CONTENTS
FORM, FUNCTION, BEAUTY == GESTALT
In another essay from the 1940s, this time on beauty, Bill refers to Adolf Loos’s observation that popular conceptions of style often ran counter to his own ideal. A Viennese matron had informed him: ‘if the bedside table has a lion’s head on it and this lion’s head also features on the sofa, the wardrobe, the beds, the armchairs, the washstand, in short on all the objects in the room, now that’s what you call style’. Rather than this, what is most needed today is, Bill tells us, a ‘disciplined, purposeful, approach’ to design. Figuring out ways to make things ‘purposeful’ while avoiding the excess of repetition that is a hallmark of the modern industrialisation of life became a life-long project for Bill. Perhaps the best way to recommend the book that follows is simply to say that it extends Bill’s project and vision in an equally purposeful way – by allowing us to read his words in a fresh, uncluttered translation that captures Bill’s distinctive voice. And for that my thanks go to AA Publications Editor Pamela Johnston. My thanks also go to Jakob Bill for making his father’s original work available to us, to Karin Gimmi for her insightful introduction and finally to the graphic design team, Zak Kyes and Wayne Daly, for providing an understated twist to the look and feel of Bill’s essays, which are presented here as the next instalment of the AA’s Architecture Words series. Brett Steele, April 2010 Series Editor, Architecture Words
3. INTRODUCTION: ON BILL 20. Why I make jewellery FROM TIME TO TIME 23. My experience of product design 28. THE Good form 32. Beauty from function and as function 42. A, B, C, D… 60. The basis and aim of aesthetics in the machine age 71. Continuity and change 81. Good formal design 94. What is industrial design? 103. Definition of the term ‘product form’ 104. Function and gestalt 123. Managing our environment