debauhaus1-9, Exercise 1: The Ulm School of Design

Model answer:

The Hochschule für Gestaltung (School of Design) in Ulm opened in 1953, founded by Inge Scholl, Otl Aicher and others, with Max Bill, a former Bauhaus student, as its first rector (check the date and the roles). It related to the Bauhaus deliberately: it used a foundation course and workshops and treated design as a social task, and it was often called the new Bauhaus.

It did not simply copy the original, though. Bill left in the late 1950s after disagreements, and the school moved towards a more scientific and methodical approach, with subjects such as semiotics and systems thinking, led by figures such as Tomás Maldonado. The disagreement between design as art and design as an engineering-like discipline echoes the 1914 Werkbund argument (Chapter 2; check how fair the comparison is).

It closed in 1968, after the regional government withdrew its funding and the school was itself divided about its direction (check the reasons). Its graduates and teachers went on to shape German industrial and graphic design.