Beauty+Utility

[the politics of design]

The True Principles of Pointed Architecture, A.W.N. Pugin, 1841

Industrialization

Honoré Daumier, “Third-class Carriage,” 1860s

Today half of the world’s population lives in cities: 3 billion, compared to 1.5 billion 30 years ago.

Industrialisation in Nineteenth-century Britain

It is not, truly speaking, the labor that is divided but

the men –divided into mere segments of men –

broken into mere segments of men –broken into

small fragments and crumbs of life; so that all the

little pieces of intelligence that is left in a man is not

enough to make a pin, or a nail, but exhausts itself

in making the point of a pin, or the head of a nail.

John Ruskin, The Stones of Venice, 1853

The purpose of applying art to articles of utility

is two-fold; first, to add beauty to the results of

the work of man, which would otherwise be

ugly; and secondly, to add pleasure to the

work itself, which would otherwise be painful

and disgusting.

William Morris, The Arts and Crafts of Today, 1889

The unity imposed on all of the arts

might also serve as a metaphor for an

ideal world in which all individuals are

unified by a single faith and live in

harmony with society.

-Margaret Belcher

Nineteenth-century

Design Reform:looking back, looking ahead

The True Principles of Pointed Architecture,

A.W.N. Pugin, 1841

A.W.N. Pugin

Scarisbrick Hall, 1836

Nineteenth-century

Design Reform:

looking back, looking ahead

False Principles: imitation of architecture, ornament constructed

Putty pressing, plaster and iron casting for ornaments . . . are not to be

rejected because such methods were unknown to our ancestors, but on

account of their being opposed in their very nature to the true principles

of art and design -- by substituting monotonous repetitions for beautiful

variety, flatness of execution for bold relief, encouraging cheap and

false magnificence, and reducing the varied principles of ornamental

design.

A. W. N. Pugin, An Apology for the Revival of Christian Architecture in England, 1843

Octagonal oak table from the Prince’s chamber, Palace of Westminster, by A.W.N. Pugin, c.1830s

Bread plate

A.W.N. Pugin for Minton, 1849

Typical Victorian plate

c.1850s

Henry Cole and Design Education

Sir Henry Cole and Richard Redgrave; photograph attributed to Charles T. Thompson

Richard Redgrave, “Well-spring” vase 1857

Henry Cole and Design Education

True Principles: nature as model for ornament

appropriate ornament for object (and use)

abstraction in representation

False principles:

imitation of nature

inappropriate decoration for function

ornament constructed

Henry Cole and Design Education

This was exhibited as demonstrating 'False

Principles of Decoration’

Amongst the errors of this design were the

'falsifying the perspective' by repetition of the

architectural view.

http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/prints_books/features/Wallpaper/Design_Re

form/index.html

True principles False principles

Wallpaper with formalised floral motif, by Owen Jones (1809-74), England, Mid-19th centuryColour print

from woodblocks

Owen Jones and 'The Grammar of Ornament' (1856)

Flowers or other natural objects should not be used as ornaments, but

conventional representations founded upon them sufficiently suggestive

to convey the intended image to the mind, without destroying the unity of

the object they are employed to decorate.”

Owen Jones, The Grammar of Ornament, 1856

Owen Jones, The Grammar of Ornament, 1856

William Morris, Acanthus,

Wallpaper, Color Print from Woodblock, c. 1870s

The Great Exhibition of 1851 [The Crystal Palace]

The Great Exhibition of 1851 [The Crystal Palace]

Pugin’s Gothic Court at the Great Exhibition, London, 1851

The Great Exhibition seemed to promise the fulfillment of universal progress,

ingenuity, prosperity, and peace.

--David Raizman

Design reform:

didactic aspirations

or good design?

contemporary design reform: sustainable design [?]

GE WATTStation by FuseprojectUrban Orchard Project, London, 2010