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They really promoted "Truth to materials", and then went even farther and did designs that can only be done with very strong materials. That's a great way to m

They really promoted "Truth to materials", and then went even farther and did designs that can only be done with very strong materials. That's a great way to make everything heavy, bulky, expensive, and resource intensive. A real modern high tech design gets it's reliability from the design. You can built it in a sloppy way with crap parts and it will work and look fine. Visually Bauhaus is fairly unforgiving. Dirt or scratches or just stuff that doesn't match the style really stands out in a room full of minimalist things, and even more so in modern minimalist design, and that's considered a feature rather than a bug. It kind of sneaks in some kind of subtle Edwardian "Show off your wealth by not doing anything only poor people need" stuff in the back door. On the opposite end is modern farmhouse, which is incredibly forgiving,because there's so many textured decorative elements. Rustic has a slight issue because it can also hide things you are looking for, and if you let it get to be a mess it won't "tell" you like Bauhaus will, it just feels nasty and oppressive without as being obvious why, but it has a lot of flexibility. Now we have things like resin infused wood and FEA, all kinds of new paints and coatings, and real automation, and it's no longer a guarantee that something fake will fall apart. Lots of things are basically cardboard with a thin layer of wood, and they use less material, are very light, and hold up surprisingly well.... except for the fact we throw them away anyway because we hate "cheap trash". Even the way we judge food could be seen as a Bauhaus-ism. The whole paleo/keto nonsense and the idea that people should eat vast quantities of meat all day fits right in with a mindset of substance and simplicity and truth to materials. But it doesn't appear to work as well as they claim. It makes sense as a reaction to some specific modern processed things, but it doesn't seem to be backed up by studies. Apple is kind of the ultimate modern reimagining of the Bauhaus. They're all about the tech that isn't there. As I see it an iPhone isn't meant to do anything at any time and get you out of any jam like a tricorder. I think it's meant to feel more like an appliance with a somewhat defined set of uses, and you're supposed to adapt to that, and that's part of the selling point, you're supposed to enjoy being the kind of person that can afford a closed ecosystem, and who is smart and capable and doesn't need a device to be compatible with everything. That's basically the same as a chair that can only work with really strong tubular steel, it's a limitation used to showcase the capabilities of something else(you). Bauhaus also ate a lot of other movements and really killed off a lot of diversity. Probably because it looks it's best without any other styles nearby.

specialist 5y ago
Nice. Hot damn, I love coherent strong opinions well expressed. Especially about design, philosophy, and other human experience stuff that really matters. Tying bauhuas to keto is wonderful. As someone who just resumed the troglodiet (sic), that's a notion I must chew on. (Ha.) Shout out to u/atoav and u/jason-phillips too. Thanks, y'all made my day.
BeFlatXIII 5y ago
> Rustic has a slight issue because it can also hide things you are looking for, and if you let it get to be a mess it won't "tell" you like Bauhaus will, it just feels nasty and oppressive without as being obvious why, but it has a lot of flexibility. That's one of the reasons I like minimalism: it makes it blatant when a room is overloaded instead of being a well-decorated environment where setting something down is equivalent to throwing it in the trash (except you can re-discover it six months later).
- eternityforest 5y ago
  It's interesting that it almost works like the digital cliff. In average to crappy conditions, minimalism will be more effort and work to make sure everything is put away and straightened, much like analog video being lower quality. Non minimalist places can function perfectly well with a moderate amount of clutter, and it's easier to work in, because things will be findable just by scanning your environment, right up until you suddenly find you can't tell the difference between the table and the dumpster. With tech, that theoretically doesn't happen, because digital should give a "Link quality low" alert before things actually get too bad, but with your living space, it's all on you to notice things are getting bad. It's probably about time for a more detailed theory of design that takes into account what specifically you are trying to minimize or maximize, the usual discussions don't distinguish between complexity, item count, physical volume, cost, reliability, and attention demand. Increasing complexity can often get rid of all the rest of them(As in going all paperless), and decorations are low attention demand. Whereas the single function analog stuff that some hardcore minimalism enthusiasts like(Like film cameras and dead tree tax papers), often have high space requirements and can easily be weapons of mass cluttering if not carefully put away.

specialist 5y ago

Nice. Hot damn, I love coherent strong opinions well expressed. Especially about design, philosophy, and other human experience stuff that really matters. Tying bauhuas to keto is wonderful. As someone who just resumed the troglodiet (sic), that's a notion I must chew on. (Ha.) Shout out to u/atoav and u/jason-phillips too. Thanks, y'all made my day.

BeFlatXIII 5y ago

> Rustic has a slight issue because it can also hide things you are looking for, and if you let it get to be a mess it won't "tell" you like Bauhaus will, it just feels nasty and oppressive without as being obvious why, but it has a lot of flexibility. That's one of the reasons I like minimalism: it makes it blatant when a room is overloaded instead of being a well-decorated environment where setting something down is equivalent to throwing it in the trash (except you can re-discover it six months later).

eternityforest 5y ago
It's interesting that it almost works like the digital cliff. In average to crappy conditions, minimalism will be more effort and work to make sure everything is put away and straightened, much like analog video being lower quality. Non minimalist places can function perfectly well with a moderate amount of clutter, and it's easier to work in, because things will be findable just by scanning your environment, right up until you suddenly find you can't tell the difference between the table and the dumpster. With tech, that theoretically doesn't happen, because digital should give a "Link quality low" alert before things actually get too bad, but with your living space, it's all on you to notice things are getting bad. It's probably about time for a more detailed theory of design that takes into account what specifically you are trying to minimize or maximize, the usual discussions don't distinguish between complexity, item count, physical volume, cost, reliability, and attention demand. Increasing complexity can often get rid of all the rest of them(As in going all paperless), and decorations are low attention demand. Whereas the single function analog stuff that some hardcore minimalism enthusiasts like(Like film cameras and dead tree tax papers), often have high space requirements and can easily be weapons of mass cluttering if not carefully put away.