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The designed world
is a world of people and things.
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Design stands in between -
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the place where them and us meet.
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ln the story of design, the 1 920s and 1 930s
5
00:00:28,807 --> 00:00:32,800
was the period when the relationship
between ''us'' and our ''things''
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00:00:32,847 --> 00:00:35,964
was subject to radical re-examination.
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A new social landscape emerged
from the destruction of the First World War
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and brought with it a new mental landscape -
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one in which the machine loomed large.
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This prompted a number of questions.
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Should an Englishman's home be a castle,
or a machine for living?
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00:00:59,887 --> 00:01:05,519
Le Corbusier buiIt this corridor
with the same measures of a train's corridor.
13
00:01:05,567 --> 00:01:10,595
So it stands for engineering
and it stands for future.
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00:01:12,407 --> 00:01:17,322
ls the kitchen the heart of the home
or a factory for food production?
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00:01:18,327 --> 00:01:22,161
Margarete herseIf was around
with a stopwatch and kind of studying
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how women worked in a kitchen
and how it couId be improved,
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00:01:25,247 --> 00:01:30,241
trying to reduce the number of steps that peopIe
took from the stove to the sink and so on.
18
00:01:32,447 --> 00:01:35,359
How many legs does a chair actually need?
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Imagine if you couId take air and fry it
so it became stiff...
20
00:01:39,447 --> 00:01:42,245
and then you sit on it, that wouIdn't be bad.
21
00:01:44,207 --> 00:01:49,201
The answer to questions like these
reshaped the world, then and now.
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A world of people and things,
and the design that joins them together.
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00:02:29,647 --> 00:02:35,438
ln 1 91 9, less than a year after the guns
on the Western Front fell silent,
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00:02:35,487 --> 00:02:38,081
a new art school opened in Germany.
25
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ln 1 926 it came here,
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to a purpose-built building
branded with its own distinctive logo.
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00:02:51,287 --> 00:02:53,164
To the residents of Dessau,
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it was clear that something altogether new
had sprung up on the edge of their town.
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But what exactly?
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00:03:01,327 --> 00:03:03,716
Now they're coming from Dessau,
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from the centre, here, from the south direction,
to the Bauhaus, and the first thing they see
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00:03:08,367 --> 00:03:12,485
is the Bauhaus Ietter and the buiIding.
33
00:03:12,527 --> 00:03:15,519
It was Iike a Iight fire in the Iandscape here.
34
00:03:15,567 --> 00:03:18,923
It Iooks Iike industriaI factory
but it's a schooI inside,
35
00:03:18,967 --> 00:03:23,757
so the message is
they want to educate the young peopIe
36
00:03:23,807 --> 00:03:27,243
to make products and design
in the industriaI fashion.
37
00:03:29,487 --> 00:03:33,799
The Bauhaus was the centre of new thinking
38
00:03:33,847 --> 00:03:37,522
and the pieces that they produced
39
00:03:37,567 --> 00:03:40,877
were the furniture of the new thinking.
40
00:04:02,207 --> 00:04:04,596
I actuaIIy think the Bauhaus
was quite punk rock.
41
00:04:04,647 --> 00:04:08,640
It was quite a sort of punk anarchic
sort of sense of Iooking at something
42
00:04:08,687 --> 00:04:10,598
and turning it on its head.
43
00:04:11,487 --> 00:04:13,318
The Bauhaus was about bringing together
44
00:04:13,367 --> 00:04:16,006
sort of, you know, groups of discipIines
45
00:04:16,047 --> 00:04:18,800
and sort of smashing them together
and seeing what came out.
46
00:04:25,127 --> 00:04:29,086
The Bauhaus was
an art student's dream come true -
47
00:04:29,127 --> 00:04:35,043
an intoxicating mix of free love,
avant-garde posing and legendary parties.
48
00:04:39,087 --> 00:04:41,237
But there was a serious side too.
49
00:04:41,287 --> 00:04:45,519
The curriculum,
devised by Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius,
50
00:04:45,567 --> 00:04:47,922
set out to break down the boundaries
51
00:04:47,967 --> 00:04:52,324
that since the lndustrial Revolution
had grown up between design and architecture,
52
00:04:52,367 --> 00:04:54,801
craftsmanship and mass production,
53
00:04:54,847 --> 00:04:56,963
designing and making.
54
00:04:58,087 --> 00:05:01,841
This was designed to be
an education without frontiers.
55
00:05:02,607 --> 00:05:06,919
You had fantastic painters,
fantastic theatre designers,
56
00:05:06,967 --> 00:05:10,357
potters, siIversmiths,
furniture designers, graphic designers.
57
00:05:10,407 --> 00:05:15,925
They aII worked together. There was
no separation. There was no division.
58
00:05:18,087 --> 00:05:23,286
The architect, the construction worker,
the brick worker, the carbon maker,
59
00:05:23,327 --> 00:05:28,117
the painter, the furniture maker - everybody -
they want to open.
60
00:05:28,167 --> 00:05:31,842
They want to Iet the construction workers
Iearn from the artist
61
00:05:31,887 --> 00:05:34,879
and the artists Iearn from
the construction workers.
62
00:05:36,047 --> 00:05:40,165
You are exposed to the compIete range
of art and materiaIs, right,
63
00:05:40,207 --> 00:05:43,563
and everybody goes through that first degree.
64
00:05:43,607 --> 00:05:45,643
It's Iike basic training in the miIitary.
65
00:05:50,927 --> 00:05:57,366
For the Roundheads in Gropius'
New Model Army, the enemy was this.
66
00:05:59,327 --> 00:06:03,525
Sensual, organic and highly decorated,
67
00:06:03,567 --> 00:06:08,595
Art Nouveau had become the dominant
design style of the turn-of-the-century world.
68
00:06:09,287 --> 00:06:13,200
Art Nouveau offered a kind of branding
of contemporary Iife.
69
00:06:13,247 --> 00:06:17,399
It was the beginning of
a sort of designer IifestyIe.
70
00:06:17,447 --> 00:06:21,645
It was very emotive - semi-erotic in many cases,
71
00:06:21,687 --> 00:06:23,564
or very obviousIy erotic in others -
72
00:06:23,607 --> 00:06:26,963
the incorporation of naked women
into furniture pieces.
73
00:06:40,247 --> 00:06:42,807
The Austrian architect Adolf Loos
74
00:06:42,847 --> 00:06:46,601
had been one of the first
to try and hack back at its viny tendrils.
75
00:06:48,167 --> 00:06:54,925
ln 1 908, he railed against Art Nouveau
in a diatribe entitled Ornament And Crime.
76
00:06:56,007 --> 00:06:58,760
For Loos, the stakes couldn't have been higher.
77
00:06:59,527 --> 00:07:02,246
''The evolution of a culture, '' he proclaimed,
78
00:07:02,287 --> 00:07:06,917
''is synonymous with the removal of ornament
from utilitarian objects. ''
79
00:07:08,047 --> 00:07:12,438
They thought that this ornament
and over-decoration is a masquerade
80
00:07:12,487 --> 00:07:17,083
and they want to give the objects
a good quaIity without masquerade.
81
00:07:18,327 --> 00:07:21,364
Loos was proposing the idea that...
82
00:07:22,167 --> 00:07:26,479
..the use of excessive decoration
debased society somehow.
83
00:07:26,527 --> 00:07:28,643
That it was...
84
00:07:28,687 --> 00:07:30,917
an excessive use of resources.
85
00:07:31,807 --> 00:07:37,803
If you strip away aII surface decoration
from a product,
86
00:07:38,927 --> 00:07:42,556
so that aII the energy, aII the effort,
87
00:07:42,607 --> 00:07:48,079
is going into the integrity
of the fundamentaI object,
88
00:07:48,127 --> 00:07:52,439
the idea, then, is that using that approach
89
00:07:52,487 --> 00:08:00,280
you can produce high-vaIue objects
in high numbers for reasonabIe cost,
90
00:08:01,087 --> 00:08:06,878
and that is the most democratic way
to design and manufacture products.
91
00:08:07,767 --> 00:08:13,046
You're providing the most of the best
to the greatest number of peopIe for the Ieast.
92
00:08:13,087 --> 00:08:17,558
That's a reaIIy important credo for the modern...
birth of the modern movement, actuaIIy.
93
00:08:17,607 --> 00:08:21,680
It was not a question of a styIe.
They did not want a styIe.
94
00:08:21,727 --> 00:08:25,083
It was counterproductive for them
to think about a styIe.
95
00:08:25,127 --> 00:08:27,721
They want to have the vision
for a new kind of Iife
96
00:08:27,767 --> 00:08:31,919
and aIso they want to aIso,
yeah, educate the peopIe
97
00:08:31,967 --> 00:08:36,995
to become new human behaviour
for the 20th Century, for a new future.
98
00:09:01,087 --> 00:09:07,083
Every design revolution, from the Stone Age
to the Digital Age, has its signature technology.
99
00:09:07,847 --> 00:09:12,523
For the Modernists, it was this - tubular steel.
100
00:09:15,887 --> 00:09:19,596
Using techniques originally developed
for making bicycle frames,
101
00:09:19,647 --> 00:09:25,279
tubular steel could be shaped into structures
that were lighter than wood, but far stronger.
102
00:09:26,727 --> 00:09:29,525
This was a new product, a new technique,
103
00:09:29,567 --> 00:09:34,595
and opened up
a compIeteIy new fieId of soIutions.
104
00:09:35,287 --> 00:09:41,362
SuddenIy you had here a very good,
Iight materiaI, visuaIIy very exciting,
105
00:09:41,407 --> 00:09:44,205
which you can paint,
which you can chromium pIate,
106
00:09:44,247 --> 00:09:49,002
you can just Ieave it steeI, you know,
you can have aII sorts of possibiIities.
107
00:09:49,047 --> 00:09:51,242
And that was a very important period.
108
00:09:54,927 --> 00:09:59,682
For designers, the test-bed
for all new technologies is the chair.
109
00:10:00,647 --> 00:10:04,606
The chair occupies a privileged position
in the design world.
110
00:10:04,647 --> 00:10:10,404
Half structure, half product,
it's the place where architecture meets design,
111
00:10:10,447 --> 00:10:13,405
and where the designer's skills are tested.
112
00:10:14,727 --> 00:10:17,480
Have you ever tried to design a chair?
113
00:10:17,527 --> 00:10:21,202
I can assure you it's not simpIe at aII.
114
00:10:21,247 --> 00:10:25,559
The chair is aIways a...aImost a Iitmus test.
115
00:10:25,607 --> 00:10:32,479
For a designer it's a most difficuIt item to design,
most chaIIenging,
116
00:10:33,207 --> 00:10:36,756
and because we are aII,
aII of us, a different shape,
117
00:10:36,807 --> 00:10:39,275
it has got the eIement of compromise.
118
00:10:47,687 --> 00:10:51,157
I think it's impossibIe to sit down and say,
''I'm now gonna design a cIassic.''
119
00:10:51,207 --> 00:10:54,597
It'd be extremeIy presumptuous
more than anything eIse.
120
00:10:54,647 --> 00:10:59,926
But there are some moments for designers
where they have, you know, perfect moments
121
00:10:59,967 --> 00:11:02,242
where, for exampIe, a company says to them,
122
00:11:02,287 --> 00:11:05,245
''I'm gonna give you
a certain technoIogy to work with,''
123
00:11:05,287 --> 00:11:12,682
and what usuaIIy happens is the icon of
that typoIogy gets designed very earIy on,
124
00:11:12,727 --> 00:11:16,766
and it's quite hard to move away from them
once they've been defined.
125
00:11:18,647 --> 00:11:23,402
For Marcel Breuer, a former Bauhaus student
who returned to teach there,
126
00:11:23,447 --> 00:11:27,565
tubular steel was his shot at design immortality.
127
00:11:40,727 --> 00:11:44,686
The story is that there was a party
in the Bauhaus
128
00:11:44,727 --> 00:11:49,164
and Breuer had designed the IittIe Iaccio tabIe
129
00:11:49,207 --> 00:11:53,519
and he was taIking about it
and the phiIosophy of it, etc.
130
00:11:53,567 --> 00:11:59,324
A few drinks Iater and a few conversations Iater,
he said, ''What I'm going to do next...''
131
00:11:59,367 --> 00:12:01,164
and then everybody was Iistening.
132
00:12:01,207 --> 00:12:04,916
He said, ''I'm going to turn the tabIe on its side
133
00:12:04,967 --> 00:12:08,164
and I'm going to have this as the Ieg
134
00:12:08,207 --> 00:12:10,801
and I'm going to have this as a seat,
135
00:12:10,847 --> 00:12:13,680
and here I'm going to spIit the tube,
136
00:12:13,727 --> 00:12:16,446
turn it up and I'II put the back there.''
137
00:12:18,767 --> 00:12:22,203
And there you are, seat seat, back back.
138
00:12:22,567 --> 00:12:23,602
VoiIa!
139
00:12:24,327 --> 00:12:29,242
For Breuer, the gravity-defying
cantilever construction of his chair
140
00:12:29,287 --> 00:12:32,802
clearly suggested other
even more radical possibilities -
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00:12:33,527 --> 00:12:35,722
a chair with no legs at all.
142
00:12:35,767 --> 00:12:40,602
It was very acceptabIe for the Bauhaus
phiIosophy to, yes,
143
00:12:40,647 --> 00:12:43,559
overstep the boundary of reaIity and say,
144
00:12:43,607 --> 00:12:46,280
''EventuaIIy we wiII sit on compressed air.''
145
00:12:46,327 --> 00:12:50,843
''Fried air'', which is an ItaIian saying
for things which are meaningIess.
146
00:12:50,887 --> 00:12:54,880
But imagine if you couId take air and fry it
so then it became stiff and you sit on it.
147
00:12:54,927 --> 00:12:56,918
That wouIdn't be bad.
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00:12:57,887 --> 00:12:59,684
For designers and architects,
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00:12:59,727 --> 00:13:05,359
the modern world was full of urgent hints
about new and better ways of doing things.
150
00:13:08,007 --> 00:13:09,645
ln a warehouse in Germany
151
00:13:09,687 --> 00:13:13,839
are the remnants of some of the lessons
taught by the new ''Machine Age''.
152
00:13:15,367 --> 00:13:19,724
These are the first ever examples
of a domestic fitted kitchen -
153
00:13:20,447 --> 00:13:24,486
designed by the Austrian architect
Margarete Schutte-Lihotzky.
154
00:13:35,567 --> 00:13:40,083
Margarete was not very fond of cooking
and she aIways said,
155
00:13:40,127 --> 00:13:43,881
''I even can't make a coffee.''
156
00:13:43,927 --> 00:13:51,117
So she didn't Iike cooking very much,
but she designed the kitchen very carefuIIy.
157
00:13:54,007 --> 00:13:58,842
Margarete came in with this radicaI idea,
which is now known as a Frankfurt kitchen,
158
00:13:58,887 --> 00:14:03,119
which was basicaIIy
the first reaIIy mass-produced fitted kitchen.
159
00:14:03,167 --> 00:14:08,560
The idea that she had,
was to rationaIise women's work.
160
00:14:08,607 --> 00:14:12,919
When peopIe used the Frankfurt kitchen,
there were many things that were great about it.
161
00:14:12,967 --> 00:14:15,037
Yep, it was very efficient and wipe-cIean
162
00:14:15,087 --> 00:14:18,318
and very functionaI,
but peopIe found them very coId.
163
00:14:19,127 --> 00:14:22,915
There were a Iot of responses to it
that it was very sort of aIien.
164
00:14:22,967 --> 00:14:24,958
And, yeah, it was Iike a factory.
165
00:14:25,007 --> 00:14:28,716
It was Iike a kind of a...
a kind of gaIIey kitchen from a ship.
166
00:14:35,887 --> 00:14:40,244
I Iook at kitchens today and you can see
where those have come from.
167
00:14:41,207 --> 00:14:45,883
They've come from those oId ideas that we want
to have everything kind of neatIy organised
168
00:14:45,927 --> 00:14:47,406
and we want it to function weII
169
00:14:47,447 --> 00:14:50,405
and we want to be abIe to serve our famiIy
in a way that makes sense.
170
00:14:52,007 --> 00:14:55,158
But who's to teII me where I keep my bread?
171
00:14:55,207 --> 00:14:57,004
We keep our bread in the microwave
172
00:14:57,047 --> 00:15:00,119
because it's the onIy storage pIace
that wiII keep it dry.
173
00:15:01,687 --> 00:15:05,760
That idea of imposing a vision on somebody
and expecting them to Iive up to it
174
00:15:05,807 --> 00:15:09,038
is an absoIuteIy impossibIe dream
for any designer.
175
00:15:09,087 --> 00:15:11,362
So, you know, I aIways say this to our cIients.
176
00:15:11,407 --> 00:15:13,557
You need to create something that's adaptive.
177
00:15:13,607 --> 00:15:17,919
You need to buiId in fIexibiIity
and you need to aIIow ''the person''
178
00:15:17,967 --> 00:15:21,676
their right to customise the experience
that you're creating for them.
179
00:15:25,167 --> 00:15:28,876
But designs for living
weren't just confined to the kitchen.
180
00:15:30,767 --> 00:15:33,600
ln Weissenhof, a suburb of Stuttgart,
181
00:15:33,647 --> 00:15:37,925
the City Council offered designers and architects
a larger canvas -
182
00:15:37,967 --> 00:15:40,276
the whole estate of houses.
183
00:15:40,327 --> 00:15:42,636
Show homes of the future.
184
00:15:44,927 --> 00:15:48,636
This was a kind of very radicaI thing
for the city of Stuttgart to do,
185
00:15:48,687 --> 00:15:52,521
and they rounded up the kind of
the reaI young guns of architecture.
186
00:15:52,567 --> 00:15:55,161
You know, you had Bruno Taut,
you had Mies van der Rohe,
187
00:15:55,207 --> 00:15:57,801
you had WaIter Gropius, you had Le Corbusier.
188
00:15:58,807 --> 00:16:02,436
You go there now and you think,
''BIimey, if these were buiIt now,
189
00:16:02,487 --> 00:16:06,878
they wouId stiII be regarded as radicaIIy modern,
Iet aIone in the mid '20s.''
190
00:16:06,927 --> 00:16:10,636
You know. These beautifuI cubist bIocks
right up on the hiIIside.
191
00:16:14,927 --> 00:16:17,646
The Double House on RathenaustraBe
192
00:16:17,687 --> 00:16:21,123
was designed by the Swiss-born architect,
Le Corbusier.
193
00:16:26,327 --> 00:16:30,878
Le Corbusier's design went one step further
than the fitted kitchen.
194
00:16:30,927 --> 00:16:33,521
This was a ''fitted house'',
195
00:16:33,607 --> 00:16:36,246
and the architect had thought long and hard
196
00:16:36,287 --> 00:16:39,199
about how the modern family would fit into it.
197
00:16:40,607 --> 00:16:44,646
Corbusier's idea was to divide space up
into served and servant spaces.
198
00:16:44,687 --> 00:16:48,965
So over here we've got the bathroom,
which is not one you'd want to hang out in.
199
00:16:49,007 --> 00:16:51,726
It's the kind of bathroom
you'd just have a quick shave in.
200
00:16:51,767 --> 00:16:53,246
Here we have a kitchen area
201
00:16:53,287 --> 00:16:56,006
which is an area where your maid
wouId be there serving you
202
00:16:56,047 --> 00:16:59,517
if you're having your Iunch out here
in the kind of Iiving-dining space.
203
00:16:59,567 --> 00:17:03,162
The whoIe idea was to shift
aII the kind of servant spaces,
204
00:17:03,207 --> 00:17:06,995
the kind of spaces for drudgery,
make them as smaII and as remote as possibIe
205
00:17:07,047 --> 00:17:11,086
and open up space for Iiving,
for being entertained,
206
00:17:11,127 --> 00:17:13,687
for Ieisure pursuits, I suppose, essentiaIIy.
207
00:17:13,727 --> 00:17:15,479
So a compIete division - oiI and water.
208
00:17:15,527 --> 00:17:17,802
You know, this was a machine for Iiving in.
209
00:17:19,327 --> 00:17:25,118
Like the fitted kitchen, the fitted house took its
inspiration from outside the domestic sphere.
210
00:17:38,927 --> 00:17:44,047
Le Corbusier buiIt this corridor
with the same measures of a train's corridor.
211
00:17:44,087 --> 00:17:46,078
So it's 60cm
212
00:17:46,127 --> 00:17:48,687
and a height of two metres and five,
213
00:17:48,727 --> 00:17:51,799
Iike in each train at this time.
214
00:17:52,487 --> 00:17:56,366
And so it's a very theoreticaI corridor
215
00:17:56,407 --> 00:18:01,561
but it's very important
to connect his house with the train.
216
00:18:01,607 --> 00:18:05,600
So it's a modern traffic machine.
217
00:18:05,647 --> 00:18:11,165
So it stands for engineering
and it stands for future.
218
00:18:12,327 --> 00:18:17,082
Le Corbusier's obsession with the machine
was that it wouId be Iiberating, it wouId free you.
219
00:18:17,127 --> 00:18:21,643
So you couId IiteraIIy adjust the interior
to suit your Iife. You couId transform it.
220
00:18:21,687 --> 00:18:25,919
The idea that a house couId be fIexibIe,
couId change in the future.
221
00:18:27,207 --> 00:18:29,163
We are now in the Iiving room,
222
00:18:29,207 --> 00:18:34,235
and you can change this room,
for the night use, into sIeeping compartments.
223
00:18:34,287 --> 00:18:39,964
You bring the bed out,
or puII the bed out of the buiIt-in cupboard,
224
00:18:40,007 --> 00:18:43,682
and you can bring out the second bed
for the coupIe here.
225
00:18:43,727 --> 00:18:48,437
And then, you can cIose the sIiding waII...
226
00:18:49,247 --> 00:18:55,766
..to separate the sIeeping room of the chiId
from the sIeeping room of the parents.
227
00:18:57,487 --> 00:18:58,966
That gave immense freedom.
228
00:18:59,007 --> 00:19:01,919
Both the architect
and aIso the inhabitant of the house
229
00:19:01,967 --> 00:19:06,916
couId shift the arrangement of the interior,
the pIan, to whatever they wanted to do with it.
230
00:19:06,967 --> 00:19:09,197
There's not much running around the house,
231
00:19:09,247 --> 00:19:12,478
everything's sort of kept very tight
and cIose and efficient.
232
00:19:20,527 --> 00:19:23,963
But freedom and flexibility came at a price.
233
00:19:25,007 --> 00:19:28,886
These were designs to live up to,
rather than just live in.
234
00:19:28,927 --> 00:19:32,363
He had these sIightIy freakish views
about communaI Iiving.
235
00:19:32,407 --> 00:19:36,878
He sort of had ideas that we shouId be Iiving
Iike students in a coIIege
236
00:19:36,927 --> 00:19:38,519
or monks in a monastery,
237
00:19:38,567 --> 00:19:41,400
that actuaIIy our private space
shouId be very, very smaII
238
00:19:41,447 --> 00:19:44,598
and we shouId be sharing our communaI space
with Iots of other peopIe
239
00:19:44,647 --> 00:19:48,117
and actuaIIy Iiving Iike an artist,
Iike he Iived, actuaIIy.
240
00:19:49,247 --> 00:19:54,002
In a sense, Le Corbusier never got over
his potty training period, emotionaIIy,
241
00:19:54,047 --> 00:19:59,440
as a Swiss designer, compIete controI freak,
who wanted to tidy the worId up.
242
00:20:00,487 --> 00:20:05,402
That might have been fine for a few peopIe
but it wasn't a soIution for mass society.
243
00:20:05,447 --> 00:20:07,563
PeopIe actuaIIy Iiked their private space.
244
00:20:07,607 --> 00:20:10,917
They Iiked to retreat
as weII as hang out on sun terraces.
245
00:20:12,047 --> 00:20:16,199
I mean, Modernism is aIways about
enormous expectation, you know,
246
00:20:16,247 --> 00:20:19,762
and provocation, mixed with disappointment.
247
00:20:19,807 --> 00:20:21,763
The term is correct - Modernism.
248
00:20:22,447 --> 00:20:26,122
It is a poetic refIection of the modern age.
249
00:20:26,167 --> 00:20:33,847
So you bend a steeI tube and you stretch
some canvas and you've got a modern object,
250
00:20:33,887 --> 00:20:36,242
hence, a functionaI object.
251
00:20:36,287 --> 00:20:38,357
But they weren't aII functionaI.
252
00:20:38,407 --> 00:20:43,162
I have a Iot of Bauhaus furniture in my house.
253
00:20:44,167 --> 00:20:47,523
It is... Without exception,
none of it is comfortabIe.
254
00:20:48,287 --> 00:20:50,164
I don't sit in those chairs very often.
255
00:20:50,207 --> 00:20:53,404
I sit in a comfortabIe chair
and Iook at those chairs.
256
00:20:53,447 --> 00:20:56,564
And that's basicaIIy what they're for - to Iook at.
257
00:21:04,487 --> 00:21:10,756
A Iot of the Modernists were prescribing how,
not just how you wouId sit,
258
00:21:10,807 --> 00:21:14,641
but aIso how you wouId Iive,
and that's what got us into troubIe.
259
00:21:15,527 --> 00:21:17,802
Corbusier's originaI pIan for Paris
260
00:21:17,847 --> 00:21:22,238
was to wipe out the oId Paris
and start new with these ridicuIous towers,
261
00:21:22,287 --> 00:21:25,996
with cars connecting everybody in between -
it's a nightmare.
262
00:21:27,047 --> 00:21:33,395
This was his vision, and unfortunateIy,
that's what a Iot of cities started doing
263
00:21:33,447 --> 00:21:37,804
and we are now repairing ourseIves
from this era.
264
00:21:38,527 --> 00:21:41,439
Corbusier's vision was very destructive.
265
00:21:42,447 --> 00:21:48,841
Now, he had some great designs for furniture,
and actuaIIy some interesting houses,
266
00:21:48,887 --> 00:21:52,243
and if he had onIy stuck to that,
we wouId've aII been better off.
267
00:21:53,967 --> 00:21:59,041
The Modernists had set out to break down
the barriers that separated creative disciplines.
268
00:21:59,767 --> 00:22:03,282
But as the city-sized ambitions of Le Corbusier
made clear,
269
00:22:03,967 --> 00:22:08,006
there is a fundamental distinction
between architecture and design,
270
00:22:08,047 --> 00:22:10,959
as well as between architects and designers.
271
00:22:13,207 --> 00:22:16,279
You've got to remember,
architecture is big and heavy and sIow,
272
00:22:16,327 --> 00:22:18,795
and takes a Iot of money to buiId.
273
00:22:18,847 --> 00:22:23,125
Design can respond much more quickIy
to changes in peopIe's desires.
274
00:22:23,167 --> 00:22:28,480
It's basicaIIy more nimbIe, it's Iighter, it's smaIIer,
it's easier to do, frankIy, than architecture.
275
00:22:28,527 --> 00:22:32,202
It's easier to change, you know,
your chairs and your furniture
276
00:22:32,247 --> 00:22:36,081
than it is to change your buiIding and a whoIe
way of Iife and a whoIe environment.
277
00:22:36,127 --> 00:22:42,566
But it's not just a difference in scale and speed.
There's also a question of temperament.
278
00:22:42,607 --> 00:22:45,246
We taIk about designers as T-shaped beings,
279
00:22:45,287 --> 00:22:47,517
which means that you have
a depth in something,
280
00:22:47,567 --> 00:22:50,081
you have a down stroke in something,
a depth in craft,
281
00:22:50,127 --> 00:22:53,483
but a breadth and an empathy
towards a Iot of other discipIines.
282
00:22:53,527 --> 00:22:56,963
But I often think of architects
as more maybe I-shaped -
283
00:22:57,007 --> 00:23:01,478
it's a depth in craft,
and Iess of a breadth in empathy.
284
00:23:02,247 --> 00:23:08,516
Architecture can often be
quite a sort of soIitary, visionary pursuit.
285
00:23:08,567 --> 00:23:11,286
And I don't think design works Iike that.
286
00:23:11,327 --> 00:23:13,602
We're not the guru in the ateIier.
287
00:23:16,367 --> 00:23:22,283
As the Roaring '20s gave way to
the low, dishonest decade that was the 1 930s,
288
00:23:22,967 --> 00:23:26,846
the political context in mainland Europe
changed dramatically.
289
00:23:26,887 --> 00:23:33,725
For architects, for designers, for everyone,
the change was not for the better.
290
00:23:35,727 --> 00:23:39,845
ln 1 932,
the Bauhaus closed its school in Dessau,
291
00:23:40,567 --> 00:23:44,685
as the local branch of the Nazi Party
flexed its brown-shirted muscle.
292
00:24:01,087 --> 00:24:04,079
Bauhaus founder, Walter Gropius,
moved to Britain.
293
00:24:05,367 --> 00:24:11,397
He came here, the lsokon flats in Hampstead,
designed by architect Wells Coates.
294
00:24:13,447 --> 00:24:18,237
Alongside Gropius, in the minimalist service flats
with their communal dining room,
295
00:24:18,287 --> 00:24:20,847
was fellow Bauhauser Marcel Breuer.
296
00:24:22,927 --> 00:24:25,839
Also resident was crime writer Agatha Christie,
297
00:24:25,887 --> 00:24:29,846
who likened their new home
to a giant ocean liner.
298
00:24:32,047 --> 00:24:36,199
But this was not the typical face
of modern Britain in the 1 930s.
299
00:24:38,487 --> 00:24:42,685
Just a few miles from the lsokon flats
is the Holly Lodge Estate,
300
00:24:43,327 --> 00:24:46,125
where high-rise living was half timbered,
301
00:24:46,167 --> 00:24:50,638
and ocean liners were something
to see the world in, rather than to live in.
302
00:24:52,327 --> 00:24:55,922
This is what peopIe wanted,
and this is how peopIe wanted to Iive.
303
00:24:57,727 --> 00:25:04,075
Modernism, you couId say, was trying to be
a IittIe bit too cIever sometimes,
304
00:25:04,127 --> 00:25:06,322
a IittIe bit too pared down, too simpIe,
305
00:25:06,367 --> 00:25:09,404
and that was cooI and styIish,
if you were into that kind of thing.
306
00:25:09,447 --> 00:25:10,926
But most peopIe weren't.
307
00:25:14,087 --> 00:25:18,717
Begun in the mid-1 920s,
and added to throughout the '30s,
308
00:25:18,767 --> 00:25:22,123
the Holly Lodge Estate
was an alternative response
309
00:25:22,167 --> 00:25:24,965
to the demands of living in the modern world.
310
00:25:26,567 --> 00:25:32,085
This is a typicaI housing estate from the 1 930s.
311
00:25:32,127 --> 00:25:37,155
Each one of these is a IittIe castIe, it's the
EngIishman's castIe, it's the epitome of that.
312
00:25:41,687 --> 00:25:44,838
It meant that you were Iiving out
the oId EngIish idyII -
313
00:25:44,887 --> 00:25:47,685
everyone wants to Iive in a thatched cottage
314
00:25:47,727 --> 00:25:50,924
or a wonderfuI hammer-beamed
Jacobean house,
315
00:25:50,967 --> 00:25:55,085
and that's exactIy what these houses gave you
the impression that you were doing.
316
00:26:00,647 --> 00:26:02,922
After the First WorId War,
317
00:26:02,967 --> 00:26:07,518
there was a Ionging
to return to the pre-war period -
318
00:26:07,567 --> 00:26:09,398
after aII, that was such a goIden age.
319
00:26:11,207 --> 00:26:13,516
Just at this time, what do we invent?
320
00:26:13,567 --> 00:26:15,603
We get the three-piece suite.
321
00:26:15,647 --> 00:26:19,356
And that says it aII about
what we're reaIIy interested in at that time.
322
00:26:19,407 --> 00:26:21,477
It's aII about comfort.
323
00:26:28,487 --> 00:26:33,686
This was also the moment when
''second-hand'' rebranded itself as ''antique''.
324
00:26:35,247 --> 00:26:40,162
Hampered by death duties and plagued by
the lack of servants to clean and polish,
325
00:26:40,207 --> 00:26:43,882
the great and good had,
since the end of the Great War,
326
00:26:43,927 --> 00:26:45,997
been selling off the family silver-
327
00:26:46,047 --> 00:26:48,436
as well as the family mahogany.
328
00:26:53,047 --> 00:26:55,641
For the aspiring British middle class,
329
00:26:55,687 --> 00:26:59,236
a timeless classic with aristocratic connections
330
00:26:59,287 --> 00:27:02,597
trumped tubular steel
with Modernist pretensions.
331
00:27:05,207 --> 00:27:09,564
And of course the houses aIso
were fuII of provision for ornaments,
332
00:27:09,607 --> 00:27:11,802
for IittIe detaiIs of Iiving as weII.
333
00:27:11,847 --> 00:27:17,797
The firepIace, the manteIpiece,
retained its sort of iconic status as one of these.
334
00:27:17,847 --> 00:27:21,396
You had this provision,
a sheIf for aII of your ornaments,
335
00:27:21,447 --> 00:27:22,926
for your househoId goods,
336
00:27:22,967 --> 00:27:28,200
for your IittIe status symboIs,
and for your heirIooms.
337
00:27:28,247 --> 00:27:32,035
And if you didn't have heirIooms,
you couId just go out and buy some.
338
00:27:35,087 --> 00:27:38,682
Alongside the Mock Tudor,
there was mockery too.
339
00:27:41,407 --> 00:27:46,037
Cartoonist Heath Robinson
poked gentle fun at the Modernist lifestyle
340
00:27:46,087 --> 00:27:48,601
in his book How To Live ln A Flat.
341
00:28:09,447 --> 00:28:12,245
I think one of the big objections to Modernism
342
00:28:12,287 --> 00:28:15,245
from peopIe Iike Heath Robinson or the satirists,
343
00:28:15,287 --> 00:28:17,278
or even the serious objectors,
344
00:28:17,327 --> 00:28:20,239
was the fact that they didn't Iike
being toId what to do.
345
00:28:20,287 --> 00:28:23,563
The British don't Iike that.
We don't Iike being toId what to do.
346
00:28:33,407 --> 00:28:36,877
But the most enduring symbol
of British design from the period
347
00:28:36,927 --> 00:28:41,125
was a characteristic combination
of the modern and the whimsical.
348
00:28:43,567 --> 00:28:47,355
lf Heath Robinson had been asked
to design an electricity pylon,
349
00:28:47,407 --> 00:28:50,001
he might have come up with
something like this -
350
00:28:50,127 --> 00:28:52,277
the Anglepoise lamp.
351
00:28:52,327 --> 00:28:54,682
George Carwardine was a British engineer
352
00:28:54,727 --> 00:28:59,039
obsessed with car suspension systems
and Euclidian geometry.
353
00:29:00,167 --> 00:29:03,398
He wasn't thinking about creating
a masterpiece of design
354
00:29:03,447 --> 00:29:06,883
when he approached spring-makers
Herbert Terry & Sons
355
00:29:06,927 --> 00:29:11,443
to help him with his experiments
to suspend objects in space.
356
00:29:15,247 --> 00:29:17,681
He took out a patent, in about 1 931 ,
357
00:29:18,527 --> 00:29:21,997
and it was caIIed ''eIastic force mechanisms''.
358
00:29:22,727 --> 00:29:25,400
And this was ways of trying
to baIance things in space
359
00:29:25,447 --> 00:29:28,166
and he used springs and Ievers and cams.
360
00:29:31,167 --> 00:29:34,955
lt was then that Carwardine
had a light-bulb moment.
361
00:29:36,807 --> 00:29:40,322
He suddenIy reaIised,
''I couId put a Iight buIb on the end of this
362
00:29:40,367 --> 00:29:41,846
and controI it with a shade
363
00:29:41,887 --> 00:29:46,244
and then I have a way of putting Iight
exactIy where it's needed.''
364
00:29:47,887 --> 00:29:52,756
As it moves, here this stays paraIIeI,
365
00:29:52,807 --> 00:29:56,243
so if you're working at a desk
or drawing board or something,
366
00:29:56,287 --> 00:29:59,245
you can adjust it there
and you don't have to readjust the height.
367
00:30:01,127 --> 00:30:05,962
In a sense, it's not designed,
it's based on pure engineering principIes.
368
00:30:06,007 --> 00:30:09,158
It's quite unusuaI in a product
that you actuaIIy see the workings.
369
00:30:09,207 --> 00:30:13,359
This is Iike seeing aII the vaIve springs
or aII the pistons in a car.
370
00:30:13,407 --> 00:30:18,640
It brings a bit of engineering out of a box
and visuaIises it on their desk.
371
00:30:34,367 --> 00:30:39,760
There's a certain eIegance in this product...
and I don't know where it came from.
372
00:30:39,807 --> 00:30:41,559
I don't think George designed it.
373
00:30:41,607 --> 00:30:46,158
I think he just had a naturaI feeI
for the right sort of dimensions
374
00:30:46,207 --> 00:30:48,960
and that, you know, if it Iooks right, it is right.
375
00:30:50,127 --> 00:30:51,606
It's part of the Iandscape.
376
00:30:51,647 --> 00:30:53,365
It's the same as, you know,
377
00:30:53,407 --> 00:30:57,161
teIephone boxes and London taxis
and Routemaster buses,
378
00:30:57,207 --> 00:31:01,598
you instantIy see, whoever you are in the worId,
and you know those are British icons.
379
00:31:09,287 --> 00:31:13,519
ln 1 935, Le Corbusier,
the high priest of Modernism,
380
00:31:13,567 --> 00:31:17,924
made a trip across the Atlantic
to bring enlightenment to the USA.
381
00:31:20,327 --> 00:31:22,841
He went full of high hopes for work
382
00:31:22,887 --> 00:31:27,278
from a country that had seemed determined
to build itself out of the Great Depression.
383
00:31:28,647 --> 00:31:33,277
He was surprised that there were no press
photographers to greet him when he arrived -
384
00:31:33,327 --> 00:31:35,887
the first of a series of misunderstandings
385
00:31:35,927 --> 00:31:40,205
that would characterise the encounter
between the world's most modern architect
386
00:31:40,247 --> 00:31:42,636
and the world's most modern city.
387
00:31:46,207 --> 00:31:50,803
ln an article,
he confessed to more complex reactions.
388
00:31:50,847 --> 00:31:54,317
''Everything here is paradox and disorder...
389
00:31:54,367 --> 00:31:57,996
individual liberty destroying collective liberty.
390
00:31:58,047 --> 00:32:01,642
A hundred times have l thought
New York is a catastrophe...
391
00:32:03,047 --> 00:32:06,244
..and 50 times...it is a beautiful catastrophe. ''
392
00:32:39,447 --> 00:32:43,326
WeII, New York City is beautifuI and it was
beautifuI then because of the density,
393
00:32:43,367 --> 00:32:47,599
the congestion and the mess,
and every buiIding a sIightIy different styIe.
394
00:32:47,647 --> 00:32:49,399
No-one has a controI over that.
395
00:32:49,447 --> 00:32:53,201
That's determined by the market, you know.
It's determined by commerce.
396
00:32:55,287 --> 00:32:59,041
The simple truth was
that Le Corbusier was too late.
397
00:32:59,887 --> 00:33:04,039
By the time he arrived in America,
the future had already happened.
398
00:33:04,927 --> 00:33:06,679
From the canyons of Manhattan,
399
00:33:06,727 --> 00:33:12,040
to the production line of the Ford Rouge
River plant, which Le Corbusier visited,
400
00:33:12,087 --> 00:33:14,726
America had already chosen its destiny.
401
00:33:15,567 --> 00:33:16,966
This American future
402
00:33:17,007 --> 00:33:21,842
would be driven by the dynamos of capitalism,
consumerism and individualism.
403
00:33:22,247 --> 00:33:24,442
And the market would reign supreme.
404
00:33:34,567 --> 00:33:37,923
The difference between American
and European design is fascinating.
405
00:33:38,767 --> 00:33:42,726
European design is more concerned with
the seIf expression of the designer,
406
00:33:42,767 --> 00:33:45,918
versus American design,
which is way more pragmatic.
407
00:33:45,967 --> 00:33:48,925
It's about the mainstream
because that's where the money is,
408
00:33:48,967 --> 00:33:51,800
that's where the manufacturers
are interested in operating.
409
00:33:51,847 --> 00:33:55,317
They're not interested in catering to an eIite,
410
00:33:55,367 --> 00:33:59,599
progressive, avant-garde type cIienteIe.
411
00:34:00,287 --> 00:34:02,642
They want to get their products into WaImart.
412
00:34:04,647 --> 00:34:08,435
The designers who served the American market
in the '20s and '30s
413
00:34:08,487 --> 00:34:10,682
knew what commerce expected of them.
414
00:34:11,887 --> 00:34:14,959
lt would be appearances
on the cover of business magazines,
415
00:34:15,007 --> 00:34:19,478
rather than manifestos, that would get them
a seat around the boardroom table.
416
00:34:20,247 --> 00:34:23,603
But once they were there,
they knew how to knock 'em dead.
417
00:34:25,127 --> 00:34:27,595
These were to be artists in industry,
418
00:34:27,647 --> 00:34:30,798
not appIying art Iater,
419
00:34:30,847 --> 00:34:34,203
but in a coIIaborative effort
with the manufacturers.
420
00:34:34,247 --> 00:34:37,557
These guys were some of
the greatest renderers of aII time.
421
00:34:37,607 --> 00:34:39,598
They knew how to draw anything.
422
00:34:39,647 --> 00:34:42,115
They knew how to make it vivid, exciting.
423
00:34:42,167 --> 00:34:45,921
You know, to see these things in the fIesh,
it's fascinating.
424
00:34:47,247 --> 00:34:51,684
Niels Diffrient worked with designer
Henry Dreyfuss for more than 25 years.
425
00:34:53,527 --> 00:34:55,006
Henry had a trick.
426
00:34:55,047 --> 00:34:57,117
that was he carried in his coat pocket...
427
00:34:57,847 --> 00:35:00,156
..a pocket fuII of IittIe short penciIs.
428
00:35:00,207 --> 00:35:02,277
And when he was taIking to a cIient,
429
00:35:02,327 --> 00:35:07,845
he wouId take one out
and draw something right for the cIient.
430
00:35:07,887 --> 00:35:11,004
''This is the way your cIock shouId Iook,''
for instance.
431
00:35:11,047 --> 00:35:13,720
The cIients were aII amazed by this.
432
00:35:13,767 --> 00:35:21,162
So Henry took this one step further,
and over a tabIe or a Iunch tabIe,
433
00:35:21,207 --> 00:35:24,802
he wouId draw it upside down to face the cIient,
434
00:35:24,847 --> 00:35:27,839
and of course, that was as good as
seIIing the job on the spot.
435
00:35:27,887 --> 00:35:32,165
Anybody who couId draw upside down
was cIearIy taIented enough
436
00:35:32,207 --> 00:35:35,722
to make this product be a big seIIer.
437
00:35:35,767 --> 00:35:39,965
Corporate America reaIised that design works.
438
00:35:40,007 --> 00:35:42,043
You know, that if they revamped their product
439
00:35:42,087 --> 00:35:45,079
or redid their corporate identity
and made it reIevant to peopIe,
440
00:35:45,127 --> 00:35:48,642
that their saIes wouId improve,
and this was a way to get cIoser to consumers.
441
00:35:53,647 --> 00:35:57,959
Getting closer to consumers meant
attending to their dreams and desires,
442
00:35:58,007 --> 00:35:59,725
as well as their needs.
443
00:35:59,767 --> 00:36:03,442
Designer Raymond Loewy understood that
better than anyone.
444
00:36:03,487 --> 00:36:07,924
His definition of good design
was an upward sales curve.
445
00:36:09,407 --> 00:36:12,638
Raymond Loewy was,
I think, the first design consuItant -
446
00:36:12,687 --> 00:36:15,963
not the first industriaI designer
but the first design consuItant,
447
00:36:16,047 --> 00:36:20,802
the first person
to reaIIy marry commerce and art
448
00:36:20,847 --> 00:36:26,285
into one seamIess offer that manufacturers
were interested in and that peopIe needed.
449
00:36:26,967 --> 00:36:33,759
What Raymond Loewy brought was pizzazz,
excitement, emotion to functionaI objects.
450
00:36:33,807 --> 00:36:38,085
Loewy accepted that what people wanted
didn't have to make sense.
451
00:36:39,567 --> 00:36:41,683
He took the principle of streamlining,
452
00:36:41,727 --> 00:36:45,879
originally developed to make planes,
trains and automobiles go faster,
453
00:36:45,927 --> 00:36:48,919
and applied it to things
that were going nowhere fast -
454
00:36:48,967 --> 00:36:51,003
like refrigerators.
455
00:36:51,727 --> 00:36:56,323
Sales of the streamlined, Coldspot fridge
jumped by 600% .
456
00:36:57,087 --> 00:37:00,363
It's absurd when you see a vacuum cIeaner
and it has kind of wings on it,
457
00:37:00,407 --> 00:37:01,840
you know, Iike a rocket ship.
458
00:37:01,887 --> 00:37:05,197
That's obviousIy just a styIe,
you know, a superficiaI styIe.
459
00:37:05,247 --> 00:37:07,442
But I think there was a Iot more going on there,
460
00:37:07,487 --> 00:37:10,638
and I think what Loewy
and peopIe Iike that were doing
461
00:37:10,687 --> 00:37:15,397
was giving to everyday Americans
an opportunity to experience the modern worId,
462
00:37:15,447 --> 00:37:18,519
you know, in the everyday,
whether it was a toaster or a teIephone
463
00:37:18,567 --> 00:37:20,444
or, you know, an automobiIe.
464
00:37:22,207 --> 00:37:26,200
But behind the salesmanship,
and the crowd-pleasing styling,
465
00:37:26,247 --> 00:37:29,523
American designers developed
an approach to design
466
00:37:29,567 --> 00:37:33,401
as rational as Le Corbusier
and as rigorous as the Bauhaus.
467
00:37:35,247 --> 00:37:38,876
But rather than starting with a theory
about how people shouId be,
468
00:37:38,927 --> 00:37:43,876
a designer like Henry Dreyfuss
started with what they were actually like.
469
00:37:43,927 --> 00:37:51,277
WeII, this is the first iteration of the Big Ben,
done by Henry Dreyfuss around 1 931 /1 932.
470
00:37:51,327 --> 00:37:54,046
He got his foot in the door doing the cIock faces
471
00:37:54,087 --> 00:37:57,636
and there are dozens and dozens of studies,
for instance, of the hands,
472
00:37:57,687 --> 00:38:02,203
which you wiII notice have
a IittIe channeI inside.
473
00:38:02,247 --> 00:38:04,078
Dreyfuss did some informaI studies
474
00:38:04,127 --> 00:38:08,439
to try to assure that these
were very visibIe to sIeepy eyes
475
00:38:08,487 --> 00:38:11,479
and in fact wouId set them up aIong his bedside
476
00:38:11,527 --> 00:38:16,043
to go off at intervaIs of an hour
throughout the night to judge them,
477
00:38:16,087 --> 00:38:20,205
which he cIaimed was the cIosest he
and Doris Marks ever came to getting divorced.
478
00:38:20,247 --> 00:38:24,240
This was a doIIar cIock.
This was not an expensive item.
479
00:38:24,287 --> 00:38:28,803
And yet it's taken on the appearance
of a much more Iuxurious item.
480
00:38:28,847 --> 00:38:35,559
Notice the goId finish inside that mouIding,
which is siIver on the outside.
481
00:38:35,607 --> 00:38:39,646
It's rather subtIe at first but it does make
a difference in the appearance.
482
00:38:39,687 --> 00:38:41,325
It's a beautifuI IittIe thing
483
00:38:41,367 --> 00:38:45,076
and when you think about this
as just a simpIe mass-produced object,
484
00:38:45,127 --> 00:38:49,405
one of the first, reaIIy, that wouId have
been seen in most American homes,
485
00:38:49,447 --> 00:38:53,884
an affordabIe piece of modernity
that was a functionaI item and worked weII.
486
00:38:58,287 --> 00:39:01,996
Acting as guinea pig for his own designs
wasjust the beginning.
487
00:39:02,047 --> 00:39:06,325
Drawing on time and motion studies,
just like Schutte-Lihotzky had done,
488
00:39:06,367 --> 00:39:09,598
Dreyfuss developed a systematic approach
to design,
489
00:39:09,647 --> 00:39:13,037
based around
idealised male and female figures.
490
00:39:14,847 --> 00:39:17,998
He would eventually christen them
Joe and Josephine -
491
00:39:18,967 --> 00:39:25,566
typical Americans, from their heads
to the tip of their precisely-measured toes.
492
00:39:26,447 --> 00:39:28,802
Henry Dreyfuss caIIed it ''human factors'' -
493
00:39:28,847 --> 00:39:31,725
the science of the interface
between peopIe and things,
494
00:39:31,767 --> 00:39:33,246
and it reaIIy is a science.
495
00:39:33,287 --> 00:39:35,596
There's a Iot of actuaI measuring of things -
496
00:39:35,647 --> 00:39:38,957
distances, heights, weights -
aII those sorts of things.
497
00:39:39,007 --> 00:39:41,396
But more than that, a Iot of observationaI stuff.
498
00:39:41,447 --> 00:39:44,803
You couId say he was the father
of observationaI ethnographic research
499
00:39:44,847 --> 00:39:48,123
because he used to Iook at how peopIe
actuaIIy used things,
500
00:39:48,167 --> 00:39:49,839
how they sat in a chair and so on,
501
00:39:49,887 --> 00:39:52,037
which is what designers do today.
502
00:39:53,607 --> 00:39:58,442
Like Raymond Loewy, Dreyfuss knew
how to make the advanced acceptable,
503
00:39:58,487 --> 00:40:01,604
as is apparent in his model 302 telephone,
504
00:40:01,647 --> 00:40:03,478
a classic piece of design
505
00:40:03,527 --> 00:40:08,237
that put the modern world into the hands
and the homes of millions of Americans.
506
00:40:15,127 --> 00:40:20,076
This is the ModeI 302 teIephone
of approximateIy 1 936/1 937.
507
00:40:20,127 --> 00:40:22,402
It's the first pure Dreyfuss phone.
508
00:40:22,447 --> 00:40:28,044
This was the American teIephone during
the 1 930s, the Iater '30s and most of the '40s.
509
00:40:28,087 --> 00:40:34,037
We're taIking somewhere in the range of
1 60 miIIion units.
510
00:40:34,087 --> 00:40:40,435
I mean, we're taIking about a piece of design
that aImost every American had contact with,
511
00:40:40,487 --> 00:40:42,079
repeated contact,
512
00:40:42,127 --> 00:40:46,166
and to me that's a remarkabIe achievement
513
00:40:46,207 --> 00:40:51,565
and a remarkabIe way to Iead peopIe
into thinking in a modern way.
514
00:40:52,287 --> 00:40:56,519
The contrast with the telephone design
by the Bauhaus is revealing.
515
00:40:57,647 --> 00:41:00,445
The first thing I see is geometric purity.
516
00:41:00,487 --> 00:41:02,239
I mean, that...
517
00:41:02,967 --> 00:41:07,836
The overaII contour here mirrors aImost exactIy
the form of that transmitter.
518
00:41:09,007 --> 00:41:14,718
Whereas here we have a more generous,
in fact, rather streamIined housing, you know.
519
00:41:16,007 --> 00:41:19,636
Look at the very square contours here,
520
00:41:19,687 --> 00:41:21,882
versus the scuIpting here.
521
00:41:21,927 --> 00:41:23,918
This creates a visuaI Iightness.
522
00:41:23,967 --> 00:41:25,923
I mean, this is a IoveIy design.
523
00:41:25,967 --> 00:41:30,757
Its visuaI Iightness comes from the gap
that you see here between those fIush sides
524
00:41:30,807 --> 00:41:33,401
and this rather dramaticaIIy-shaped handset.
525
00:41:34,087 --> 00:41:40,276
But again...one advantage
to the Dreyfuss phone over...
526
00:41:42,327 --> 00:41:47,640
..this rather hefty phone...
that has no convenient way to move it.
527
00:41:47,687 --> 00:41:50,599
Maybe we shouId just Iook at the backs
because...
528
00:41:52,567 --> 00:41:58,039
..there's a IittIe more sophistication here
than in the European exampIe.
529
00:41:59,007 --> 00:42:04,684
You know, this is sort of
a 360-degree scuIpturaI entity,
530
00:42:04,727 --> 00:42:08,515
where this just seems to terminate
rather abruptIy in the back.
531
00:42:09,887 --> 00:42:13,436
Here is a phone with no ambitions
to be anything other than a teIephone
532
00:42:13,487 --> 00:42:16,047
and to Iook Iike a piece of equipment.
533
00:42:16,807 --> 00:42:21,119
This has a IittIe more concessions
to fitting into a domestic interior.
534
00:42:21,887 --> 00:42:24,685
I wouId say this is the more theoreticaI phone,
535
00:42:25,487 --> 00:42:28,445
and this is a IittIe bit more the consumer item.
536
00:42:29,127 --> 00:42:33,518
It's a wonderfuI sort of shorthand
for the difference between Europe and America.
537
00:42:43,527 --> 00:42:48,282
By attending to the dreams and desires
of consumers, as well as their needs,
538
00:42:48,327 --> 00:42:53,799
American designers brought the Utopian visions
of European Modernism down to earth.
539
00:42:55,367 --> 00:43:00,487
lt's telling that one of the most iconic examples
of modern American design from this period
540
00:43:00,527 --> 00:43:03,200
emerged from a backyard workshop
541
00:43:03,247 --> 00:43:06,842
rather than from the lofty heights
of the designer's drawing board.
542
00:43:08,567 --> 00:43:14,119
The Airstream Trailer,
first created in 1 933 by Wally Byam,
543
00:43:14,167 --> 00:43:17,955
an example of what you might call
''folk Modernism''.
544
00:43:30,727 --> 00:43:37,439
WaIIy wrote an articIe about how to buiId
a traiIer and he soId that articIe for 50 cents
545
00:43:37,487 --> 00:43:41,878
and peopIe tried to buiId 'em and they couIdn't
so they came to him about it.
546
00:43:41,927 --> 00:43:44,122
So he says, ''Let me buiId one for you.''
547
00:43:44,167 --> 00:43:47,079
So he went out in his backyard,
started buiIding traiIers,
548
00:43:47,127 --> 00:43:50,278
wasn't Iong before he was
manufacturing traiIers.
549
00:43:50,327 --> 00:43:52,761
The war came aIong - Second WorId War -
550
00:43:53,567 --> 00:43:57,799
the government took aII the aIuminium
and he had to stop production.
551
00:43:57,847 --> 00:44:00,805
So, he went to work in an aircraft factory
552
00:44:00,847 --> 00:44:03,202
and I'm sure whiIe he was doing that
553
00:44:03,247 --> 00:44:06,603
he'd come up with a Iot of different ideas
to do when the war was over,
554
00:44:06,647 --> 00:44:09,605
you know, to put into his traiIer,
to manufacture it.
555
00:44:09,847 --> 00:44:12,839
What kind of thickness of metaI
he wanted to use
556
00:44:12,887 --> 00:44:16,482
and how many rivets per square foot
he wanted to use.
557
00:44:16,527 --> 00:44:20,725
He got a Iot of that information off those
airpIanes when he was working with them.
558
00:44:22,967 --> 00:44:27,085
Christopher Deam
redesigned the Airstream Trailer in 2000.
559
00:44:28,487 --> 00:44:32,560
I had grown up seeing these things
hurtIing down the freeway
560
00:44:32,607 --> 00:44:35,724
and once I started designing...
561
00:44:35,767 --> 00:44:38,042
being an architect and doing reaI design,
562
00:44:38,087 --> 00:44:44,196
I started to reaIIy Iook at them
for inteIIigent uses of space.
563
00:44:45,487 --> 00:44:49,844
They combine both architecture and furniture
into this unified whoIe,
564
00:44:49,887 --> 00:44:54,278
and then the fact that it's, you know,
fIying down the freeway makes it even crazier.
565
00:44:58,407 --> 00:45:03,117
Byam's design delivered on the promises
made by Modernism and the market.
566
00:45:05,367 --> 00:45:09,360
lt was a machine for living
and a dream machine.
567
00:45:09,407 --> 00:45:12,444
Le Corbusier meets Henry Dreyfuss,
568
00:45:12,487 --> 00:45:15,763
from a designer who'd probably never
heard of either of them.
569
00:45:15,807 --> 00:45:20,437
UsuaIIy if somebody's never been in a traiIer,
their first reveIation is,
570
00:45:20,487 --> 00:45:24,719
''Wow, this is aII I need. I couId Iive in this.''
571
00:45:24,767 --> 00:45:31,002
And, you know, it aIIows your imagination
to imagine your Iife in a different context,
572
00:45:31,047 --> 00:45:37,759
in a stripped down, minimaIist,
kind of very essentiaI way of Iiving.
573
00:45:39,487 --> 00:45:42,638
If you don't Iike the scenery today,
you can hook up and move on.
574
00:45:42,687 --> 00:45:46,316
You don't have to worry about, ''Where are
we gonna sIeep, where are we gonna eat?''
575
00:45:47,367 --> 00:45:52,122
These vehicIes are fuIIy seIf-contained,
they have everything - aII the comforts of home.
576
00:45:52,167 --> 00:45:54,761
And a bathroom, any time you want one.
577
00:46:03,407 --> 00:46:06,843
lf the 1 920s and '30s dramatised the choice
578
00:46:06,887 --> 00:46:11,961
between top-down Utopianism
and bottom-up consumerism,
579
00:46:12,007 --> 00:46:16,046
the verdict of today's designed world
lies with consumerism.
580
00:46:17,167 --> 00:46:20,955
Consumerism swallowed Modernism's
most radical schemes.
581
00:46:22,447 --> 00:46:27,919
Some - the fitted kitchen, open plan living,
tubular steel furniture -
582
00:46:28,647 --> 00:46:30,603
were effortlessly absorbed.
583
00:46:31,287 --> 00:46:36,805
Others - the high rise and the high hopes
for a new kind of human being -
584
00:46:36,847 --> 00:46:39,600
have been chewed up and spat out.
585
00:46:40,807 --> 00:46:46,325
ln today's designed world,
we see Habitat rather than Bauhaus...
586
00:46:47,127 --> 00:46:50,199
..Dreyfuss rather than Le Corbusier.
587
00:46:51,727 --> 00:46:56,562
I think Le Corbusier, as an architect,
wanted to impose a certain vision,
588
00:46:56,607 --> 00:47:00,395
and Dreyfuss, as a designer, wanted to
kind of incIude everybody in his vision
589
00:47:00,447 --> 00:47:02,005
and bring them into that process.
590
00:47:02,047 --> 00:47:06,757
So, you know, I taIk a Iot about the idea of
design now as a diaIogue with the user,
591
00:47:06,807 --> 00:47:10,402
and I think that's the journey
that has gone from architecture to design -
592
00:47:10,447 --> 00:47:12,802
that journey from monoIogue to diaIogue.
57020
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