Much of the principles taught in the Bauhaus are still taught (in some shape or form) in schools and colleges today, so it’s not surprising that we’re seeing similar changes happening in a digital capacity. The beauty of the Bauhaus “form-following-function” way of thinking is that it can so easily be translated to mean something in different disciplines of Art & Design.

I made a similar comparison in May last year, introducing the revolution that seems to be happening on the web: http://www.technophobia.com/blog/read/from-web-nouveau-to-webhaus-284

It is important to remember that Bauhaus and modernism were largely academic philosophies when they were first conceived. In the 50’s there were number of radical technical and social changes arising in the post war consumer economy that enabled these design principles to find wide spread relevance. IxD Bauhaus is still in the philosophical or pre-relevance phase; at the moment the debate seems academic. Just as romantic craft styles remained viable approaches before the Wars so Skeuomorphism and object-envy are still viable today. The current challenges around Web 1 & 2 activities can still be reasonable be meet using hang-over styles and design principles based on screens, tabs, buttons, and pages type metaphors. However, the web of things along with the massive growth in complex data will unleash a new environment with very different problems to be solved. Problems which cannot be solved with old skool thinking; when this happens IxD Bauhaus will find relevance.

Rahul, mate you’re a thinker before your time.