Strong tradition of design and manufacture in the UK
Innovative and first class design remains vital to manufacturing and to the national economy, says Mike O’Sullivan, FRSA
The need for the regeneration of industry in the UK should link British design to the support and development of UK manufacturing. Similarly, the large amount of research being conducted in British universities could be reflected in the rejuvenation and support of UK industry.
When Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus design school in Germany in 1919 he had the fusion of art, design and manufacture in mind. The Dutch De Stijl group (1917) and the established visual history of the Art Nouveau and Art Deco periods influenced the change of design aesthetic to modernity, functionality and purity of line.
The relative simplicity of Bauhaus design was intended through industry and manufacture to benefit society by fusing a new contemporary aesthetic to design and the visual arts. This view was different to the established British Arts and Crafts movement that had developed in the late nineteenth century which promoted high levels of individual craftsmanship and which was closer stylistically to Art Nouveau; Morris/Mackintosh.
The underlying philosophy and imagery of the Bauhaus influenced the film maker Fritz Lang in the making of Metropolis (1927), where he explored ideas depicting the possibility of future autocracies. In a contemporary sense an appreciation of abstract concepts considered through critical theory could identify the existence and nature of existential risk.
In the 1960s art and design education in Britain changed with new courses introduced through Polytechnics managed under the auspices of the Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA). Design and manufacture courses within Polytechnics used the model of the Bauhaus as their principle whilst maintaining the industrial heritage of British craftsmanship through the promotion of high levels of skill development.
This system maintained the best of both the European and British education models, creating innovative British designers who were able to manufacture their own work or design specifically for industry. Designer-makers who had gone through the British system could work independently as craftsmen, making one-off pieces selling through galleries or work to commission for clients.
The world’s only art and design university
The Royal College of Art in London is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the world, founded in 1837 as the Government School of Design, created originally to benefit the UK economy. This initiative led to the first exhibition of British design and manufacture at the Great Exhibition in London in 1851.
Art graduates from across the world now apply for positions at the college, once qualified they are able to return to their respective countries to develop design and manufacture processes in direct competition with British industry. Bearing in mind the need for regeneration of industry in Britain it would seem sensible to once again utilise and tie an existing first class design facility to the future needs and benefit of the economy.
The author is one of the founders of Hands On The Future