hans gugelot

hans gugelot opened the door to system-design and contributed to a completely new image which has decisively influenced our ideas of design ......

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hans gugelot

opened the door to system-design and thus contributed to
a completely new image, which has decisively influenced
our ideas of design in the technological context of
the post-war period of the 20th century.

gugelot never mentioned aesthetics.
he showed special antipathy against the concept
of style and felt increasing discontent about the fact
that certain formal details of his designs had been
distorted into formalistic rules.
he considered design as a moral question rather than
one of beauty, more a question of attitude than one
of taste. aesthetics were thought of being embedded
in comprehensive universal standards.

---
on (industrial) design
'the job of designing is as old as the world.
the hands of people living in the stone age were already
well suited to create useful objects, tools. the spirit was
developed. armed with consciousness, skills and
willpower to design they created tools that they could
be used for a purpose, the hunting and the processing
of animals. the best suited material available was the
rough flintstone that could only be formed by means
of special working methods.
basically, the process was the beginning of what we
call 'design'. ' he said at the world design congress
in tokyo in 1960.

'relationships that a human being finds in his environment
are also relationships between any two objects.
there are standards, suitabilities, modular systems,
complex systems and last not least the relationships
between products and systems. such relationships
become visible when two objects are placed in a room
to form special interdependencies.
thes interdependencies do not have to be functional at all,
but may be purely formal, e.g. when different pieces of
furniture are placed in the same room their relationship
is formal.
this phenomenon is also found in urban development.'

'industrial design is concerned with the designing of
industrial products. The designer must have gained
enough knowledge, skills and experience in order to
understand all factors that determine the product,
to come up with a design concept and to get this concept
on the way in cooperation with all parties involved in the
planning, developing and manfacturing departments,
right up to the finished product.
the knowledge of science and technology serve as a
basis for his coordinating design work.
his aim is to design industrial products, that serve society
both in a culture and social sense.'

---
storage systems
hans gugelot began to develop the M125 systemized
furniture design during his years in max bill's office in
1950 for 'wohnbedarf" zuerich.
the M125 was based on the module of 125mm and its
multiples, like 250mm as the ideal depth for bookshelves
and 1250 mm as the ideal width for a bed,
a cabinet or shelves.
gugelot had a silent admiration for his follow countryman
gerrit rietveld. the structural form of the system,
the uncompromising functionality, but also the initially
used sliding doors in stijl-colours could be seen in the early
prototypes.
in 1956 he improved the M125 to be produced in
large-scale production by wilhelm bofinger,
a german furniture carpenter.
the production of M125 systemized furniture meant a big
shift in the traditional furniture manufacturing process,
since workers had to adapt to modern materials and
new working conditions.

---
subway trains
from 1959 until 1962 gugelot and herbert lindinger
with otl aicher and peter croy were commissioned to
design the subway trains for the city of hamburg, germany.
the trains, in their simplicity and practicability gave
expression to the perception of the townscape.
after hamburg, amsterdam and dublin decided in the
early 80ies to adopt parts of the original design to their
new subway trains.

---
rotary tray slide projector
another design classic is the rotary tray slide projector
'carousel S' for kodak, of the year 1963.
the series of 'carousel' have been customized to modern
demands and is still produced.
it can be considered as the originals' descendants.

---
HFG ulm
gugelot was one of my most impressive teachers at the
HfG school for the creative arts during the years of 1955
to 1958. the ulm college of design was founded
in 1953 by inge aicher-scholl (1917-98), otl aicher (1922-91)
and max bill (1908-94).
while it initially followed in the footsteps of the bauhaus,
it soon pursued concepts of its own and set internationally
acknowledged standards for design during the 15 years
of its existence. in ulm gugelot spent the most important
years of his life.
he was being drawn to max bill's architecture, and
went ahead with designing the interior of the building.
gugelot's commitment to social and sociological problems
and their relationship with environmental questions
was another result of long nights of conflicts with his
colleages. together with thomas maldonado he
vehemently fought against
- 'detroit styling' / raymond loewy's 'face liftings' ideas -
and this was based on his conviction that design was
not first and foremost an instrument to sell, but a cultural
necessity.

---
braun
in discussions he often defended the services he offered,
to create almost invisible or at least miniaturized object,
as the only task a designer had.
accordingly, this philosophy was later taken over by braun.
working with otl aicher (they were colleagues as well as
neighbours) took gugelot to further refining his design
attitude: a system of order and relationships between
the main parts (the arrangement of elements such as
handles, scales, graphics, loudspeakers).
his rejection of short-lived products led him to work for
'longevity of a rationally designed object'.

he died at the age of 45

see

hans gugelot's biography
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more on hans gugelot / HFG ulm
http://www.gugelot.de
http://www.ifdesign.de/inhalt-presse_rw_003_e.html
http://www.goethe.de/kug/kue/des/thm/en26443.htm
http://www.hgb-leipzig.de/artnine/lehre/zwanzig/21.html
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