HISTORY OF DESIGN

Single discipline educational activity

Course Sheet

Course code:

D04

Academic Year of enrolment:

2020

Year of supply:

2020/2021

Type of Course:

Basic

Degree:

Course of 1st Cycle Degree in DESIGN

Disciplinary Sector:

History of Architecture

Location:

PESCARA

Credits:

Programme Year:

Professor and Collaborators:

MUSSOLIN Mauro

Cycle:

First semester

Obligatory attendance:

Yes

Hours of classroom activity:

Individual study hours:

Prerequisites:

No prerequisites, although students are expected to have a basic knowledge of history and history of art related to the periods covered in class meetings.

Objectives

The aim of this course is to provide students with both theoretical and methodological skills and to interpret and critically evaluate the culture of industrial design in the light of specific historical contexts and their economic, technological, socio-cultural and aesthetic dynamics.

Specific learning outcomes:

1: Learn how to look at designed products with an unbiased eye.

2: Contextualize products and their design processes in an appropriate historical, social, economic context and through their corresponding aesthetic values.

3: Reread the sources on industrial design and problematize their current definitions, standards, and categories.

4: Open the discourse about design history beyond periodicity and the analysis of masterpieces to include everyday objects and their effect in daily life.

5: Reconsider the contribution of design to the development of modern living standards and the transformation of our experience of space.

Contents

The history of design in Italy, Europe and the United States from the late eighteenth century to the present: an overview through cultural debates, events, movements, protagonists, companies, places and industrial products with special attention to the values of both functions and symbolism.

Extended Syllabus

Class meetings:

14 October (online: 9.00-12.00)
Introduction to the course.
The language of things: themes and phenomena, protagonists and objects, materials and sources, places and colors.

15 October (online: 9.00-12.00)
Arts and crafts before and after the Enlightenment.
Changes in taste, variety of styles: the premises of the modern concept of design.

21 October (online: 9.00-12.00)
Industrial design in the Victorian age and the Great Exhibition in London (1851).
Electricity and mechanization: the birth of the modern object.

22 October (online: 9.00-12.00)
The Industrial Revolution and the Arts & Crafts Movement.
Criticisms against the industrial production system: industry vs crafts, functionality vs ornamentation.

28 October (online: 9.00-12.00)
Serial and mass production in America.
Frederick Winslow Taylor and Henry Ford: from company management to the assembly line.

29 October (online: 9.00-12.00)
Art Nouveaux, Art Déco, Liberty, Jugendstil, Sezessionstil.
The bourgeois society: industrial design for the masses and for the élites.

4 November (online: 9.00-12.00)
Wiener Werkstätte, Deutscher Werkbund, AEG Industries.
Aesthetics, productivity, product: Functionalism, Neue Sachlichkeit, Existenzminimum.

5 November (online: 9.00-12.00)
From the Bauhaus to the Ulm School.
Avant-garde artistic movements: the origins of modern design process and the industrial design as a work of art.

11 November (online: 9.00-12.00)
French Modernism.
Le Corbusier and the Esprit Nouveau: machinist spirit and the objects of poetic reaction.

12 November (online: 9.00-12.00)
From Streamlining to International Style in the U.S.
The American dream and the industrial design as a profession: optimism and research.

18 November (online: day and time to be confirmed)
Seminar

19 November (online: day and time to be confirmed)
Seminar

25 November (online: 9.00-12.00)
Scandinavian design and Mid-century Modern.
From the organic line to everyday Sci-Fi: Modernism from U.S.A. to U.S.S.R.

26 November (online: 9.00-12.00)
Futurism, Rationalism and industrial design in Italy between the two wars.
The cultural debate and architecture journals: the architect as designer.

2 December (online: 9.00-12.00)
Industrial design and corporate style in Italy from the post-war period to the economic boom.
Economic reconstruction and innovation: Olivetti, a case-study.

3 December (online: 9.00-12.00)
Masters and classics of the Italian design 1950-1970.
Industrial design as social event: Biennali, Triennali, Fiere, Saloni, ADI and the Compasso d’oro.

9 December (online: 9.00-12.00)
Italian design 1980-1990.
Made in Italy: conceptual/radical, minimal/maximal, post-modern/kitsch.

10 December (online: 9.00-12.00)
Industrial design for the global village.
Brand-designers and archistars: status symbols, fetishes and pop icons.

16 December (online: 9.00-12.00)
Contemporary design.
Themes, trends and new perspectives: technologies, sustainability, new materials.

17 December (online: 9.00-12.00)
Conclusions and final discussion.

Recommended Bibliography

Required readings:

Domitilla Dardi, Vanni Pasca, «Manuale di storia del design», Cinisello Balsamo, Silvana Editoriale, 2019.

Alberto Bassi, «Design. Progettare gli oggetti quotidiani», Bologna, Il Mulino, 2013.

Università degli Studi
"G. d'Annunzio"

Chieti - Pescara

Aree