BRIEF HISTORY OF BAUHAUS:

Bauhaus, which translates to “building house”, was a revolutionary art college based in Weimar, Germany, that was founded by Walter Gropius in 1919. Due to the turbulence of post-WW1 in Germany and the radical ethos of Bauhaus art lectures, Bauhaus moved around a few times until its forced closure by Nazis in 1933.

Bauhaus dismantled the separation between fine art and craft design with the aim to intertwine art into everyday life. At Bauhaus, students were taught fine arts, architecture, performance, interior design, and craftsmanship. The radical unification of art and craft elevated Bauhaus into a modernist school that influenced design across the world.

From the teachings of Bauhaus stemmed Bauhaus Modernism, an influential movement that has had a resounding impact on art, architecture, and furniture design to this day.

BAUHAUS MODERNISM IN LOUW ROETS DESIGNER FURNITURE:

We have highlighted the elements of Bauhaus Modernism and how they are intertwined into the design of Louw Roets designer furniture.

COMPOSITION:

Louw Roets designer furniture is composed of wood, steel, and glass, with the use of leather or natural materials for the upholstery. These materials pay homage to the materials used by Bauhaus Modernism in furniture design. The composition enables simplicity and practicality to be the fundamental feature of Louw Roets furniture.

Bauhaus Modernism embraced qualities of Modernism in furniture composition. Modernism was driven by the desire for the creation of new art forms. Modernism celebrated progressive design and the use of new technologies, and these qualities guided the choice of the materials for the creation of Bauhaus Modernism furniture.

Traditionally, furniture had only been composed of wood and textiles. Industrialism brought with it an advancement of technology that enabled the easy accessibility to steel and glass for furniture manufacturing. Bauhaus Modernism, which embraced the advancement of technology as an ode to Modernism, incorporated the use of industrial materials of steel and glass alongside wood for the creation of furniture.

Louw Roets offers an elegant collection of designer furniture made either solely from solid wood or wood with elements of steel or glass. The Louw Roets Stellar Table with Round Glass Top combines the materials of glass and wood in the furniture composition to embody the Bauhaus Modernism’s progressive use of industrial materials in furniture.

Another defining principle of the composition of Bauhaus Modernism furniture is the simplicity of the materials. The purity of wood, steel, and glass is used in an honest way in Bauhaus Modernism furniture to honour the integrity of these materials.

The composition of Louw Roets designer furniture captures the simplicity in design that is elevated in Bauhaus Modernism. Louw Roets honours the beauty of the materials by allowing them to be the statement in the furniture, thus creating a synergy of simplicity and functionality that is true to Bauhaus Modernism. The Louw Roets Split Table has a subtle design to allow the composition to be aesthetically elevated.

FORM:

Bauhaus Modernism’s simplicity and harmonious relationship between form and function are fundamentally inspirational in the design of Louw Roets designer furniture.

Inspired by Modernism’s search for the new, Bauhaus Modernism moved away from the heavily decorative and ornate form of traditional furniture. The design of Bauhaus Modernism furniture instead turned to a form that was a celebration of simplicity.

Inspired by Bauhaus Modernism, Louw Roets designer furniture encapsulates sophisticated simplicity. The Louw Roets Split Chair is designed with clean lines and flowing curves that gracefully highlight the simplicity present in every Louw Roets furniture piece.

The form of Bauhaus Modernism furniture also draws inspiration from De Stijl, or “the style”, movement. De Stijl movement also embraced simplification as a signification of style and sophistication. According to the De Stijl movement, the creation of art and furniture was to be centred on the purity of geometric form. The Bauhaus Modernism movement adopted this design style in the creation of the furniture form.

The form of Louw Roets furniture, like Bauhaus Modernism furniture, is geometric and linear. The use of pure angular shapes that are balanced with curved lines in Louw Roets furniture captures the true simplistic form of Bauhaus Modernism. The simplicity of the form also allowed for the composition of Louw Roets furniture to be elegantly highlighted.

The connection between form and function in Bauhaus Modernism is inspired by the design schema of Gesamtkunstwerk, or “total work of art”. Gesamtkunstwerk reconciles the distinct creative forms of art, performance, literature, music, and architecture into a harmonious collection of creative processes. Within Bauhaus Modernism, Gesamtkunstwerk refers to the interconnectedness of appearance, function, and experience.

Visual appearance, function, and experience do not exist as separate elements from the total design in Bauhaus Modernism furniture. Bauhaus Modernism furniture is therefore a holistic creation that prises both the form design and the functionality of the furniture piece.

With Louw Roets designer furniture, the design of the form is interwoven with functionality. The use of geometric shapes in Louw Roets furniture form enables practicality without reducing the elegance and sophistication of the crafted furniture.

Functionality in Louw Roets designer furniture is also encapsulated in the luxurious comfort. The form of every Louw Roets furniture piece is designed to ensure that you can spend hours sitting in a Louw Roets chair or around a Louw Roets table, making it both a practical and beautiful addition to your home. The combination of Bauhaus Modernism form and function transforms Louw Roets designer furniture into practical forms of art.

COLOUR:

Bauhaus Modernism further highlighted simplicity by adopting a pure and simple colour scheme, and this subtle yet memorable colour palette is embraced in Louw Roets designer furniture.

From Bauhaus Modernism stemmed the Bauhaus Colour Theory, which still has contemporary relevance. Bauhaus Colour Theory was developed at Bauhaus under the lecturing of Johannes Itten, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, and Josef Albers. Bauhaus Colour Theory demonstrates the importance of colour to Bauhaus Modernism.

In Bauhaus Colour Theory, the connection between colour and psychological responses is illustrated. Taught by Itten, and built upon by Albers and Kandinsky, Bauhaus Colour Theory emphasises the importance of colour selection to achieve the desired emotional response in art, furniture, or architecture. The connection between colour and emotional experience further demonstrates the holistic approach Bauhaus Modernism highlights within the connection between form and function.

Itten is acclaimed for the designation of “warm” and “cool” colours and the connected emotive responses in Bauhaus Colour Theory. Louw Roets use of warm-toned colours in the designer furniture instils an emotive response of comfort, serenity, and luxury. The Louw Roets Louw Society Chair is available in various wood finishes and leathers that come in an array of warm, earthy tones that will instil a sense of sophistication and calm into your home.

Within Bauhaus Colour Theory, the importance of contrast using complementary colours is highlighted. Louw Roets embraces complementary contrast in numerous furniture pieces, such as the Louw Roets Tusk Chair. The warm bone tones of the wood are contrasted in a harmonious way with the glossy black leather of the chair cushioning.

When Bauhaus Modernism used accents of colour, only primary colours were used to emphasise the importance of purity and simplicity. Louw Roets adopts these pops of colour in a few select furniture pieces, such as the Louw Routs Bubble Chair in canary yellow or the Louw Roets Society Stool in crimson red. If you desire to add a few strokes of colour to your home and remain within the Bauhaus Modernism style, these Louw Roets furniture pieces are the perfect touch.

Colour in Bauhaus Modernism is chosen selectively. Colour is used with the intent to create an emotive response and instil a sense of simplicity. Louw Roets adopts this Bauhaus Modernism characteristic in the careful consideration of the colours in the warm and emotive designer furniture pieces.

TEXTURE:

Bauhaus Modernism emphasised simplicity and a connection between form and function through the use of texture. Louw Roets designer furniture embraces smooth textures in the furniture form to highlight the aesthetic of simplicity.

Bauhaus Modernism embraces aspects of Minimalism in the texture of the furniture design. Minimalism intentionally removes anything unnecessary or distracting to achieve liberation and clarity. Bauhaus Modernism incorporates Minimalism into the texture of furniture by keeping the design simple and through the use of polished steels, silken glass, varnished woods, and carefully considered textiles.

The texture of Louw Roets designer furniture is designed around simplicity and comfort. The Louw Roets Jardine Chair is the perfect demonstration. The wood texture is smooth to the touch and is paired with a leather upholstery texture that allows for luxurious comfort to flow throughout the furniture.

Louw Roets designer furniture embraces Bauhaus Modernism by using textures that blend into the experience of the furniture. The simplicity of the form, the functionality of the artistic design, and the feeling of the furniture create an experience of elegant comfort.

CRAFTMANSHIP:

Bauhaus Modernism combined art, craft, and modern technology through simplistic craftsmanship that enable mass production. Louw Roets equally crafts designer furniture in a boutique manufacturing process that enables the creation of furniture as functional works of art for your home.

Bauhaus Modernism prioritised the combination of craftsmanship and mass production based on the belief was that everyone should have access to quality crafted items. The Industrial Revolution had replaced the skill of craft with mechanised mass-production.

Bauhaus Modernism returns the focus back to craft and interweaves it with the functionality of mass production. The combination of craft and mass production also emphasised the importance of interweaving art with modern technology in Bauhaus Modernism.

The simplicity of the form also enabled mass production, as the geometric shapes and linear aspects of the Bauhaus Modernism furniture form could be easily and quickly reproduced. Therefore, the simplicity in the form of Bauhaus Modernism also enabled the functionality of mass production.

Louw Roets designer furniture focuses on slow manufacturing. Louw Roets craftmanship embodies elevated quality which is achieved through careful craftsmanship. The Louw Roets Oval Stellar Table demonstrates how concerted craftmanship achieves a beautiful piece of furniture that can become a part of your family history.

The slow craftsmanship, use of modern technology, and traditional joinery are to ensure that each piece of Louw Roets furniture is crafted to perfection and reflects qualities of Bauhaus Modernism craftmanship.

RELEVANCE OF BAUHAUS MODERNISM TODAY:

The philosophy of Bauhaus Modernism is centred on inspiration and innovation, and these are still embedded into designs today. The Bauhaus Modernism ethos of simplicity and the connection between form and function is still prevalent in contemporary design, as seen in the Louw Roets designer furniture.

The crafting and creation of Louw Roets designer furniture are inspired by Bauhaus Modernism elements of design.