The Bauhaus, founded by Walter Gropius in 1919, created a unity between art and industry which focused on individualism. The Bauhaus provides a critical benchmark in the history of modern design education and is still widely accepted today. Modern materials such as metal, glass and wood were used as an industrial basis which catered to mass production. This move towards combining art and technology, with its stripped back aesthetic and spatial elements, created a design movement that was, and still is, universal.
This is the only first year design course I have taken, however I can still identify similarities in the methods and philosophy introduced by the Bauhaus both in this course and in previous modern design education I have experienced. As this course is focused on design and how it has evolved within historical contexts, it has enabled me to see things from different perspectives. As I now a have greater knowledge of design and design processes in different contexts I can appreciate different forms, functions, limitations and expressiveness. These aspects combined allow me to better understand and recognise how specific methods and philosophies introduced by the Bauhaus can be seen in modern design and education. More specifically, I have created artworks in my 7th form year that combined the use of geometry in the form of triangles, squares and lines (frequently used in Bauhaus design) with my own ideas and materials. I can therefore see how Bauhaus methods and philosophy have influenced modern design education and could be communicated throughout the first year design course.
