debauhaus1-2, Exercise 2: Standardisation versus individual freedom

Model answer:

At the Werkbund's Cologne exhibition in 1914 (check), the disagreement is usually told as a clash between Hermann Muthesius and Henry van de Velde (check). Muthesius argued that design should move towards standard types suited to mass production and export, which he thought would raise the quality of everyday goods. Van de Velde argued that artists must stay free to invent individual forms, and that a fixed standard would stifle creativity. At stake was the role of the designer: an artist expressing a personal vision, or a professional serving industry and society. Historians say the real positions were less clear-cut than this summary.

Which side was the Bauhaus closer to? It inherited both. Its early Weimar years (under Gropius and Johannes Itten) leaned towards the artist, the workshop and individual experiment; its later Dessau years leaned towards standard types and cooperation with industry (check the details in later chapters). That is why the question is debated: the answer depends on which years, which workshop and which teacher you look at, and a single label for the whole school does not fit.