 1896), the father of the English Arts and Crafts movement, in which different craft skills, such as metalwork, pottery, glass, ceramics, cabinet- making, and textiles were taught in a workshop environment in combination with the teaching of fine arts—primarily painting and sculpture.

Students were called apprentices and teachers were called masters. The school’s initial faculty included painters Lyonel Feininger (1871–1956) and Johannes Itten (1888–1967) followed by painters Paul Klee (1879–1940), Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944), and Josef Albers (1888–1976); photographer Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (1896–1946); and architects Mar- cel Breuer (1902–1981) and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886–1969).

In 1923, Gropius modified the curriculum so that its emphasis was less on individual expres- sion and more focused on the applied disci- plines of design. He also changed the slogan of the Bauhaus from “A Unity of Art and Handi- craft” to “Art and Technology, a New Unity.”

In 1926, and with continued political pres- sure from the Weimar government, the Bauhaus moved to a new building in Dessau, which was designed by Gropius and reflected his theory of architectural form. Considered a twentieth-cen- tury landmark in the history of architecture, the building is composed of a series of functional parts—workshops, classrooms, dormitories, and administrative offices, all unified under one roof.

It symbolizes the Bauhausian ideal—a union of art and science fully realized by modern tech- nology and materials.

Walter Gropius (1883–1969) was a German architect who, along with Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier (1887–1965), is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modern archi- tecture. He studied architecture at the Technical Colleges of Berlin and Munich in Germany from 1903 to 1907. His early professional training occurred at the architectural offices of Peter Behrens (1868–1940, see page 68). In 1910, he left that position and together with architect Adolf Meyer (1881–1929) established their first office in Berlin.

In 1928, Gropius resigned as director of the Bauhaus. That same year, Mies van der Rohe

Dessau Bauhaus, continued

took over as director of the school. It was closed five years later in 1933 by Hitler’s National Socialist government.

While growing Nazi persecution led many faculty members to flee to the United States, their emigration also had a dramatic influence on the evolution of American design in the post– world war era. Gropius and Breuer taught ar- chitecture at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Moholy-Nagy established the New Bauhaus (now the Institute of Design) in Chicago, and Bayer became a prominent designer in the United States.

While its life was brief, the global influence of the Bauhaus was and still remains astound- ing. Its revolutionary principles of teaching changed the way art and design is taught today.

Its influence on our everyday lives by way of design has also improved the way we live and interact with one another in the modern world.

THE MODERN A

GE 1900–1950

II

IZVESTIA

IZVESTIA BUILDING FACADE Moscow, Russia

Grigori Barkhin (1880–1969), Architect birthplace unknown

1926

Izvestia (meaning “delivered messages”), a

long-running, high-circulation Russian daily newspaper, was the official newspaper of the Soviet government (in contrast to Pravda, which was the Communist Party’s newspaper).

Its headquarters building, an example of early-twentieth-century constructivist architec- ture, is located in Moscow’s Pushkin Square and was built ten years after the Russian Revolution to house both the newspaper’s office and print- ing presses. Constructivist architecture was a form of modernist architecture prevalent in the

Soviet Union during the 1920s and 1930s that combined advanced building technology and engineering with the social imperatives of the new Communist political regime.

This modernist architectural movement produced several prominent structures and buildings, including El Lissitzky’s (1890–1941) Lenin Tribune (1920), Mosselprom Department Store (1924; see page 70), Konstantin Mel- nikov’s (1890–1974) Soviet Pavilion (1925), and Grigori Barkhin’s (1880–1969) Izvestia Head- quarters (1926), a modern office building for mass media.

Izvestia’s building facade is heavily glazed and asymmetrical in the constructivist style, based on a square grid of reinforced concrete. It is accentuated with horizontal spandrels that

were originally used as a visually emphatic backdrop for propaganda messages accentu- ated in the color red. An asymmetrically located vertical inset running the full height of the facade reinforced the location of the building’s entrance as well as provided a large planar surface for larger-scale propaganda images and messages of the era.

As in its name, Izvestia, the building as well as its facade were the primary graphic and ar- chitectural vehicles for delivering the messages of the times to the Russian people.