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Bauhaus Furniture Conceptual Development

Grayson Reeder & Bailey Rath

The Bauhaus art style promotes an abstract and simple style with bright colors. The art is usually composed of red, blue, yellow, and black. We will take these artistic styles into consideration for our design, especially with the consideration of the colors that will make it up. It will have sharp lines and precise edges with many representations of geometric influences. Our design will represent the style of the Bauhaus movement through the architectural lens with its many distinct attributes, such as its asymmetry, simple geometric forms, and functional design. We will emphasize those features through sharp angles with a balanced asymmetry of geometric form. Our design will function as a chair or place of seating. The act of sitting is essential when creating a chair and maintaining that idea of occupancy within a simple geometry will be the goal. Asymmetry will also be present within this design as it will become more dynamic and allow the eye to wander. The style of architecture also represents a sort of subtractive quality. Many Bauhaus buildings imply a sort of subtractive quality to their design, with carved geometric shapes taken out of a larger geometric shape. The subtractive nature of our chair will create a unique look while still maintaining the desired Bauhaus style. Similar to the furniture designed during the Bauhaus movement, we will gather inspiration from works like Walter Gropius’s armchair and Arne Jacobsen’s egg chair. We looked at Furniture like this for gathering inspiration and finding design qualities we like: abstract and favouring function as the main aesthetic and leaning towards the mass production side. Harsh angles and straight lines make up the main components of these designs, some embraced curves, and there were no nods to history or any class hierarchy, these designs looked as if they are mass-produced without any human intervention. Simple and elegant, Bauhaus has influenced many designs over the years including those from Max Bill. Teaching at the Bauhaus school and designing many wrist watches and clocks for Junghans. Precise proportions that are appealing to the eye as well as cutting out the noise and leaving only the essentials create pieces that are simple, elegant and will stand the test of time. Like many of his wristwatch designs, our design will have a logical and simple design with no frills or unnecessary embellishments. Designed for a purely logical and functional perspective our design will look as if it were carved from stone. While abstract in many ways most furniture from the Bauhaus movement was clear in its purpose and not confusing as to its use. In line with the mass produced thought process is the modular process, creating a chair that can be combined with others like it to create a larger seat or a new design altogether. Modular design is interesting in that an asymmetrical chair can be combined with a counterpart to create a symmetrical couch. This interesting concept will be on our minds throughout our design process.

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