Architecture and design documentaries to binge while in self-isolation
With millions of people across the world in self-isolation or quarantine to slow the spread of coronavirus, content producer Sebastian Jordahn has put together a list of documentaries on architecture and design to stave off isolation boredom.
Gothic Revival
Are you a bit postmodern, or do you belong in the Bauhaus? This is the question that the Open University is posing, should anyone care to click on its Design In A Nutshell offering on the OpenLearn website. The OU hopes to inspire people into taking its design courses through half a dozen short animated films it’s made.
Arts and Crafts
Each one is a snapshot of a key 20th century design style or movement, so we’ve got Gothic Revival, Arts and Crafts, Bauhaus, Modernism, American Industrial Design and Postmodernism.
Bauhaus
The film’s academic adviser was Clive Hilton, an OU lecturer in design. His potted histories are not without wit, and take the viewer on an express journey through each genre. So Sir George Gilbert Scott’s churches are bigged up in Gothic Revival, William Morris is the star of Art and Crafts, Marcel Breuer’s Cantilevered Chair features in Modernism, American Industrial Design points to Norman Bel Geddes as the pioneer of utilitarian art, and in Postmodernism we hear about the Las Vegas strip, “a riot of styles, cultures and whimsical collage”. This last one seems the weakest, with the series’ narrator – is that or isn’t that Ewan McGregor? – struggling to pin down a definition. But we guess that’s Postmodernism for you.
Modernism
At the end of each video the viewer is asked a teasing question, such as “Does American industrial design do it for you?” And as well as the option to find out about courses, one can take a multiple choice test to discover one’s design alter-ego.
American Industrial Design
Design in a Nutshell serves a purpose for the OU, though watching them back to back can be a wee bit grating, with repetition of the cartoon-like sound effects. And the series begs the question, were no women involved in any design over the last century? The only female to make it in, is blow-drying her hair in a poster ad for American Industrial Design. There’s a quick nod to the Eameses, but Ray isn’t mentioned by name. (And while we’re on the subject of names, only a total pedant would spot that an extra ‘e’ has snuck into Raymond Loewy’s surname).
