BAUHAUS, the first design school of the 20th century, The Bauhaus, a school created by Walter Gropius in 1919 and closed by German National Socialism in 1933, was one of the most interesting experiences of the 20th century in the field of art and design, and the germinal cell of industrial design, where new and revolutionary pedagogical concepts were developed and applied in the field of aesthetic education. Framed in a rigid rationalism it sought, within a technical context, the simplification of the shape of objects and the reduction to their geometric elements, revaluing the function. In that process of search, which led to what today we can call bauhaus form or style, it received the influence of both the De Stijl movement and the Russian constructivists.

Gropius developed a curriculum to enable craftsmen and designers to create functional and beautiful objects suitable for the new modern life. The Bauhaus combined elements of visual arts and design, immersing students from diverse social and educational backgrounds in the study of materials, color theory, and formal relationships in preparation for more specialized studies. They included metal workshops, weaving, ceramics, carpentry, glass, graphic printing, printing and advertising, photography, painting, stone, sculpture and theatre. The furniture workshop was taken over by Gropius himself, as master of form, assuming the direction. Important proof of this is the chair and table of Marcel Breuer, made in 1923, one of the first officers of the workshop. Josef Albers also justified his 1923 conference table as a confluence of artistic-formal and functional arguments.

For the first time, industrial and graphic design were regarded as professions because the normative bases and academic foundations as we know them today were established (before Bauhaus these two professions did not exist in the way they were conceived within this school).

The kitchen of the house ‘Am Horn’ is still very practical today. It was designed by Benita Otte and Ernst Gebhardt. Above the cupboards are Theodor Bogler’s kitchen jars, as well as Jena’s glass earthenware.

From 1930 to 1933, Ludwing Mies van der Rohe took over the management of the Bauhaus, already at that time having the reputation of being one of the outstanding German avant-garde architects. He showed himself to be a strong advocate of the autonomy of discipline based on the use of new materials. In 1929 he was elected by the German government to build the German pavilion at the Universal Exhibition in Barcelona.

LESS IS MORE

Its furniture is known for fine craftsmanship, a blend of traditional fabrics such as leather, combined with modern chrome tubes, and a clear separation of the supporting structure and supported surfaces, often using brackets to enhance the feeling of lightness created by delicate structural frames.

At the closure of the Bauhaus by National Socialism, almost the entire faculty group emigrated to the United States, where they began a new stage, offering them work either in their industries as well as in universities.

Group photo: Josef Albers, Hinnerk Scheper, Georg Muche, László Moholy-Nagy, Herbert Bayer, Joost Schmidt, Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Lyonel Feininger, Gunta Stölzl, Oskar Schlemmer. Dessau 1926.

The 20th century has seen the development of industrial design as an emerging activity, as a consolidated profession and as an approved teaching. It is important to take into account the craft production of furniture because current designers have based their creations on it. Yes, they did not create the wardrobes, chairs or other furniture from scratch, but on the basis of ideas established much earlier. Industrial design only increased the number of furniture production and implemented the use of more durable materials. Handcrafted furniture making is seen by many people as a union between design and art, which is entirely true if you appreciate the fabulous handcrafted furniture that has been created throughout history.

INDUSTRIAL DESIGN IN POST-MODERNITY

Faced with the dominant universality of modern design -which coexists with new trends- postmodern design has its greatest creative sustenance in intuition, the affective, the sensitive and the emotional, are recovered as another way of understanding reality. This movement developed around the eighties. Utopias and the idea of progress are renounced and the media acquire greater power. There is great stylistic variety. Main exponents were the Memphis group and the Alchimia studio produced monumental and colorful “neopop” designs that caused great worldwide sensation since 1981. Memphis’s work received a series of very eclectic influences, and with its bold motifs and quirky forms, it mocked the notion of “good taste”.

MINIMAL

The minimal tendency of the 90’s is based on reinstalling an order on the aesthetic and theoretical chaos of the 70’s and 80’s (postmodernity). The saturation of colors and languages POP and Kitsch that abounded in the market, had turned the products into simple carcasses of ordinary tastes tied to the trends of fashion and the market.

LESS IS MORE

“Less is more.” This phrase, attributed to the architect Mies Van Der Rohe, has become the ultimate definition of minimal movement.

The minimalist design is the design in its most basic form, is the elimination of heavy elements for the view. Its purpose is to make the content stand out. From the visual point of view, minimalist design is meant to be calm and bring the observer’s mind to the basics of the piece.

Therefore, minimalist designs offer concrete visual contents addressed from the simplicity – not simplicity – of the resources that must be used to achieve consequent developments, without distractions.

Minimalist design is to show only what is important or really functional. The works of Minimalism seek simplicity and reduction in order to eliminate all symbolic allusions and focus the gaze on purely formal questions: colour, scale, volume or the surrounding space.

THE ORIGIN OF DESIGN IN DOCA

DOCA, since its foundation, has always been faithful to minimalist design, for all the values contained in this movement. In 1988 the Atartic modelof pure lines was born, a fusion of noble materials such as steel, beech wood… This model has been on the market since its launch until today, present on TV sets, in well-known cooking programmes, as well as in TV series.

In 2002, DOCA produces the Foro kitchen which, through great formal austerity, achieves a dynamic and forceful sculptural result.

On the other hand, with Super Mirror 2008, instead of a structural complexity, it bets on clarity and sophisticated delicacy.

In 2013, DOCA, true to its philosophy, opted for a new design with new materials and the Luxury Stone model received the prize for innovation in 2014 at the 100% Design presentation in London.

DOCA Luxury Stone 2014

DOCA is presenting itself for the first time at the Milan Fair Eurocucina 2016, (Archi select) with three new models and new materials, thus continuing its commitment to modular and multifunctional furniture that reflects the concerns of the nineties such as durability and quality of materials and technical execution. It even responds to ecological demands by saving material and energy, which are undoubtedly furniture designed to last from generation to generation.

In short, DOCA kitchens are products typical of 20th century design, which do not look back, but point to this new millennium.