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Dutch drift - a century of design

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

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BOOK 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 Darley Dutch Design: a History by Mienke Simon Thomas. Reaktion Books, 2008, 1 7.95, 272pp. www.reaktionbooks.co.uk

View Image - Interior of Schrder 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 Eugne-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, and the motifs of organic naturalism and the Gothic revival fought it out on the ceramics, textiles and furniture that represented the Netherlands at successive international exhibitions. The English arts and crafts movement provided the 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 'machine romanticism', 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 Michel de Klerk and Piet Kramer, van der Mey's colleagues) and the ubiquitous Hendrik Petrus Berlage for 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 Rotterdam municipal housing architect Jacobus Oud was too busy to attend. Rietveld, whose work had first been 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.

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The tide turned from the artisan to the machine in the 1930s. The Dutch post office was an early convert 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-saving and 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. A nation of consummately successful traders since the 17th century, the Dutch now sold their 20th century goods, from cabling to coffee, with visual flair. Yet the terror of German occupation (from 1940 until 1945) saw Dutch design retreat into a medieval world of guilds and nationalistic craft skills. Modernism was execrated. Economically, post-war recovery 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

limitations when faced with a mass market and tough international competition. It flourished briefly and 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-quality industrial 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 the worlds 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 private and public sector - design driven by pragmatic rather than moralistic reasons. Increasingly, fashion and consumer preferences set the pace, reaching extremes that caused critic Hein 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 profound response than the coquettish design of the Milanese'. The rise of media savvy designers in the past two decades - such as fashion house Viktor & Rolf and the design firm Droog to name a few - has skewed the picture still further. The social responsibility that, 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 the Netherlands apparently now favours designer-makers, the less commercial the better. Mienke Simon Thomas' engrossing account in this book implies the current lack of design focus reflects a wider malaise; 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

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Title: Authors: Publication title: Volume: Issue: Pages: Number of pages: Publication year: Publication Date: Year: Section: Publisher: Place of Publication: Journal Subjects: ISSN: CODEN: Source type: Language of Publication: Document Type: ProQuest Document ID: Document URL: Copyright: Last Updated: Dutch drift - a century of design Darley, Gillian The Architects' Journal 229 1 39-41 3 2009 Jan 15, 2009 2009 The Critics Emap Limited London Architecture, Building And Construction 00038466 ARJOA4 Trade Journals English General Information 200795792 http://search.proquest.com/docview/200795792? accountid=28281 Copyright EMAP Architecture Jan 15, 2009 2010-06-06

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