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Dutch drift - a century of design

Darley, Gillian. The Architects' Journal229. 1 (Jan 15, 2009): 39-41.

 

Full textBOOK Dutch drift - a century of design After 100 years, Dutch design has lost its moral vigour,according to a new history of the Netherlands' struggle with modernism, writes Gillian DarleyDutch Design: a History by Mienke Simon Thomas. Reaktion Books, 2008, £1 7.95, 272pp.

www.reaktionbooks.co.uk

View Image - Interior of Schröder House (1924), by Dutch architect Gerrit Rietveld

The Netherlands' windmills went on turning long after the rest of northern Europe was thoroughly

industrialised, and the history of Dutch design during the 20th century reflects a nation continually

caught between the drag of endemic conservatism and the push of socially progressive ideas.In the late 19th century, Dutch decorative artists followed the lead of European theorists of ornament

such as Gottfried Semper or Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, and the motifs of organic naturalismand the Gothic revival fought it out on the ceramics, textiles and furniture that represented theNetherlands at successive international exhibitions. The English arts and crafts movement providedthe ideals of the dignity of labour, while from the esoteric shores of the 19th-century metaphysical

doctrine of theosophy came a new geometry.

As a neutral country during First World War, the Dutch had little incentive to modernise, and

there were few large manufacturers within their borders. As late as 1929, the typographer(and sometimeBauhaus teacher) Piet Zwart considered his compatriots held back by 'machineromanticism', exemplified by the comment by architect Jo van der Mey that an item of furniture

should be 'an object of feeling'.In part, the author blames the hold of the expressionists of the Amsterdam school (including Michelde Klerk and Piet Kramer, van der Mey's colleagues) and the ubiquitous Hendrik Petrus Berlagefor obstructing the progress of 'moral modernism' in the Netherlands. Yet Berlage, Gerrit Rietveld

and Mart Stam were at the first CIAM meeting of international modernist architects, while Rotterdammunicipal housing architect Jacobus Oud was too busy to attend. Rietveld, whose work had firstbeen published in De Stijl in 1919, embraced the new opportunities by designing furniture for Metz &Co, the innovative Amsterdam store, remaining a key Dutch design player until his death in 1964.

View Image -

The tide turned from the artisan to the machine in the 1930s. The Dutch post office was an earlyconvert to the application of design to business, being headed by an amateur typographer, while a

new generation of housing was fitted out to the highest specification, the kitchens as labour-savingand efficient as anything in Ernst May's Frankfurt houses.

Soon it became important that even a tea set was designed to be self-evidently machine-made. Anation of consummately successful traders since the 17th century, the Dutch now sold their 20thcentury goods, from cabling to coffee, with visual flair.

Yet the terror of German occupation (from 1940 until 1945) saw Dutch design retreat into a medievalworld of guilds and nationalistic craft skills. Modernism was execrated. Economically, post-warrecovery was slow, but all had not been lost. Philips, the great electric enterprise, was sufficiently

international to survive and even profit from the damage done to its German competitors.Gearing up the country for peacetime, the emphasis was now on design for a better standard of life.The fleeting appearance of the DAF 600 automobile in 1958 was, however, a reminder of Dutch

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limitations when faced with a mass market and tough international competition. It flourished brieflyand then faded. Far more successful was the Goed Wonen (good living) movement, which with

its show houses, regular publications and strong influence with key stores and manufacturers,constituted a tenacious and serious attempt to educate public taste.

A growing design profession, and limited government support, pointed to the fact that high-qualityindustrial design could be reflected in national economic health. Visionary figures, such as Karel

Sanders, who headed the Stedelijk museum of modern art in Amsterdam, moved between theworlds of industry, visual art and professional education. In the 1950s and 60s a new breed of

advertising and design agency provided strong design identities for enterprises in both the privateand public sector - design driven by pragmatic rather than moralistic reasons.

Increasingly, fashion and consumer preferences set the pace, reaching extremes that caused criticHein van Haaren, an influential figure in governmental design policy, to decry post-modern excess(in particular the Italian Memphis group) and observe that 'functionalism deserves a more profoundresponse than the coquettish design of the Milanese'.

The rise of media savvy designers in the past two decades - such as fashion house Viktor & Rolf andthe design firm Droog to name a few - has skewed the picture still further. The social responsibilitythat, not so long ago, was the watchword of Dutch design - and seemed to reflect the probity and

liberal impulses of the country as a whole - is hard to detect these days. Government subsidy in theNetherlands apparently now favours designer-makers, the less commercial the better. Mienke SimonThomas' engrossing account in this book implies the current lack of design focus reflects a widermalaise; a sense of drift from a clear purpose. Her survey and insights give much for thought about

that doughty small country across the sea with which we British have such a particular affinity.

Resume De Stijl-ation of a century - from artisan workshop to factory floor and back

 Indexing (details) Title: Dutch drift - a century of design Authors: Darley, Gillian Publication title: The Architects' Journal Volume: 229 Issue: 1 Pages: 39-41 Number of pages: 3 Publication year: 2009 Publication Date: Jan 15, 2009 Year: 2009 Section: The Critics Publisher: Emap Limited Place of Publication: London Journal Subjects: Architecture, Building And Construction ISSN: 00038466 CODEN: ARJOA4 Source type: Trade Journals Language of Publication: English Document Type: General Information ProQuest Document ID: 200795792 Document URL: http://search.proquest.com/docview/200795792?

accountid=28281 Copyright: Copyright EMAP Architecture Jan 15, 2009 Last Updated: 2010-06-06 

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