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Design for Need

Der Milchkiosk von Sudhakar Nadkarni

Sudhakar Nadkarni, Modell für einen Milchkiosk, Diplomarbeit, Hochschule für Gestaltung Ulm, 1964/65
HfG-Archiv, Museum Ulm, © Sudhakar Nadkarni

Im Sommer 1965 überschnitten sich die Ereignisse: Während der Design-Student Sudhakar Nadkarni an der Hochschule für Gestaltung Ulm (HfG) an seiner Diplomarbeit zur Gestaltung eines Milchkiosks für seine Heimatstadt, die Millionenmetropole Bombay, arbeitete, reiste der deutsche Architekt und Designer Hans Gugelot an das 1961 gegründete National Institute of Design (NID) in Ahmedabad, um dort einen Sommerkurs zu unterrichten. Er gehörte zu einem Kreis von eingeladenen Fachberatern. Man hatte ihm die Entwicklung einer Ventilator-Serie für Haushaltszwecke sowie einer preiswerten Möbelserie angetragen. Der „Tangential Fan“, der in diesem Sommer gemeinsam mit indischen Studierenden erarbeitet wurde, war Teil des Auftrags. Neben Gugelot hatte das NID eine Reihe von internationalen Fachleuten verpflichtet, den Aufbau der ersten modernen Gestaltungsschule in Indien zu unterstützen: etwa Charles und Ray Eames, Alexander Girard, Louis Kahn, George Nakashima, Claude Stoller und andere. Deren Beratungstätigkeit wurde großzügig von der amerikanischen Ford Foundation gefördert, die bereits das von Premierminister Jawaharlal Nehru beauftragte Gutachten zur Entwicklung einer modernen Designschule – den India Report (1958) – finanziert hatte, ein Dokument, das heute zum Gründungsnarrativ des NID gehört.

Nadkarni stammte aus einer indischen Mittelklassefamilie und studierte an der Sir J. J. Institute of Applied Art Bombay angewandte Kunst. Die Profession des Industriedesigners bildete sich in Indien damals gerade erst heraus. In seinen Erinnerungen berichtet Nadkarni, wie er durch einen Vortrag des britischen Designers James Gardner zum ersten Mal auf das Berufsfeld des Industrial Design aufmerksam wurde. Von der HfG Ulm erfuhr Nadkarni durch den indischen Designer Yeshwant Chaudhary, der ebenfalls Absolvent des Sir J.J. Institute of Applied Art in Bombay und der Central School of Art and Crafts London war. Dieser schrieb ihm dann auch eine Empfehlung für die HfG.1

Dass gerade die Gestaltung moderner Gebrauchsgüter ein so faszinierendes Berufsfeld für die junge Generation der indischen Mittelklasse darstellte, ist nur vor dem Hintergrund der umfassenden kulturellen und wirtschaftlichen Veränderungen verständlich, die der erste Präsident des jungen unabhängigen Indiens, Jawaharlal Nehru, mit seiner Modernisierungsagenda angestoßen hatte. Umfangreiche Infrastrukturprojekte, der Ausbau der Großindustrie, die Förderung moderner Bildungseinrichtungen – all dies war Teil der staatlichen Fünfjahrespl.ne, mit denen das moderne Indien seine koloniale Vergangenheit hinter sich lassen wollte. Moderne Architektur und Design waren nicht nur Symbolträger dieses Wandels, sondern selbst Agenten zur Einübung einer modernen Lebensweise.

1962 war Nadkarni nach Ulm gereist, um unter anderem bei Hans Gugelot Produktdesign zu studieren. Dort begegnete er auch Kumar Vyas von der Central School of Art and Crafts in London, der für sechs Monate nach Ulm kam. Beide formten später den Lehrkörper für die Produktdesignerausbildung am NID. Der indische Student erlebte die HfG bereits als einen Ort, der konsequent auf eine am Zusammenwirken von Wissenschaft, Technik und Industrie ausgerichtete Gestaltungslehre orientiert war.

Von Beginn an war die HfG eine für die Nachkriegsmoderne exemplarische Plattform der Vernetzung und des internationalen Austauschs. Die Liste der Lehrkräfte liest sich wie das Who is Who der internationalen Architektur- und Designszene: Reyner Banham, Charles und Ray Eames, Buckminster Fuller, Abraham Moles, Norbert Wiener und andere.

Auch wenn die HfG Ulm als legitime Nachfolgeinstitution des Bauhaus gilt, ging der Argentinier Tomás Maldonado, der 1964–1966 Rektor der Schule war, auf Abstand zur Agenda seines Vorgängers – des Schweizer Architekten und ehemaligen Bauhaus-Schülers Max Bill. Bill hatte Maldonado, den Vertreter der geometrischen Abstraktion, der 1944 in Buenos Aires die Vereinigung Arte Concreto Invención gegründet hatte, nach Ulm eingeladen. Tatsächlich bildete sich im damaligen Verhältnis der Hochschule für Gestaltung zum historischen Bauhaus auch die kulturelle und politische Gemengelage Nachkriegsdeutschlands ab: Die HfG – zunächst als nichtstaatliche Bildungseinrichtung gefördert vom Re-Education Fund der Amerikaner – trat mit Gründungsfiguren wie Inge Scholl, der Schwester der von den Nationalsozialisten ermordeten Geschwister Scholl, konsequent für eine explizit politische demokratische Bildung ein. Das Erbe des Nationalsozialismus auf der einen Seite, die Kritik an der Faszination für die amerikanische Konsumgesellschaft im Nachkriegsdeutschland auf der anderen Seite – Inge Scholl sprach vom „Nierentisch Alptraum“ – diese beiden Pole formten das Spannungsfeld. Innerhalb diesem rang die außergewöhnliche Schule auf dem Kuhberg um eine Haltung zum modernen Design. Wenn auch für Bill genuine soziale und kulturelle Reformen mit einer Veränderung der Formgebungen der sozialen Umwelt, der Architektur des Designs der Gegenstände des Alltags beginnen mussten, blieb die Auseinandersetzung darum, inwiefern gestaltete Produkte „kulturelle Güter“ oder wissenschaftlich begründete Gebrauchsgegenstände unterschiedlichen Komplexitätsgrades seien, dauerhafter Gegenstand der Campusdebatten.2

Während in den Gründungsjahren der HfG noch ehemalige Bauhäusler wie Josef Albers, Helene Nonné-Schmidt und Walter Peterhans unterrichteten, schienen die in der Arts-&-Crafts-Tradition verankerten pädagogischen Prinzipien des historischen Bauhaus den Studenten kein adäquates Wissen mehr für den Umgang mit der industriellen Entwicklung in der Nachkriegsära bereitstellen zu können. Maldonado lehnte Bills Bauhaus- und Werkbund-Idealismus – die Idee der „guten Form“ – rigoros ab. Er ging auf Abstand zu dem im Nachkriegsdeutschland favorisierten Narrativ des expressionistischen Bauhaus als einem vom Nationalsozialismus nicht kontaminierten Erbe humanistischer bürgerlicher Kultur. Seine in der hauseigenen Zeitschrift ulm 1963 veröffentlichte Streitschrift „Ist das Bauhaus noch aktuell?“ formuliert, um welches Bauhaus-Erbe es in Ulm gehen sollte: das an wissenschaftlicher Rationalität ausgerichtete Bauhaus unter der Direktorenschaft Hannes Meyers.3 Maldonado plädierte für eine säkularisierte, in den Prinzipien rationaler Produktion verankerte und vom expressionistischen Künstlerethos befreite Designmethode:4 Im Kern ging es in diesen Bauhaus-Nachkriegsdebatten um eine Neubestimmung des Verhältnisses zwischen Design und Gesellschaft. Auch Sudhakar Nadkarni, der zu den Modernisierungsprozessen seines Landes einen Beitrag leisten wollte, war von dieser eminent gesellschaftlichen Rolle des Designers überzeugt.

Schon Nadkarnis Diplomthema „Die Gestaltung eines Milchkiosk“ ist Ausweis dieses sozialen Bewusstseins und seines Wunsches, einen Beitrag zur Befriedigung der existenziellen Bedürfnisse der indischen Bevölkerung leisten zu wollen. Seine Diplomarbeit besteht aus zwei Teilen, einer wissenschaftlichen Analyse und dem Entwurf. Im ersten Teil führt der Autor in die Aufgabenstellung ein, er hinterfragt, warum die Verbesserung des Systems der Milchdistribution in den großen Metropolen Indiens so bedeutsam ist. Fünf Jahre nach der Unabhängigkeit Indiens (1947) war die erste staatliche Molkerei in Bombay nach modernsten hygienischen Anforderungen entstanden, um die Milchversorgung als Baustein einer gesunden Ernährung für 1,5 Millionen Menschen zu sichern. Ein Großprojekt, das auch die Unterstützung durch die UNICEF erhielt. Die Milch wurde dabei von der modernen Molkereianlage in kleinere Verteilzentren geliefert, die den Verkauf organisierten. Für dieses System entwirft Nadkarni einen Kiosk, der den Prozess der Lieferung und Verteilung verbessern soll. Seine Idee besteht darin, eine modulare Struktur zu entwickeln, dafür zieht er zunächst internationale Beispiele vorgefertigter Kioske, Bushaltestellen und Pavillons heran. In einem komplexen Diagramm visualisiert er dafür die einzelnen Schritte der Analyse, die zum Verständnis des Systems der Milchdistribution notwendig sind. Er analysiert die Umgebung der Milchkioske, ihre Lage im Stadtraum, im Verkehr, innerhalb der Wohngebiete und innerhalb der städtischen Infrastruktur. Im nächsten Schritt beschreibt er die sozialen Hintergründe der Verbraucher sowie die Arbeitsabläufe eines solchen Verteilungszentrums. Von indischen Kollegen in Bombay durchgeführte Befragungen auf der Basis von Fragebögen von über 40 Milchkioskbetreibern und Nutzern sowie eine Recherche zu den klimatischen Verhältnissen und Bewegungsabläufen im Kiosk ergänzen seine Untersuchungen.5 Diese Ergebnisse bilden die Grundlage für den Entwurf des Milchkiosks. Das verwendete Material ist kostengünstig, weil es modular standardisiert, haltbar und in Indien vorhanden ist, die Größe der Kioske ist auf zwei arbeitende Menschen ausgerichtet. Funktionale, ergonomische, aber auch klimatische Aspekte werden im Entwurf berücksichtigt. Seine weiße Farbgebung reagiert auf die klimatischen Bedingungen und die hygienischen Anforderungen. Der einfache Schriftzug „Milch“ kommuniziert die Funktion des Objekts.

Auch wenn der Kiosk ein Prototyp geblieben ist, ist diese Abschlussarbeit ein aufschlussreiches Dokument der Ulmer Methode, die auf dem systematischen Herangehen an eine Designaufgabe sowie in der wissenschaftlichen Analyse der jeweiligen Gestaltungsschritte gründet.6 Nadkarnis Diplom bietet zudem einen unmittelbaren Einblick in die sozialen Umstände und materiellen Konditionen des jungen unabhängigen Indiens der 1960er-Jahre. Die Infrastruktur der täglichen Milchversorgung in der Millionenmetropole war ein Fundament, um die Grundbedürfnisse der Bewohner zu befriedigen. Sowohl auf dem Kuhberg in Ulm wie in Ahmedabad war man überzeugt, dass nur ein rational begründetes Design, das sich mit den grundlegenden Systemen der Gesellschaft, der Infrastruktur, der Gesundheits- und Nahrungsmittelversorgung befasst, die unmittelbaren Bedürfnisse der Menschen ernst nehmen kann. Der Milchkiosk-Entwurf ist ein herausragendes Dokument einer Gestaltungshaltung, die Design als ein Mittel zur Verbesserung des Alltags begreift.

Zuerst veröffentlicht in: Marion von Osten und Grant Watson (Hg.): bauhaus imaginista, Scheidegger & Spiess, Zürich 2019, S. 228–232.

●Footnotes
  • 1 Vgl. S. 3–5 der Online-Präsentation „Professor Sudhakar Nadkarni“: http:// www.dsource.in/sites/default/files/ resource/history-product-design-india/ design-mentors/prof-s.nadkarni/file/ Prof_Sudhakar_Nadkarni.pdf (aufgerufen am 9.8.2018).
  • 2 Paul Betts, The Authority of Everyday Objects. A Cultural History of West German Industrial Design, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004, S. 153.
  • 3 Tomás Maldonado, „Ist das Bauhaus noch aktuell“, in: Ulm. Zeitschrift der Hochschule für Gestaltung, 8/9 (1963), S. 5–13.
  • 4 Betts 2004 (wie Anm. 2), S. 170.
  • 5 Nadkarni Sudhakar, Gestaltung eines Milchkiosk, Diplomarbeit, 1966, HfG Archiv Ulm K_68_1_1.
  • 6 Die Recherchen zum Milchkiosk waren Bestandteil des Bauhaus Labs 2017: Between Chairs. Design Pedagogies in Transcultural Dialogue, hg. von der Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau, Leipzig: Spector Books, 2018.
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The former ADGB Trade Union School is regarded today as an icon of modern architecture. Designed at the Bauhaus under the direction of Hannes Meyer and Hans Wittwer together with the students of architecture, the building ensemble still stands as a paragon of collective work, reform pedagogical ideas and analytic architecture. Less attention has been paid to the extensions to the school, planned 1949–51 by Georg Waterstradt. These buildings stand as a valuable testimony to the vigor of GDR architecture. The “formalism debate” led to a rejection of Bauhaus architecture, and thus, the set of political-architectural principles exemplified by the Trade Union School. → more

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Communistic Functionalist — The Anglophone Reception of Hannes Meyer

Philip Johnson described Hannes Meyer as a “communistic functionalist” whose most notable achievement was to have preceded Ludwig Mies van der Rohe as director of the Bauhaus. The position he assigned to Meyer was reinforced in the Bauhaus Exhibition of 1938 at MoMA. The particular view of the Bauhaus presented at MoMA in 1938 corresponds to the place of Meyer in the historiography of modern architecture in the 1930s, ‘40s, and ‘50s. The view that Meyer’s work allegedly lacked aesthetic interest, rendering it irrelevant to an Anglophone audience. → more

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Selman Selmanagić at the Crossroads of Different Cultures — From Childhood Years in Bosnia to Bauhaus Education and Travels

Selman Selmanagić’s childhood years in Bosnia, on the eve of the First World War, as well as his education in Sarajevo, Ljubljana and at Bauhaus Dessau between the two world wars, together with his work in Palestine and Berlin, shaped his worldview and experience with different cultures and traditions. Throughout his career, he perpetually strove to find contemporary answers for the challenges of the time he was living in. → more

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The “Hungarian Bauhaus” — Sándor Bortnyik’s Bauhaus-Inspired Budapest School Műhely 1928–1938

One of the many Hungarians associated with the Bauhaus, painter and graphic designer Sándor Bortnyik (1893-1976) opened his art and design school, Műhely, in Budapest in 1928 to bring the Bauhaus’s sprit and some of its teaching methods into Hungary. Even if Bortnyik’s school did not have the scope of the Bauhaus, it was an efficient experiment in an independent form of institutionalized education in the field of modern graphic design and typography. → more

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Biology and Educational Models in the Pacific Southern Cone

The Chilean encounter with second-order cybernetics in the early 1970s was an essential part of the modernization project the state had been promoting since the 1920s, a project which also encompasses the 1945 reform of the architecture school. But if one reviews the history of this project with greater care, one can identify the reform of the new art school of 1928, which was the product of a social movement that began after the First World War, and that was able to implement in the main school of art of the country, a “first year of trial” similar to the methodology of the Bauhaus preliminary course, influenced by the trends of the “Active” or “New” school of the time. → more

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For the Faculty of Architecture at METU — Bauhaus was a Promise

“ARCH 101 Basic Design” is the title of the introductory course offered to the first-year students in the METU Faculty of Architecture (Middle East Technical University, Ankara). Since the establishment of the school, this course has been conducted with a very strong Bauhaus impact. → more

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From Social Democratic Experiment to Postwar Avant-Gardism — Asger Jorn and the International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus

The project bauhaus imaginista would be negligent if it did not address the artist group referenced by its title, the Mouvement Internationale pour un Bauhaus Imaginiste (International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus, or IMIB), founded in 1953 by Danish artist Asger Jorn together with a handful of French and Italian colleagues. Many of the theoretical and artistic positions advocated by the IMIB were developed dialectically in response both to the historical Bauhaus and the reconstitution of a Bauhaus-inspired pedagogical program at the Hochschule für Gestaltung (HfG) in Ulm. → more

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Letter from Asger Jorn to Max Bill — February 12, 1954

Asger Jorn read of Max Bill’s plans for the new Hochschule für Gestaltung in Ulm (HfG), a school modeled after the Bauhaus, in the British Architects’ Yearbook 1953, where Bill had placed a promotional article to attract prospective students and teachers. Excited by the possibility of participating in a new democratic pedagogical experiment and in pursuing his interest in fusing art and architecture, he wrote to Bill, inquiring about the role of art at Ulm and expressing his desire to secure a teaching position.

This is a translation of one of the letters Jorn send to Bill. → more

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