Blog post 8

 

I disagree with Hannes Meyer when he said that design is a product of “function x economy”. Design is a product of many things from filling a need to creating a style or even design for designs sake.  Id say that some of the worst design comes from just function x economy. Student apartments and town houses are designed just for function and economy and they happen to be some of the ugliest, plainest and most boring forms of accommodation. New technologies do not necessarily mean better design, look at modern car design, new materials and technologies may have made the cars safer and better to drive but where are the aesthetics? No modern American car has any of the character of one built in the 60s and 70s where materials were spent more lasciviously and function was based on speed and turning rather than “safety”. Design today is both an art and a science but has started leaning towards a science. In the modern world we have to be so careful about what materials we use, we have to consider the impact on the world and recycle and reuse to best utilise our remaining resources. That’s where design as a science comes in, keeping the lines drawn so it remains economical, functional, reusable and safe. However design will always be an art due to the fact it takes an artist to care about the aesthetics enough to do them properly. Design will never be just one or the other as without care for scientific principles design would be worthless as products would never be any good but without art then there is no care for how a product looks then that isn’t design either.

Figure 1. student appartments on Wellesley street Auckland
http://www.travelblog.org/Photos/992005

 Figure 2. Ford Thunderbird sports coupe
http://www.tocmp.com/pix/Ford/pages/1975%20Ford%20Thunderbird%20Sport%20Coupe%20f3q%20B&W_jpg.htm

Margaret, P. (2011). Week 11 Raizman, The First Machine Age in Europe [PDF Document]. Wellington, New Zealand: Victoria University of Wellington.Fig