A Beginners Mind

PROCEEDINGS
21st National Conference
on the Beginning Design Student

Stephen Temple, editor

Conference held at the

College of Architecture
The University of Texas at San Antonio
24-26 February 2005

A Beginners Mind
PROCEEDINGS
21st National Conference
on the Beginning Design Student
Stephen Temple, editor
College of Architecture
The University of Texas at San Antonio
24-26 February 2005

Situating Beginnings
Questioning Representation
Alternative Educations
Abstractions and Conceptions
Developing Beginnings
Pedagogical Constructions
Primary Contexts
Informing Beginnings
Educational Pedagogies
Analog / Digital Beginnings
Curriculum and Continuity
Interdisciplinary Curricula
Beginnings
Design / Build
Cultural Pluralities
Contentions
Revisions
Projections

Offered through the Research Office for Novice Design

Education, LSU, College of Art and Design, School of
Architecture.
Copyright 2006 University of Texas San Antonio
/ individual articles produced and edited by the authors

Printed proceedings produced by Stephen Temple, Associate Professor, University of Texas San Antonio.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without
written permission of the publisher.
Published by:
University of Texas San Antonio
College of Architecture
501 West Durango Blvd.
San Antonio TX 78207
210 458-3010
fax 210 458-3016

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Temple, Stephen, editor
A Beginners Mind: Proceedings of the 21st National Conference on the Beginning Design Student /
edited and compiled by Stephen Temple
1. Architecture - Teaching 2. Architecture - Design 3. Design - Teaching

ISBN 0-615-13123-9

Illuminating a Well-Worn Bauhaus Path:

A Second Course in Design Fundamentals
JOE SELF
Texas Christian University

Fig. 1 - Christy Thompson Exercise #7

TCU Design Fundamentals II Fall 2004

Fig. 2 - Christy Thompson Exercise #8

TCU Design Fundamentals II Fall 2004

Introduction
Lighting at the Bauhaus was mostly confined to light fixture design for mass production,
photographic graphics and as a hygienic component of planning and architecture. The focus was
not on the space of lighting. The Light and Space Modulator from 1930 by Lazlo Moholy-Nagy
suggested the value of a lighting environment but the synthesis of light with form, color and
material was not integrated pedagogically at the Bauhaus. Principles drawn from the theatrical
and painterly work of Oskar Schlemmer, applied to architecture and interiors, may illuminate the
path within the Bauhaus tradition for beginning design students.
The tight focus on light fixture production, photography and daylight does not suggest a
condemnation of the Bauhaus pedagogy. The advances and influence of the school are
unquestionable. The fact that the Bauhaus addressed the issue of lighting in any manner at the
time is remarkable since the political and pedagogical discord inside and outside the Bauhaus
created a difficult environment for Bauhaus leadership.1 Design contributions by students and
staff have been mostly overlooked. The work of Marianne Brandt, at the Bauhaus from 1925 to
1929, is just now being properly documented.2
Significant research in lighting environments has lagged behind the technological
advances in lamping technology. The recognition that lighting can vastly alter the perception of
space and form is hardly addressed in most design programs even today. A way to investigate
the interaction of light with space and form is needed. When this goal is combined with the desire
to formulate the perception of color within space the pedagogical plot thickens.
The highly trafficked Bauhaus methods often lead to a kind of pedagogical fatigue.
Havent we seen enough of the Bauhaus? Since the extension of previous methods is
unavoidable this influence must be acknowledged. Other ways of looking at the Bauhaus
curriculum can deepen the human dynamic within space. Since the focus of most design schools

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is less on manufacturing processes and more on sense perceptions of space then a certain
reevaluation is needed of familiar teaching methods addressing space, form, color and light.
With that hope, an interpretation of the Bauhaus method of instruction has been coupled
with a focus on lighting to create a second level design fundamentals course. This course aims to
recognize the importance of lighting and color in design. The subject course was developed in
concert with Laura Prestwood at TCU but the descriptions and theoretical underpinnings are my
own.
Prior to the second-year course, a first-year course includes manual drafting, obliques,
perspectives and a final project involving a three-dimensional model.3 The final first-year project
focus is on line, plane, frame and volume within an 11 x 11 cube. A wholly separate first-year
course introduces the students to lighting principles. In the lighting course lectures are coupled
with hands-on studies including a commercial lighting kit for use with design models. These two
first-year courses provide the groundwork from which a second-year course integrating light and
color will have meaning for beginning design students.
Exercises
The second-year course extends the principles established in the first-year course. The
students 11x11 cube projects are taken from storage and reassigned to the students. This
suggests a certain continuity for the students from first-year to second-year. The students are
asked to apply color, in drawing form only, to the white cube they created the previous year. The
color wheel is revisited and the students are encouraged to employ basic color combinations such
as triads, complimentary, etc. There is always the caveat that a student can deviate in an
experimental mode from the standard color combinations. This is encouraged because the
combinations of colors are, though somewhat predictable, never completely foreseeable.
A plein-air foray with watercolor postcards is followed by low relief studies of the
11x11cube from first-year. The purpose of the low-relief exercise is to explore the contrasting
effect, subtle or drastic, of juxtaposed textures. The low reliefs are documented in a textured but
white state. This set of documents serve as a control group for comparison with the low reliefs
after color is added. Color strategies are revisited and certain schemes may be carried over from
earlier exercises. The colored low-relief exercise is then extended to include an assemblage of
found materials. The task here is to compose materials off-the-shelf and on the market. The
student must engage actual materials and fastening methods. This marks the extent of typical
interpretations of Bauhaus instruction.
The students are then asked to construct an 8 H x 11W x 17D box, all white, with an
aperture to allow directed light within. The passage of light within the confines of the box is
documented, by drawings or photography, through a separate aperture. If artificial light is used
the angles of incidence are noted on the documents. If daylight is used orientation and times of
day are recorded. The students are often surprised, only after they have produced drawings or
photo-documentation for objective study, at the dramatic play of light within the simple box.
The long white box is then used for a deep-relief assignment. The deep-relief must fit
one short end of the box. The deep-relief must include forms that allow light only through the
deep-relief itself. The deep-relief can be backlit or lighted from any of its four edges. Front
lighting is not allowed. The deep relief is subjected to various lighting orientations and is photo
documented. This set of documents is considered as the control group serving as a comparison
for the next step when color is applied to the deep-relief.
The introduction of color within the deep-relief is an extension of an earlier exercise the
introduction of color to a low-relief. The important difference isnt so much the deepening of the
relief but the addition of color to light, space and form. Up to and including this stage the
exercises have had no scale or function. This is intended to help the students focus on general
design principles. Figures 1 and 2 above demonstrate the significant change in the deep-relief

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with the addition of color. The next and final exercise addresses scale, function and a change in
representational methods.
The students are directed to assign a scale to the deep-relief to create a backdrop within
an imagined room. Any scale and function may be chosen with fixtures, figures and furniture
added. The final format is a rendered perspective that must include the representation of a
human figure.
Photo-documentation is important throughout this process because the transformation of
form and color can be better studied through lighting comparisons. The full force of color, often
eschewed for purely formal studies, is itself trumped by the radical change in perception through
lighting variations. The insertion of the human figure in the final exercise forces the recognition of
perception from within the space instead of towards the space.
Analysis
Informal student feedback from the course as taught in the Fall of 2003 and 2004 seems
to indicate an increased comfort with manipulating the principle elements space, form, color and
light. The timidity in establishing instances of shadow remains indicating a weakness in
appreciating the absence of light. The other weak point seems to be a deep uncertainty
concerning the human figure in space. The figures seem passive instead of active participants in
the drawn space of the final exercise. A reevaluation of the course by this author necessitated a
re-examination of the roots of the method and an exploration of other courses of instruction within
the Bauhaus. How might lighting contrasts, like form, material and color contrasts, add to the
expression of space? How might the human figure be more of an active player within space?

Fig. 3 - Pantomime with Figures and

Fig. 4 - View of the Bauhaus Stage5

Translucent Walls (Lou Scheper, Siedhoff)4

Reflection
The main force of instruction in the first and second-year courses described above falls
well within Bauhaus traditions. The Basic Course of Johannes Ittens cubic exercises and the
color explorations of Kandinsky and Klee are clear precedents. Perhaps the atypical component
for the current interpretation of the Bauhaus tradition is the combination of the formal, material
and textural elements within lighting of environments.6 This focus on lighting and color to animate
space and form, though not alien to the Bauhaus spirit, is missing from much of the building and
architecture programs at the Bauhaus. The strictly hierarchical organization at the Bauhaus
seems to have kept light, shade and color environment explorations from directly affecting the
building and architecture programs.7 A division between disciplines, not often associated with the

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Bauhaus, was the Achilles heel of the school. A review of the primary courses taught at the
Bauhaus with a focus on lighting revealed that principles drawn from the work of Oskar
Schlemmer may help deepen design instruction concerned with space, form, color and light.
At the Bauhaus from 1921 through most of 1929, Schlemmer had various teaching
duties. He is generally noted for his contributions to stage design, theatrical productions and wall
painting. His costume design, sculpture and other design projects were centered on the dynamic
human form, or its representation, in space. These other projects were often influenced by his
theatrical theories.
Walter Gropius, founder and the first Director of the Bauhaus, cited Schlemmers
understanding of the possibilities of architectural space in the theater.8 The stage design and
theater workshops addressed the dynamics of light and color out of necessity given the need to
control lighting for dramatic effect. The solar hygiene associated with Bauhaus building design
and the attention to light fixtures as object were not an issue in the theater or painting projects of
Schlemmer. Space, color and light, surrounding the representation of the human figure were the
key elements for Schlemmer. He insisted on the human figure as an instigator of physical drama
within architectural space. This is in direct contrast with the role of the human figure in official
Bauhaus photography of architecture and interiors which is to say there rarely are people in the
picture. When figures do appear in official Bauhaus photography of architecture or interiors they
are sedate and washed, typically, in even light.9
The photographs from the stage and theatre program indicate the use of chiascurro
dark and light contrasts. This was often coupled with brightly colored costumes and sets. The
fascination with contrast was essential to the theatre program but do not seem to have been
important for architectural environments at the Bauhaus. The undifferentiated lighting for
architecture was likely a result of the overarching interpretation of the modern to stand against
variations of many sorts. It seems that light and shadow were too dependent on the passage of
time and the passage of time was something that only pre-modern architecture had to recognize.

Fig. 5 The Bauhaus Staircase - Oskar

Schlemmer, 1932.10

284

Fig. 6 - Photograph of Oskar Schlemmer Lucia

Moholy-Nagy, 1927.11

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The study of the body in relation to form, space, color and light is also evident in the paintings of
Schlemmer. It may be possible to adopt a set of design principles from Schlemmer's paintings.12
A clear assertion of the human figure in space is coupled with a reticence to reveal the exact
boundaries of the occupied space. The lighting too is seen to glow from non-specific sources.
The reasons for Schlemmer seeing figures in space in this manner is probably tied to his
conception of what it meant to be a human being in the 20th century. Most records indicate a
struggle in his mind between a mechanistic and a mystical interpretation. This basic difference,
also the basis for the primary schism within the Bauhaus, cannot be overlooked but is beyond the
scope of this essay. The application of the painting and theater principles of Oskar Schlemmer,
mechanical or metaphysical, remain valuable for design education.
It is interesting to set, side by side, the image of Albrecht Durers 1525 etching of a
draughtsman separated from his voluptuous reclining model next to Eadweard Muybridges timelapse photographs of a Woman Pirouetting (1887) and the reclining Schlemmer in Figure 6
above. Even if Muybridge tried to get closer to the model than Durer allowed by placing her in
front of the grid, then his camera merely substituted another filter. The photograph of Schlemmer
suggests him addressing the rational grid and letting the deep shadows of the grid define his
form. At the same time, his form distorts the vision of the mechanical grid. We are on the same
side of the grid as Schlemmer, partaking in a lateral approach to form, space and light. The
naturalness of Schlemmers pose may owe as much to Lucia Moholy-Nagy but the incessant
positioning of the body in light and space is Schlemmers legacy. The lessons from Schlemmer
would seem to include the acknowledgement of people as a dynamic figures in space, a
willingness to develop deep chiaroscuro lighting, bold color application, an openness to uncertain
spatial definitions and a willingness to admit indeterminate light sources.
Closing
The introduction of lighting into the making of form, space and color for a second course
of design fundamentals was an attempt to synthesize the design issues set out by the Bauhaus
tradition. The theatrical and painterly experiments of Oskar Schlemmer provide a route for the
further exploration of environmental lighting apart from light fixture design, the graphic qualities of
abstract photography or the hygienic program of ensuring undifferentiated light within architectural
space typical in the Bauhaus tradition. One could also refer to the almost classical use of profile
by Schlemmer in his paintings14 to enrich the use of profile in architecture and interior design. His
expressive use of line as a three dimensional design element sets a precedent as well.15
A study of work by Oskar Schlemmer is just one entry point for enriching the Bauhaus
legacy. Other avenues for exploration include any of the other Bauhaus workshops seen as
precursors or peripheral to the architecture and building program. The well-worn path of the
Bauhaus remains fertile ground for teaching and learning design.

Notes
1. Hochman, Elaine, S. Bauhaus: Crucible of Modernism. New York: Fromm International. 1997. An
excellent documentation of the struggles among the Bauhaus faculty and the discord between the
Bauhaus and the political institutions in Weimar, Dessau and Berlin.
2. See Thormann, Olaf. Bauhaus Lighting? Kandem Light!: The Collaboration of the Bauhaus with the
Leipzig Company KANDEM. Arnoldsche, 2003.
3. A more complete description of this method can be found in Self, J. Inside Outside Coherence - The
Sense of Architecture Versus the Senses of Interior Design in Unstaked Territories: Proceedings from
the 19th Annual Beginning Design Conference, 2003.
4. Schlemmer, Oskar and others. The Theater of the Bauhaus. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press.
1961, p. 97.
5. Ibid, p. 83.

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6. Later courses in the current curriculum at TCU explore the design and production issues of lamps and
light fixtures.
7. Dearstyne, Howard. Inside the Bauhaus. New York: Rizzoli, 1986, pp. 197-201.
8. Schlemmer, op. cit., pp. 7-10.
9. Unofficial photographs (especially those inspired by Lazlo and Lucia Moholy-Nagy) and snapshots of
Bauhaus activities are quite dramatic and candid. See Wingler, Hans M. The Bauhaus. Cambridge: MIT
Press, 1976, p. 480.
10. Ibid, p. viii.
11. Ibid, p. 481.
12. Roters, Eberhard. Painters of the Bauhaus. New York: Praeger, 1965, pp. 72-93.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid, Figure 27, p. 81. (Three Profiles, 1922)
15. Dearstyne, op. cit., p. 165 (wire sculpture for Dr. Raabe residence in Zwenkau, 1931.

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