FIGURE 1 FIGURE 2 Figure 1 is the original Bauhaus curriculum. Figure 2 is a sketch of the framework for curriculum Building a redesign at the Institute of Design. Entry represents the starting point for foundational coursework. Image courtesy of IIT Institute of Design new foundation from form—what the German Bauhaus Bauhaus designers primarily concerned termed gestalt—to color, visual hierarchy, themselves with domestic space, an Adapting Bauhaus pedagogy nature studies, and optics. As recounted environment over which they could exert by the Bauhaus Archive: significant control. The school no longer aspires to that narrow view. In today’s hyper-connected society, designers have for the future of design At the start of their studies, they received more impact as collaborators than as sole a year of basic training in the so-called decision-makers. In the generative design preliminary course, in which they were workshop led by ID studio instructor Zach able to experiment with colour, shape and M. TODD COOKE this unique perspective of the Bauhaus, Pino, many design ‘decisions’ are arrived materials with no specific goals. Depending + JASON ROMANO ID has been reluctant to succumb to at through computational mediation— on their individual suitability, this was Students, Master of Design, 2020 nostalgia as it tries to chart a path to the algorithms, sensors, and code—while followed by practical work in the workshops future. Yet as the centennial of the most associate professor Carlos Teixeira’s and accompanying disciplines. The students famous European art school dawns upon service systems workshop engages entered the workshops as ‘apprentices’ and us, ID has been forced to look back and community members in developing sat for their ‘apprenticeship’ exams within a I. What is design? engage its legacy. solutions for industrial brownfield sites. given time period. [Emphasis added.] The Institute of Design, colloquially known as “ID,” is a child of the Bauhaus: II. Experimentation III. Systems its rebellious teenager. As the second- Experimentation was encouraged as a Engaging the scholastic legacy of the generation instantiation of the German means of making sense of change. The The shift from ‘designer as decision maker’ art school, with the most direct lineage, Bauhaus is no easy task; teachers and Bauhaus needed to engage technologies to ‘designer as facilitator’ arguably began ID continues to wrestle with its Bauhaus administrators alike must weigh the and materials for which society lacked with Jay Doblin. Doblin, who needs little heritage. The original Bauhaus has been pros and cons of which traditions to both a vocabulary and a methodology. in the way of introduction in the halls of both lionized and criticized for its outsized maintain and which to leave behind On that front, little has changed today. ID, served as director during the school’s and normative influence on the discipline in the wake of the digital era. Against According to Weil, it has been through most tumultuous period and set ID on the called design. To the dismay of architect the backdrop of what’s been called the Foundation that ID has primarily engaged course it continues today. Weil mentions Dong-Ping Wong, “The Bauhaus’s role in third industrial revolution, the dilemma its Bauhaus legacy, having remained a in endeavoring to solve systemic problems commodifying design has really helped faced by modern pedagogues is similar part of the school’s pedagogical approach in the private and social space, Doblin pigeonhole what most people understand to that of the original Bauhaus, who saw for the entirety of its 80-year existence. took little in the way of pedagogical “design” to be,” with Jony Ive’s universal mechanization supplanting the work of However, Weil—himself a product of inspiration from his predecessor, and unobtrusive iPhone aesthetic the craftsman and the engineer taking the the Foundation program—has moved the school’s Bauhaus founder László becoming its apotheosis. On its surface, place of the artist in forging the future. Foundation from a peripheral position Moholy-Nagy, shifting the focus toward the Institute of Design has rebelled Digitization is the new industrialization to one of centrality, a position formerly professional practice. against this notion, attracting students and, given the new landscape, Denis Weil, occupied by Gropius’ “building,” bau in Although Doblin himself was a product who engage design with an aim to solve Dean of the Institute Design, sees the German [Figure 1 & Figure 2]. At ID, designer, today the school can, at times, the proverbial “wicked” problems of the pendulum of design swinging back toward Foundation is the hub of the new wheel. appear perplexingly bereft of material. At experimentation. Since he came on board world today. This represents an important decision first appraisal, contrasting the image of two years ago, Weil has challenged the Unlike others who primarily engage in realizing the Bauhaus’s vision of the excessively generative Bauhaus with faculty to reconsider the existing course the Bauhaus as a movement, a style, or orienting design toward society and the bare, all-white interior of ID’s new structure towards that end. “Whenever a philosophy, the Institute of Design the common good. ID’s new curricular Kaplan Institute can come as a shock. “The you have new technology,” Weil explains, (ID) probes its legacy as an academic subsections include concentrations like Bauhaus made stuff,” studio professor “you need to experiment to figure out institution. The importance of this insight development, human advocacy, Martin Thaler explains, “and for a long what the best way forward is.” If Bauhaus perspective is emphasized by Berry prototyping, critique & evaluation, time the arc of the Institute of Design was explored novel materials, such as steel and Bergdoll, curator of the Department of systems thinking, and leadership & away from making anything. That was my glass, “data is one of our new materials,” Architecture and Design at the Museum mediation [Figure 2], all of which radiate role, to keep that part of the institution Weil says. of Modern Art, who reminds those willing outward toward the world at large. Rather alive.” (Thaler heads the school’s product to listen that “the Bauhaus was a school. In carrying forward the pedagogy of the than promising technical mastery, these design curriculum.) A possible rationale It wasn’t a movement. It wasn’t a style. It Bauhaus into the modern age, Weil began courses are designed to cultivate the for the abrupt shift is that many of today’s was a school.” In spite of being, perhaps, with Foundation, the preliminary course skill sets required to engage multiple the only cultural institution privileged with of fundamentals training on topics ranging stakeholders. At the turn of the century, (story continues on page 5) 2 | 100 Years of Bauhaus AUDREY GORDON Student, Master of Design, 2020 The founders of the Bauhaus saw their world ending after World War I. Political turmoil, tens of millions of people dead, whole cities turned to ash—the world they knew was demolished. They saw the time after the war as their opportunity to rebuild a more ideal world. They viewed direct manipulation of materials as essential to the process of design, and they developed many methods and techniques to do this. These techniques often used abstraction to break down the process of world building into discrete building blocks for designers. These methods have evolved and changed over time, particularly with the integration of new materials. Our vernacular has changed, but the core intentions are related. In October 2018, five IIT Institute of Design graduate students (including myself) had the opportunity to experience the original Bauhaus methods directly. We participated in a collaborative design workshop to create a performance piece with Hedwig Dances, a modern dance company in Chicago. The piece, Futura Fractals, was performed as a prologue to Hedwig’s original work, Futura. We created a new world with characters and an environment to show to the audience. We will perform the piece again in September 2019 in Dessau, Germany as part of the Bauhaus centenary celebration. So what is the value of practicing the original methods of the Bauhaus? How can they be translated into the contemporary design vernacular? Bauhaus methods today 1. Paper folding and embodying The students and dancers were instructed by Torsten Blume, a choreographer from the Bauhaus Foundation, to fold a piece of paper however they liked. Then we had to recreate the paper form with our bodies and move in a way that the paper might. This equates to the contemporary craft of understanding form and affordances, often seen in product design. 2. Character building and costuming We abstracted the characteristics of our paper forms into building blocks—were they round, angular, springy? This became the basis of how the character would behave and appear visually. This relates to the modern concept of understanding stakeholders and empathizing with their needs. Our costume pieces, made of foam core, were the medium to communicate these attributes to our audience. 3. World building Alexandria Rengifo, an MDes When designers create new products, services, or systems, we are student, practices embodying creating a vision of a world that does not yet exist. The way that her paper form. / Photo we visualize this future aesthetically through images, videos, and courtesy of Dan Chichester. Illustration by Tommie Collins. animations may be different than in the days of the original Bauhaus, but the practice of creating an environment is aligned. In Futura Fractals, we used lighting as a key element. We collaborated with Jason White, CEO of Leviathan, to create visual tableaus of the character shapes and project them upon us while performing. 4. Understanding interactions For me, the most interesting exploration was how our characters interacted with each other and with the space we created.