This documentary is also available in Spanish / Este documental también está disponible en español: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-jGaOnSqN4gs.html
13:10 There are two points he raises: First, was Bauhaus great publicity but that's all they were from day one? Bauhaus was based on important ideas. Even if they had a great publicity machine, the ideas and rationale they presented are clear, and people can decide what they think of those ideas for themselves. From what I know, their ideology seems brilliant. Now, the second point: is what was proliferated in modern society really just managerial culture? The reality is that the Bauhaus way of working is not the most efficient, or fits our consumerism, instant-results (or instant-gratification), ruthlessly self-involved society. Our society is one where corporations prefer to cram as many people as possible into as little space as they can get away with (because working space costs money), and have those people work for as long as possible for as little pay as possible. Only select businesses (or even just specific departments) focused on artistic expression have a workplace that promotes creativity and communal work. That ends up being a very small part of industry 20:15 What he's forgetting is that the Bauhaus ideas were based on taking care of people, not just physically but psychologically. The ideas were based on a different way of living, working and learning, that efficiency and turning out products as fast as possible was secondary. So, Bauhaus influenced art and architecture in the U.S….but for all the Bauhaus aesthetic, the ideology didn't pass into the rest of the society, just the style, artistic influence, and the utility theories. 39:35 Before Bauhaus, buying expensive things and fashionable things was supremely popular for decades, even centuries (people spent the fortunes of entire countries on popular art and design). The difference is that only the rich could afford them before serialisation. So yeah, our society has a real problem with consumerism, but that's not a problem created by Bauhaus. Maybe we do need a new definition of design, but before that, maybe people should go back and read the initial Bauhaus ideology so they can understand how far Bauhaus drifted into its current state, and that the reason is because the ideology was lost, and its progress was driven by societal issues into its current form. Asking questions and looking for answers is most important of all. A witch-hunt is just a typically American way to hide from the problem, and I think I'll pass on that.
That art critic was literally so dramatic. I found myself saying chill my guy its not that serious. It's just design philosophy, one of many (albeit more influential than most), not the armageddon.
Nice documentary! Blaming the folks at Bauhaus on global warming and the coming extinction of our species (like the New York guy) is certainly original thinking, if nothing else!
It's like he knows nothing about the ideology and only sees the artistic influence. If so, he's clearly skipped education he should have paid attention to. Although, the fact that he seems to think no one can understand those ideas and think for themselves kind of underscores the problems with his viewpoint. Like rich people weren't spending absolute fortunes on popular art, design and clothes back when Louis XIV was around.
However, d he made really good points to be honest; for instance: how much those artist were aware that they were following the Bauhaus movement. Which leads to he second good point: Bauhaus as an honest own style or when you stretch too much to pretend to be Bauhaus'. I dont know if you had the same impression but i didn't buy that Ikea as an 'honest' follower of the Bauhaus movement. Maybe is trying to take some parts of it but ...
Your musical choices are outstanding. I did not expect to hear Nik Bärtsch. Excellent docuseries. Do you have a list of the music in this series? I would like to expand my listening.
I have only seen photos of the triadic dance in my Bauhaus book. This is incredible. I finally got to see it come to life. I've searched for all I can find on Bauhaus. Once when I was a roofer I was walking through someone's house to get to the roof when I spotted a book on Bauhaus. I made a note of it and eventually found it in a book store. But there isn't much on the subject, that I've found. This is a valuable documentary.
Like me you must be creative but stuck in our lives of being a roofer and in my case a salesman in restaurant equipment. I admire art and design especially architecture which would be more of a strong point for you than myself. So, my creative self comes alive evenings and weekends especially concentrating on our cottage style home built in 1948. A Frank Lloyd Wright knock off of sorts. I’d love to make a living though in the arts of some kind.
I've never seen a more polarizing comment section. Bauhaus is just one of many design philosophies. It has its pros and cons, functionality at the cost of personality. Although many would say it has its own personality as well.
Thankyou for saying that. The documentary was either high praise or vicious (and seriously irrational) hatred, so the voice of reason is appreciated. The fundamental Bauhaus ideology seems far more inspiring than their original designs I've seen, anyway. The aesthetic is intelligent, but really it seems like something purpose-made to design low-cost economical living spaces (or furniture) for the lowest cost and smallest footprint. Not sure there's much point otherwise.
Many creative people fall into life as it comes instead of following their urges to create and design. It would be something to explore as a student or intern before the bills start rolling in from modern life. I’ve always admired people that have been able to make a life, a career, out of creative energy.
Without the Bauhaus then what? What would our world look like? Would it be some still tired reflection of the 19th century, overly ornamented, gothic aesthetic? Would we just have endless tributes to ancient Greco-Roman pantheons? Without the Bauhaus our world would continue to look and feel like one continuous glorification of the past, with monumental temples and Gothic structures with no originality, no design and no artistic attempts to challenge our ideas of art and architecture. The Nazi aesthetic is what we would be left with, no matter what country we would be in. Even if it's not your cup of tea, we all must be thankful for the Bauhaus to open our minds and challenge our ideas.
Seriously. He reminds me of the San Franciscans on south park, always smelling their own farts. Just a pretentious dude. Angry that he didn't gain recognition for his works and had to become a critic.
Can someone please suggest a Bauhaus hair clipper to Mr. Hans-Knud Arndt so he could fix those eyebrows? A Bauhaus cleaning kit for his bathroom wouldn't hurt either.
Bauhaus seemed very disgusting to me at first. My childhood was spent in the Soviet Union, and I saw everywhere buildings created in a similar style - only they were not white, like in Tel Aviv, but gray and dirty. This thick, clumsy concrete with peeling plaster, huge glass windows that were rarely washed because they were very difficult to wash... Unthought-out pompous structures, corners in which only drunkards are comfortable to defecate... The style of a school canteen, a factory, pioneer camp... Instead, I wanted coziness, cleanliness, something not state-owned. Then came the understanding that in the Soviet Union this style was simply distorted.
Why isn't fantastic architecture copied again and again? Especially low-cost architecture. That's the way things are done in contemporary software engineering (copying and improving competitors' ideas). Do architects just want to do it themself? Of course you need to design for context but I think there should be more evolving the best ideas rather than going it alone in architecture.
I appreciate Chicago getting its due when it comes to architecture, and the Bauhaus school. Despite popular belief the skyscrapers were first built in Chicago, not New York City.
I'm not buying anything from IKEA except their Meals due to this Company's lack of making progress regarding mass sustainable products. We need this company to progress sustainability regarding the product that they are offering across the Developed World. xx
why would you compare the cheapest furniture from IKEA to Bauhaus and then underlay it with the most beautiful pieces by Esbjörn Svensson and then switch to elevator music? Eclecticism is maybe not the right approach to every subject.
Making design from these concepts is sense making..dimension and sizing to suit a space just makes sense..not thought of this idea but will take it up..⭐
Mark Wigley is off base regarding iPhone being a Bauhaus product. Well, maybe the later ones. But early iPhones and iMacs and iOS itself were full of skeuomorphic elements, which to me are anti-Bauhaus, they are non-functional, they are there for the looks, and the looks was gaudy to me, I have always hated faux-wooden shelf for eBooks, for example. Good that Apple got rid of skeuomorphism.
Edward Norton the Toyota Processing System is one of the world’s best examples of Kaizen methods and they’re leaders in Lean Manufacturing (practically the best in the world). Their systems and methods of reducing waste, operating more efficiently and spurring innovation have been studied and applied to industries and organizations around the world. Don’t take my word for it, do some research and learn about it yourself.
Ahh, the spirit of Bauhaus, it is so democratic! Forget about style, taste & other crazy ideas mankind has kindled over milleniums, it is only headache. Hamsterboxes are much more suitaable for modern society!
Come now, no argument against Bauhaus? It was/is monolithic, lacking of detail and decoration. The standardisation of sizing (particularly in furniture) tall people and short people are discriminated. No ability to adjust sizing to cover everyone, but rather a standardisation to cut costs, and cater for the majority and ignore the minority? (How democratic is that?) . By the way, I am a GREAT fan of Bauhaus. Bauhaus, REALLY came into place because of an advancement in technology that allowed floors of a building to be cantilevered from the centre and thus the outer walls no longer needed to be load bearing but rather curtain walls. This allowed for glass walls..... BAUHAUS was born. A glass barrier that allows you the warmth and coziness of the home while at the same time allowing you to have an obstructed view of the great outdoors. . In my mind, beautiful buildings with a small footprint. A base to Modern architecture. "Less is More", welcoming a world of modesty, minimalism and beauty in straight lines. Keeping modesty and minimalism in view of communism and the consumerism of Ikea is a juxtaposition, or perhaps a hypocrisy? For me, Ikea has no real association to Bauhaus, that is just fluff.
i had 1/3 video, i wrote long critizim. has to point their "universal human" furniture and houses for universal people, means that it is not goo d for anybody, nice look, their one series crafted artistic furniture are nice but mass production went wrong people are not universal... functionalism in Finland has strong smell of fascism, no hand skill what so ever and then lot of office workers, style went along. Now west has enslaved Asia....they didnt kill fascism only one generation of them in one country, Scandinavia and French and Italy an Spain everybody pushing generalization, united world where is no diversity.
the idea behind standardization was to create products for everyone, not someone. Bauhaus was not a company that would accept a brief from the user and then design specifically to suit their needs, it was a school of thought. And besides, all their designs are so modern, simple and minimalistic that it's easy to transform it according to your liking. If you've watched the first part, you would've seen the same chair customized by a furniture designer to look more African. He took inspiration from Bauhaus and placed their designs in his own context(i.e his native place) That is exactly what Bauhaus aimed to achieve.
Good video, good research, good documentary, excellent subject! But... Concluding the video with a guy asking to kill the Bauhaus made no sense. How someone can eliminate a set of ideas? And what good will come by eliminating a way of thinking? We could find frustrating that the Bauhaus stagnated. It's being applied to the same arts since its beginnings. The Bauhaus could expand its principles and touch other aspect of lives, to make them more simple, fluid and functional.
Hi @Arnau Prieto Martinez, Thanks! :-) We appreciate you taking the time to comment and are glad you enjoyed the documentary. Best, The DW Documentary Team
I still don’t understand transition of Bauhaus to dance and movement. In one way it speaks to form and practicality (no plot, no character, movement for movement’s sake) but in others it tries to connect to human (“performed by human body”). Hmmm feel a bit exploited.
No, it's just that the German way of pronouncing "r" is more towards the back of the tongue, while in English, it's the middle and sides of the tongue.
At 39:50, that MoMA sign that says "Welcome, this way to art" is similar in straight up sadistic mockery as Auschwitz's "Arbeit macht frei." They would like us to believe this is simple and honest design, when, in fact, no other artistic movement has been as pretentious and brimming with self satisfaction. It was all founded on a failed vision of the triumph of technology over nature, the rejection of feeling in favor of functionality, which is why these buildings are as lovable as a styrofoam cup or a battery. Imagine the natural world if designed by these insane minimalists, what trees and butterflies would look like. Look at that MoMA sign... And this technocratic juggernaut has its sights on the redesign of the natural world, and humans, too. It's a very dark vision.
