Bauhaus × IKEA:
Legacies of Modernism
by Thea Brejzek, Rochus Urban Hinkel, Lawrence Wallen (eds).
Designed with Stuart Geddes.
Published in 2022.
Format
Softback, 136pp, 297mm) x 210mm
ISBN
9781922601209
This edited volume explores the far-reaching influence of two 20th-century design icons: the Bauhaus art school and the furniture company IKEA.
The Bauhaus was founded in 1919 and disbanded in 1933, but in its short existence it served as a crucible for much of what came to be known as modernist design. It set out to transform daily life for the better by incorporating mass manufacturing techniques into the design of everything from single objects to buildings, putting in motion the democratisation of design. Just 10 years after the Bauhaus’ closure, this principle would become the theoretical and functional foundation for IKEA.
‘Design for everyone’, IKEA’s guiding principle, is both the embodiment of Bauhaus ideals and a business plan that has seen modernism repackaged in the form of a global consumer goods empire. Considered together, the Bauhaus and IKEA could be said to have profoundly transformed how our societies relate to and understand design and its artefacts. But as we grapple with climate change and the wreckage brought about by the consumer-driven, mass manufacturing models promulgated by the Bauhaus, and then perfected by IKEA, how might we reckon with this legacy, and what can we learn from it?
Through a carefully curated selection of essays and photography, Bauhaus × IKEA traces the profound but not always benign influence of these global design icons across history, politics, pedagogy, art and society.
Contributors
Claudia Perren, Axel Kufus, Stefanie Bürkle, Rebecca Carrai, Christof Mayer, Andrew Benjamin, Adam Jasper; and Thea Brejzek, Lawrence Wallen, Rochus Hinkel (editors).
About the editors
Dr Thea Brejzek is a Professor of Spatial Theory in the Architecture School at the University of Technology Sydney. Thea is a member of the scientific advisory board of the Bauhaus Dessau, Co-Chief Editor of the Routledge Journal, Theatre and Performance Design and co-director of the IKEA×UTS Future Living Lab. Recent publications include The Model as Performance: Staging Space in Theatre and Architecture (Bloomsbury, 2018) and The Performance of the Architectural Fragment on the Postdramatic Stage, currently being written with Lawrence Wallen.
Rochus Urban Hinkel is Associate Professor in Architecture and Design at the Melbourne School of Design, University of Melbourne. Rochus has taught architecture, interior design and industrial design in numerous institutions in Europe and Australia, including as Professor of Artistic Design at OTH Regensburg, Germany, and as Professor of Interior Architecture and Furniture Design at Konstfack – University of Arts, Craft and Design, Stockholm, Sweden.
Dr Lawrence Wallen is a Professor in the Architecture Department at University of Technology Sydney. He was previously a Professor of Scenography at the Zurich University of the Arts and lectures in History, Theory and Design, parallel to co-directing the IKEA×UTS Future Living Lab. Recent published works include The Model as Performance: Staging Space in Theatre and Architecture (Bloomsbury, 2018) and “Model & Fragment: On the Performance of Incomplete Architectures”, Architectural Design, Volume 91, Issue 3 (both co-authored with Brejzek).