Moving Away

Marcel Breuer, Collage ein bauhaus-film. fünf jahre lang, 1926
in: bauhaus. zeitschrift für gestaltung, Nr. 1, 1926
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin, © Thomas Breuer.

MP Ranjan, Bamboo Cube, no date, NID, FID storage + KMC Prototype.

Unknown Photographer, Photo of a Chinese woman
with tubular steel chair, ca. 1930s–40s
China Design Museum of CAA, Hangzhou.

Schweizer Staedtebauer bei den Sowjets, magazine cover
Hannes Meyer Estate, gta Archiv / eth Zürich.

Construyamos escuelas, 1947, magazine cover
Hannes Meyer Estate, Archiv der Moderne, Weimar.

Miguel Lawner, Esquema de relaciones – esquema de circulación,
student exercise by Miguel Lawner for a class of Tibor Weiner at the University of Chile, 1946
© Miguel Lawner Archive.

Shanghai urban planning and design institute, The Explanatory Drawing
of "urban plan" made by Shanghai Urban Planning Commission Secretariat,
1940s, Private collection, © unknown.

Konrad Püschel, Site plan of Hamhung, 1956
© Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau.

University of Ife in Ile-Ife, Nigeria by architects Arieh Sharon and Eldar Sharon
© Yael Aloni Collection.

Lotte Stam-Beese, Studies for the region Rotterdam-Capelle aan den Ijssel, no date.
© Het Nieuwe Instituut StaB t79–1.
Marcel Breuer’s collage, published in the magazine bauhaus. zeitschrift für gestaltung in 1926, propels the design of the chair into an unknown future. The Bauhaus philosophy was to invent and put into practice solutions based on progress, and, according to Breuer, adapt to a quickly changing environment. The edition Moving Away investigates how ideas about design inspired by the Bauhaus, in relation to individuals as well as the collective needs of society, evolved throughout the twentieth century. It traces Bauhaus ideas about design and architecture as they were translated, developed, adapted and renewed, including in the Soviet Union, China, Chile, India, North Korea, Hungary and Nigeria.
In each place, the design function was altered by the needs of a particular society and driven towards different ends. Moving Away explores the relationship between Bauhaus architects and the Soviet Union, part of a broader engagement by an international avant-garde, inspired by its revolutionary ideology or attracted by large-scale commissions. During the rule of Stalin, a second wave of migration of former Bauhauslers from the USSR to Latin America and Eastern Europe took place (Hungary, Mexico, Chile and later the German Democratic Republic (GDR)) where former Bauhaus architects resettled. In post-independence India, partly through an interaction with the Ulm School of Design (HfG Ulm), Bauhaus ideas can be traced in the curriculum of India’s National School of Design (NID) and the Industrial Design Centre (IDC). In the subcontinent, design was promoted through government policy and five-year plans. It was utilized as a development tool and catalyst for economic growth, intended to serve the needs of a non-affluent, mostly rural population, with designers often working with traditions and technical know-how built up over millennia. Through these and other examples, including a Bauhaus design reception in China, Moving Away questions the universal application of design solutions, but more importantly pinpoints its ideological implications as well as its relation to the politics of governmentality.
Through this historical lens, Moving Away enables a critical reflection on design today in a globalized world, both as a tool for the state and for economic forces, as well as for grassroots interventions into social processes.





Courtesy of Ariel and Yael Aloni.
From: Shanay Jhaveri (ed.): Western Artists and India: Creative Inspirations in Art and Design, The Shoestring Publisher, 2013.
Courtesy Shanay Jhaveri and The Shoestring Publisher.
from: GHI Bulletin Supplement 2.
In: R E D Sonderheft „bauhaus“, Nr. 5/1930.
from: S. Balaram: Thinking Design, National Institute of Design (NID), 1998.
from: International Journal of Architectural Research, Archnet-IJAR, Vol. 10, No. 3, November 2016, © Archnet-IJAR, International Journal of Architectural Research.
Preparation and Failure (1928–1933)
Courtesy Thomas Flierl.
In: bauhaus. zeitschrift für gestaltung, No. 2, 1931.
"The Development of the Bauhaus Weaving Workshop", translation of an excerpted version.
from: Architektúra & Urbanizmus, Vol. LI, No. 1–2, 2017, p. 94–105.
from: Haus der Kulturen der Welt: Wohnungsfrage. Hannes Meyer Co-op Interieur, Spector Books, Leipzig 2015, p. 1–5.
from: Haus der Kulturen der Welt: Wohnungsfrage. Hannes Meyer Co-op Interieur, Spector Books, Leipzig 2015, p. 27–32.
in: Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Hochschule für Architektur und Bauwesen Weimar, 32. Jg., 1986, Reihe: A, No. 4.
Courtesy of Nancy Adajania.
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