Furniture is an importance piece in designing a space. We look for comfort and functionality. We, as a society, don’t like complexity. That is where the Bauhaus Institution comes into play.
To give you a bit of history about this institution, it was created by Weimar in Germany, in 1919. The main goal was to make student designers “recognize social responsibility to the community.” Thus, designers had to realize how the society was living and acting, what the problems were.
One member of this institution was Ludwig van der Rohe. He was a well-known architect in Germany, but after WWI he wanted to create a universal icon that revolutionized the way we see chairs.
He used this ideology of satisfying people’s needs and took it to the next level. He designed a modernized version of the chair in the 1920’s, called the Brno chair. This chair was specially invented for the owner of the Tugendhat House, in Brno. You can see more information in the Daily Icon web page.
The 1920’s chair evolved from being big, heavy, and spacious furniture that apparently was meant to be in the living room to a more simple, versatile, multifunctional chair. Van der Rohe invention has influenced the way we design furniture today, because he opened his concept of society and created a more universal item that could be used almost in every space of one's house. The Brno chair can be used in the dining room, living room, workspace, and so on. Its simple tubular form gives it a more classical and elegant look, while providing the functionality of a chair, a place to sit comfortably.
Additionally, if the Brno chair is considered to be an art piece, then it is successful art, because it not only serves functionality, but it is also aesthetically pleasing. Also, since “the artist [has] the potential to lead a viewer’s eye movement,” van der Rohe managed to guide our eyes through his piece of art through the smooth tubular frame, meaning that the object has a visual connection (Lauer, 132).
The Bauhaus institution influences today’s way of design because it emphasized the need to understand that “form is determined by content and function is priority” (Lauer, 12). It is important that the designed product executes its function, otherwise it does not matter how well the product is packaged; it would not succeed.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Mies_van_der_Rohe
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