In a year marking 90 years since the inception of the Bauhaus movement, an international competition is promoting a rebirth of poetic yet functional design.

Photo: Bauhaus Archiv / Museum
of Design, Berlin

The Bauhaus movement, initiated just over 90 years ago in Weimar, has been one of Germany’s most famous cultural exports. The Bauhaus approach to design influenced modernist architecture as well as many other art forms around the world. Under the motto of “The Poetry of the Functional”, the 4th Marianne Brandt Contest for Bauhaus-inspired design has been launched. Young designers from around the world are encouraged to submit entries in three categories: Product Design, Photography and Light in Public Spaces. Participants have until June this year to prepare their submissions. One 5000-euro prize and three acknowledgements will be awarded in each of the three design categories.

Competition organisers say that with the effects of several overlapping crises, coming on the heels of the heyday of Hedonism, rationality – one of the hallmarks of Bauhaus – is again taking on greater relevance. However, for Bauhaus artists, rationality has never been at odds with vibrancy and emotional warmth. In essence, objects need to be functional, which means they have to fulfil their actual tasks in an exemplary manner, although designers acknowledge that finite natural resources and ecological aspects of products are far more critical factors today than at the peak of Bauhaus.

“A philosophy incorporating energy efficiency, material usage and environmental concerns over the entire product cycle has thus also become a criterion for contemporary creative solutions and makes outstanding mental prowess all the more a valued resource never to be restricted,” say promoters of the anniversary competition.