-Kertas-

APA ITU KERTAS?

Kertas adalah bahan nipis, rata yang dihasilkan oleh penekanan gentian. Biasanya gentian yang digunakan merupakan gentian semulajadi dan berasaskan selulosa. Bahan paling biasa digunakan adalah pulpa kayu daripada pokok kayu pulpa (kebanyakannya kayu lembut) seperti spruce, tetapi bahan gentian sayuran lain termasuk kapas, linen, dan hem boleh digunakan.

Timbunan 500 keping kertas dipanggil rim (ream). Tepi helaian kertas mampu bertindak sebagai gergaji halus dan nipis hingga menyebabkan luka.

PENGHASILAN KERTAS

Penghasilan kertas boleh dihasilkan dengan tangan atau mesin. Terdapat tiga langkah yang terbabit dalam penghasilan kertas iaitu:
(a) penyediaan gentian
(b) dibentuk menjadi kepingan
(c) pengeringan

(a) Penyediaan gentian

Bahan yang digunakan bagi menghasilkan kertas dihancurkan menjadi pulpa, campuran gentian pekat terampai dalam cecair. Oleh kerana kebanyakan gentian ini dihasilkan dari sumber semulajadi, proses ini membabitkan langkah pembasuhan dan pengasingan. Apabila gentian telah dihasilkan, ia akan diluntur atau diwarnakan bagi menukar gambaran barangan akhir.

(b) Dibentuk menjadi kepingan

Campuran pulpa kemudiannya dicairkan dengan air menjadikan ampaian cair. Ampaian cair ini ditapis melalui tapisan bergerak nipis untuk membentuk jaringan bergentian. Tera air boleh ditekan kepada kertas pada tahap ini. Jaringan bergerak ini ditekan dan dikeringkan menjadi golongan kertas panjang.

Dalam proses menggunakan acuan, sejumlah pulpa diletakkan dalam bentuk, dengan asas berjaring (atau sebarang peranti penapis lain), dengan itu gentian tertinggal selapis atas jaring dan air berlebihan akan dikeringkan. Pada masa ini, tekanan boleh digunakan bagi menghilangkan air melalui tindakan tekanan. Kertas kemudian boleh dikeluarkan daripada acuan semasa basah atau kering untuk diproses lebih lanjut.

Kebanyakan kertas dihasilkan dengan menggunakan proses berterusan (Fourdrinier) untuk membentuk gelungan atau jaringan. Apabila dikeringkan, jaringan berterusan ini boleh dipotong menjadi kepingan bersegi dengan memotongnya pada saiz yang diingini. Saiz kertas piawaian ditetapkan oleh badan penyelaras seperti Organisasi Piawaian Sejagat (International Organization for Standardization) (ISO).

(c) Pengeringan

Kertas mungkin akan dikeringkan beberapa kali semasa pengilangan (kertas kering lebih kukuh berbanding kertas basah, dengan itu ianya lebih baik untuk mengekalkan kertas kering untuk menghalang ianya putus dan menghentikan baris pengeluaran). Kadangkala kertas masih putus di mana ia akan ditukar menjadi pulpa dan diproses semula.

SEJARAH

Kertas dalam perkataan Inggeris - paper diambil daripada bahan penulisan Mesir silam yang dikenali sebagai papirus, yang dijalin daripada pokok papirus. Papirus dihasilkan seawal 3000 SM di Mesir, dan kemudiannya di Greece dan Rome silam. Lebih ke utara, parchment atau velum, yang diperbuat daripada kulit biri-biri atau kulit anak kambing, menggantikan papirus yang memerlukan keadaan cuaca sub-tropika untuk tumbuh. Di China, dokumen biasa ditulis di atas kepingan buluh, menjadikan ianya sebagai sangat berat untuk dipindahkan. Kadang-kala sutera digunakan, tetapi biasanya terlampau mahal untuk digunakan secara meluas. Kebanyakan bahan di atas jarang didapati dan mahal harganya.

Pegawai istana China, Cai Lun menggambarkan kaedah penghasilan kertas moden pada 105 M; dia merupakan orang pertama menyebut kaedah menghasilkan kertas dari cebisan kapas.

Sumber lain meletakkan penciptaan kertas di China pada 150 SM. Ia merebak dengan perlahan di luar China; kebudayaan Asia Timur lain, walaupun setelah mengunakan kertas, tidak dapat memikirkan dengan sendiri bagaimana menghasilkannya; arahan mengenai proses penghasilan diperlukan, dan orang-orang China enggan berkongsi rahsianya. Teknologi ini pertama sekali dipindahkan ke Korea pada 600 dan kemudian disebarkan ke Jepun oleh paderi Buddha Korea, Dam Jing, pada tahun 625, di mana gentian (dipanggil bast) daripada pokok mulberi digunakan. Selepas perdagangan dan kekalahan China dalam Pertempuran Talas, ciptaan kertas tersebar ke Timur Tengah, di mana ia digunakan di India dan kemudiannya oleh orang-orang Itali sekitar abad ke-13. Mereka menggunakan gentian hem dan cebisan linen.

Sesetengah sejarahwan meramalkan bahawa kertas merupakan unsur utama dalam kemajuan kebudayaan sejagat. Menurut teori ini, kebudayaan China kurang maju berbanding Barat pada masa silam kerana buluh (walaupun disebabkan buluh banyak tersedia merupakan sebab utama buluh digunakan dan bukannya kerana kemajuan sains) adalah bahan penulisan yang sukar digunakan berbanding papirus; kebudayaan China maju semasa Dinasti Han dan abad berikutnya disebabkan ciptaan kertas; dan kemajuan Europah semasa Renaissance disebabkan pengenalan kertas dan mesin cetak.

Kertas kekal sebagai bahan mewah sepanjang abad, sehingga kedatangan mesin pembuat kertas berkuasa wap pada abad ke-19, yang mampu menghasilkan kertas dengan gentian daripada habuk kayu. Walaupun mesin lebih awal telahpun dicipta, mesin pembuat kertas Fourdrinier menjadi asas kepada kebanyakan pembuat kertas moden. Bersama dengan penciptaan pen berdakwat yang praktikal dan pensil yang dihasilkan secara pukal pada masa yang sama, dan bersama dengan mesin cetak berputar berkuasa wap, kertas berasaskan kayu mendorong perubahan utama ekonomi dan masyarakat abad ke-19 di negara industri. Sebelum era ini buku atau akhbar merupakan objek mewah yang jarang dan buta huruf merupakan kebiasaan bagi kebanyakan orang. Dengan pengenalan beransur kertas murah, buku sekolah, cereka dan bukan-cereka, dan akhbar perlahan-lahan mudah didapati oleh kesemua ahli masyarakat pengilangan. Kertas murah berasaskan kayu juga bererti menyimpan diari persendirian atau menulis surat bukan lagi hanya untuk segolongan tertentu dalam masyarakat yang sama. Pekerja pejabat atau pekerja kolar putih perlahan-lahan lahir dari perubahan ini, yang dianggap sebagai sebahagian revolusi pengilangan.

Malangnya, kertas berasaskan kayu lebih berasid dan cenderung untuk berkecai apabila lama disimpan. Dokumen bertulis di atas kertas cebisan (rag) mahal lebih stabil. Kebanyakan penerbit buku moden sekarang ini menggunakan kertas bebas asid.

-Richard Hamilton-

Richard Hamilton (born February 24, 1922) is an English painter and collage artist. His 1956 collage titled Just What Is It that Makes Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing?, produced for the This Is Tomorrow exhibition of the Independent Group in London, is considered by some critics and historians to be the first work of Pop Art.

EARLY LIFE

Born into a working class family, Richard Hamilton grew up in the Pimlico area of London. Having left school with no formal qualifications Hamilton got work as an apprentice working at an electrical components firm. Here he discovered an ability for draughtsmanship and began to do painting at evening classes at St Martin's School of Art which eventually led to his entry into the Royal Academy Schools. After spending the war working as a technical draftsman he re-enrolled at the Royal Academy Schools but was later expelled on grounds of "not profiting from the instruction", loss of his student status forcing Hamilton to carry out National Service. After two years at the Slade School of Art, University College, London, Richard Hamilton began exhibiting at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) where he also produced posters and leaflets and teaching at the Central School of Art and Design.

1950s AND 1960s

Hamilton's early work was much influenced by D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson's 1913 text On Growth and Form. In 1952 Hamilton was introduced to the Green Box notes of Marcel Duchamp through Roland Penrose, whom Hamilton had met at the ICA. At the ICA Hamilton was responsible for the design and installation of a number of exhibitions including one on James Joyce and The Wonder and the Horror of the Human Head that was curated by Penrose. It was also through Penrose that Hamilton met Victor Pasmore who gave him a teaching post based in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne which lasted until 1966. The post afforded Hamilton the time to further his research on Duchamp which resulted in the publication of a typographic version of Duchamp's Green Box in 1960. Hamilton's 1955 exhibition of paintings at the Hanover Gallery were all in some form a homage to Duchamp. In the same year Hamilton organised the exhibition Man Machine Motion at the Hatton Gallery in Newcastle. Designed to look more like an advertising display than a conventional art exhibit the show prefigured Hamilton's contribution to This Is Tomorrow at London's Whitechapel Gallery the following year.

The success of This Is Tomorrow secured Hamilton further teaching assignments in particular at the Royal College of Art from 1957-61 where he promoted David Hockney and Peter Blake. During this period Hamilton was also very active in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and produced a work parodying the then leader of the Labour Party Hugh Gaitskell for rejecting a policy of unilateral nuclear disarmament. In the early 1960s he received a grant from the Arts Council to investigate the condition of the Kurt Schwitters 'Merzbau' in Cumbria. The research eventually resulted in Hamilton organising the preservation of the work by relocating it to the Hatton Gallery in the University of Newcastle. In 1962 his first wife Terry was killed in a car crash and in part to recover from this he travelled for the first time to the United States, where as well as meeting other leading Pop Artists he was befriended by Marcel Duchamp. Arising from this Hamilton curated the first and to date only British retrospective of Duchamp's work which also required Hamilton to make copies of The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even and other glass works too fragile to travel. The exhibition was shown at the Tate Gallery in 1966.

From the mid-1960s Hamilton was represented by Robert Fraser and even produced a series of prints Swingeing London based on Fraser's arrest, along with Mick Jagger, for possession of drugs. This association with the 1960s Pop Music scene continued as Hamilton became friends with Paul McCartney resulting in him producing the cover design and poster collage for the Beatles' White Album.

Hamilton had also been the teacher of Bryan Ferry and Nick de Ville in Newcastle a few years before and his influence can be found in the visual styling and approach of Roxy Music.

1970s TO PRESENT

During the 1970s Richard Hamilton enjoyed international acclaim with a number of major exhibitions being organised of his work. Hamilton had found a new companion in the painter Rita Donagh and together they set about converting North End, a farm in the Oxfordshire countryside, into a home and studios. Hamilton realised a series of projects that blurred the boundaries between artwork and product design including a painting that incorporated a state-of-the-art radio receiver and the casing of a Diab Computer. In 1977-8 Hamilton undertook a series of collaborations with the artist Dieter Roth that also blurred the definitions of the artist as sole author of their work. Since the late 1940s Richard Hamilton has been engaged with a project to produce a suite of illustrations for James Joyce's Ulysses. Associated with this, in 1981 Hamilton began work on a trilogy of paintings based on the conflicts in Northern Ireland after watching a television documentary about the protest organised by IRA prisoners in Long Kesh Prison, unofficially known as The Maze. The citizen (1981-3) shows IRA prisoner Hugh Rooney from Belfast's Short Strand republican enclave, a "dirty protester" with long hair and a beard. Republican prisoners had refused to wear prison uniforms, claiming that they were political prisoners. Prison officers refused to let "the blanket protesters" use the toilets uness they wore prison unforms. The republican prisoners refused, and instead smeared the excrement on the wall of their cells. Hamilton explained (in the catalogue to his Tate Gallery exhibition, 1992), that he saw the image of "the blanket man as a public relations contrivance of enormous efficacy. It had the moral conviction of a religious icon and the persuasiveness of the advertising man's dream soap commercial - yet it was a present reality". The subject (1988-9) shows an Orangeman, a member of the loyal order dedicated to preserve Unionism in Northern Ireland. The state (1993) shows a British soldier undertaking solitary patrol on a street. Critical responses to the works have been divided with those both on the political left and right accusing Hamilton of naïveté. The citizen was first exhibited alongside an installation of Rita Donnagh's drawings about the Maze.

During the 1980s Hamilton also voyaged into industrial design and designed two computer exteriors: OHIO computer prototype (for a Swedish firm named Isotron, 1984) and DIAB DS-101 (for Dataindustrier AB, 1986). As part of a television project Hamilton was introduced to the Quantel Paintbox and has since used this or similar devices to produce and modify his work.

In 1992 the Tate Gallery in London organised a major retrospective of Hamilton's career with an accompanying catalogue. which provides the most comprehensive review of his career. In 1993 Hamilton represented Great Britain at the Venice Biennale and was awarded the Golden Lion.
His definition of Pop Art from a letter to the Smithsons dated January 16, 1957 was - "Pop Art is: popular, transient, expendable, low-cost, mass-produced, young, witty, sexy, gimmicky, glamorous, and Big Business" - stressing its everyday, commonplace values.

Hamilton is also known as a prolific and groundbreaking printmaker. Since making his first print in 1939, his graphic work has consistently pushed the boundaries of how prints and multiples are made. These works are shown by the Alan Cristea Gallery in London.

In February 2002, the British Museum staged an exhibition of Hamilton's illustrations of James Joyce's Ulysses, entitled Imaging Ulysses. A book of Hamilton's illustrations was published simultaneously, with text by Stephen Coppel. In the book, Hamilton explained that the idea of illustrating this complex, experimental novel occurred to him when he was doing his National Service in 1947. His first preliminary sketches were made while at the Slade School of Art, and he continued to refine and re-work the images over the next 50 years. Hamilton felt his re-working of the illustrations in many different media had produced a visual effect analogous to Joyce's verbal techniques. The Ulysses illustrations were subsequently exhibited at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, and the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam. The British Museum exhibition coincided with both the 80th anniversary of the publication of Joyce's novel, and Richard Hamilton's 80th birthday.

The Tate Gallery now has a comprehensive collection of Hamilton's work from across his career.

-Barcelona Chair-

The Barcelona Chair is so named because it was exclusively designed for the Barcelona World Fair of 1929 as part of the German Pavilion. The design resulted from collaboration between the famous Bauhaus architect Mies van der Rohe and his long time partner and companion, the architect and designer, Lilly Reich. Only recently have the contributions for Reich been acknowledged.[citation needed] The Pavilion or Barcelona Chair is an icon of the "modern classical" style. Its design was inspired by its predecessors, the campaign and folding chairs of the Pharaohs and the Romans.

HISTORY

The years after the First World War had found Europe in a turmoil and the postwar years preceding the Barcelona Exhibition were challenging for the nations. Despite or possibly because of the widespread devastation, designers, industrialists, architects, and artists were inspired by new technology, materials and possibilities. Literary creativity and with it advertising and commercial promotion and film making commenced with feverish vigor. The German Government, more than any other, after losing the war and struggling to for political stability, eagerly agreed to participate in the Barcelona Exhibition.

LILLY REICH AND MIES VAN DER HORE

Lilly Reich began working for the Deutscher Werkbund in 1912. Their raison d'etre was to focus specifically on the German design industry, its quality, evolution and promotion, She was responsible for designing and organizing many of their international exhibitions and in 1921 became the organization's first female member.

Reich and van der Rohe met in the mid 1920s and collaborated on many of these exhibition design projects until he departed for the United States in 1938. While Reich always deferred to van der Rohe in public, the reverse was said to have been the case in private. While it is naturally difficult to apportion the contributions that each made to a particular design, it is interesting and poignant to note that van der Rohe never again produced any furniture designs after their partnership ended, nor had he designed any furniture beforehand. His first patent on a furniture design was issued in 1927 and his last in 1937.

Reich's affiliation to the Deutscher Werkbund and her architectural work with van der Rohe on their exhibition design and furniture design made them the natural choice for the Commission to design the German Pavilion in Barcelona.

Government ministers and leaders and industrialists from many European countries, flocked to the Expo and King Alfonso III and the Empress Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg, granddaughter of Britain's Queen Victoria, set the royal seal of approval on the Exhibition by gracing it with their presence. Together with her consort, Prince Albert of Germany, Queen Victoria had been inspired by the Paris Exhibition in 1844 and had designed and advocated Crystal Palace Exhibition in London's Hyde Park in 1851. World Trade Expositions were nothing new, however the timing of the Barcelona Exhibition was crucial.

THE GERMAN PAVILLION

An enormous responsibility rested on van der Rohe's shoulders to produce a very special building which would unmistakably announce to the world the resuscitation of cultured Germany's prowess, and adequately showcase their creative achievements and commercial viability. The renowned sculptor George Kolbe's work was shown to great advantage as was the Barcelona Chair.

Modern technological advances in steel and glistening sheet glass, enabled their integration with marble and travertine to facilitate a shockingly futuristic edifice of balanced modernistic linear beauty. Juxtaposed in a very different way from the claustrophobic Victorian era from which they were barely emerging, the senses of the public must have been awestruck.

A VERY SPECIAL CHAIR

Catapulting its ancient and regal design right into the present time and beyond, with great flair and brilliance, the designers enjoyed instant acclaim. the Chair was shown off perfectly in the environment of van der Rohe's Pavilion. It was immediately recognized for its great style by highly influential, educated and cultured exhibition visitors. Royal visitors, it is said, did not actually take advantage of this newly designed seating accommodation, but the chair quickly attained the reputation of being "a design worthy of kings".

MATERIAL AND MANUFACTURE

Predating the advent of stainless steel and seamless ground welding, the frame was designed to be bolted together. It was then re-designed by van der Rohe in 1950, using the newly developed stainless steel, and allowing the frame to be formed by a seamless piece of metal giving it the smooth lines we know and see today. Bovine leather has replaced the more expensive ivory colored pigskin which was used for the original pieces. Three years later, (and six years after Reich's death), the design went into commercial production and van der Rohe licensed the rights of reproduction to Knoll who are the current licensed manufacturer of the Barcelona Chair and also own the trade mark.

PHILOSOPHY AND ECONOMIC

Although many architects and furniture designers of the Bauhaus era, were intent on providing well designed homes and impeccably manufactured furnishings for the 'common man', (and van der Rohe was very much in agreement with this philosophy), it was and still is not possible to do this in the case of the Barcelona Chair as the materials and labor are too expensive. Its tufted and buttoned, supple high quality leather cushions are hand sewn and individually stitched and piped require twenty eight hours of highly skilled labor to produce.

The timeless, iconic Chair has never ceased to be in production and has always been a 'must have' for both wealthy aficionados as well as architects and designers. Ottomans, loveseats, sofas, daybeds and benches, even inspirational versions of the chair, loveseat and sofa with arms have been added to the 'range'.

Although the original rights of reproduction were purchased by Knoll, unaffiliated reproductions of the Barcelona Chair are today manufactured by a vast and diverse group of manufacturers, each varying considerably in their price, quality and even specifics of the design.

CURRENT PRODUCTION

In the US, Knoll, Inc. owns the rights to the USPTO trademark: Barcelona®. Knoll manufactures the frame in two different steel configurations and several different leathers. The lower cost version is made of carbon steel with a chrome plate finish (approx. retail US$3900). The more expensive version is made of #304 stainless steel (approx. retail US$6000). The frame is welded into a single piece frame. Thick leather straps supporting the seat pad and chair back are screwed or riveted into the frame. The padding used is PU foam. The cushions are wrapped in leather and attached by hidden double snap buttons.

Although it has a "machine made" appearance, the chair is almost completely hand laboured. Mies van der Rohe's signature is fixed or stamped into each Knoll Barcelona Chair. The frames are made of massive suspension stainless steel. It requires both high precision and fine craftsmanship to weld and finish the joints.

Reproductions are produced by many manufacturers across the world, under different marketing names. Quality of reproductions vary greatly. Knoll's Barcelona Chair is considered the gold standard and is highly prized (and highly priced).

-Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe-

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe born Maria Ludwig Michael Mies (March 27, 1886 – August 17, 1969) was a German architect.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, along with Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier, is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modern architecture. Mies, like many of his post World War I contemporaries, sought to establish a new architectural style that could represent modern times just as Classical and Gothic did for their own eras. He created an influential Twentieth-Century architectural style, stated with extreme clarity and simplicity. His mature buildings made use of modern materials such as industrial steel and plate glass to define interior spaces. He strived towards an architecture with a minimal framework of structural order balanced against the implied freedom of free-flowing open space. He called his buildings "skin and bones" architecture. He sought a rational approach that would guide the creative process of architectural design, and is known for his use of the aphorisms "less is more" and "God is in the details".

EARLY CAREER

Mies worked in his father's stone-carving shop and at several local design firms before he moved to Berlin joining the office of interior designer Bruno Paul. He began his architectural career as an apprentice at the studio of Peter Behrens from 1908 to 1912, where he was exposed to the current design theories and to progressive German culture. His talent was quickly recognized and he soon began independent commissions, despite his lack of a formal college-level education. A physically imposing, deliberative, and reticent man, Ludwig Mies renamed himself as part of his rapid transformation from a tradesman's son to an architect working with Berlin's cultural elite, adding the more aristocratic surname "van der Rohe". He began his independent professional career designing upper class homes in traditional Germanic domestic styles. He admired the broad proportions, regularity of rhythmic elements, attention to the relationship of the manmade to nature, and compositions using simple cubic volumes of the early nineteenth century Prussian Neo-Classical architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel, while dismissing the eclectic and cluttered classical so common at the turn of the century.

TRADITIONALISM TO MODERNISM

After World War I, Mies began, while still designing traditional custom homes, a parallel experimental effort in modernist design, joining his avant-garde peers in the long-running search for a new style for a new industrial democracy. The weak points of traditional styles had been under attack by progressive theorists since the mid-nineteenth century, primarily for attaching historical ornament unrelated to a modern structure's underlying construction. Their mounting criticism of the historical styles gained substantial cultural credibility after the disaster of World War I, widely seen as a failure of the old order of imperial leadership of Europe. The classical revival styles were particularly reviled by many as the architectural symbol of a now-discredited aristocratic system.

Boldly abandoning ornament altogether, Mies made a dramatic debut with his stunning competition proposal for the faceted all-glass Friedrichstrasse skyscraper in 1921, followed by a curved version in 1922. He continued with a series of brilliant pioneering projects, culminating in his two European masterworks: the temporary German Pavilion for the Barcelona exposition (often called the Barcelona Pavilion) in 1929 (a reconstruction is now built on the original site) and the elegant Villa Tugendhat in Brno, Czech Republic, completed in 1930.

While continuing his traditional design practice Mies began to develop visionary projects that, though mostly unbuilt, rocketed him to fame as a progressive architect. He worked with the progressive design magazine G which started in July 1923. He developed prominence as architectural director of the Werkbund, organizing the influential Weissenhof prototype modernist housing exhibition. He was also one of the founders of the architectural association Der Ring. He joined the avant-garde Bauhaus design school as their director of architecture, adopting and developing their functionalist application of simple geometric forms in the design of useful objects.

Like all other avant guarde architects of the day, Mies based his own architectural theories and principles on his own personal re-combinations of ideas developed by many other thinkers and designers who had attacked the flaws of the traditional design styles, defined new criteria, and created alternative design solutions.

Mies' modernist thinking was influenced by the aesthetic credos of Russian Constructivism with their ideology of "efficient" sculptural constructions using modern industrial materials. Mies found appeal in the use of simple rectilinear and planar forms, clean lines, pure use of color, and the extension of space around and beyond interiors expounded by the Dutch De Stijl group. In particular, the layering of functions in space and the clear articulation of parts as expressed by Gerrit Rietveld appealed to Mies.

Like other architects in Europe, Mies was enthralled with the free-flowing inter-connected rooms which encompass their outdoor surroundings as demonstrated by the open floor plans of the American Prairie Style work of Frank Lloyd Wright.

The theories of Adolf Loos found resonance with Mies, particularly the ideas of eradication of ornament and the casting off of the superficial, the use of unadorned but rich materials, the nobility of anonymity, and an admiration for the unfettered pragmatism of American engineering structures and machines.

SIGNIFICANCE AND MEANING

Opportunities for commissions dwindled with the worldwide depression after 1929. In the early 1930s, Mies served briefly as the last Director of the faltering Bauhaus, at the request of his friend and competitor Walter Gropius. After 1933, Nazi political pressure soon forced Mies to close the government-financed school, a victim of its previous association with socialism, communism, and other progressive ideologies. He built very little in these years (one built commission was Philip Johnson's New York apartment); his style was rejected by the Nazis as not "German" in character. Frustrated and unhappy, he left his homeland reluctantly in 1937 as he saw his opportunity for any future building commissions vanish, accepting a residential commission in Wyoming and then an offer to head an architectural school in Chicago. When the refugee from the heavy-handed and constricting order of the Nazi government arrived in the United States after 30 years of practice in Germany, his reputation as a pioneer of modern architecture was already established by American promoters of the international style.

CAREER IN THE UNITED STATES

Mies settled in Chicago, Illinois where he was appointed as head of the architecture school at Chicago's Armour Institute of Technology (later renamed Illinois Institute of Technology - IIT). One of his conditions for taking this position was that he would be commissioned to design the new buildings of the campus. Some of his most famous buildings still stand there, including Alumni Hall and S.R. Crown Hall, the home of IIT's School of Architecture. In 1944, he became an American citizen, completing his severance from his native Germany. His 30 years as an American architect reflect a more consistent and mature approach towards achieving his goal of a new architecture for the 20th Century. He focused his efforts on the idea of enclosing large open "universal" spaces with clearly ordered structural frameworks, featuring manufactured steel shapes infilled with glass. His early projects at the IIT campus and for developer Herb Greenwald opened the eyes of Americans to a style that culturally resonated as a natural progression of the almost forgotten 19th century Chicago School style. His architecture, with origins in the socialist International style became an accepted mode of building for large American corporations.

THE SECOND CHICAGO SCHOOL

His most significant projects in the U.S. include the residential towers of 860-880 Lake Shore Dr, the Farnsworth House, Crown Hall and other structures at IIT, all in and around Chicago, and the Seagram Building in New York. These iconic works became the prototypes for his other projects.

Between 1946 and 1951 Mies van der Rohe designed and built the Farnsworth House, a weekend retreat outside Chicago for an independent professional woman, Dr. Edith Farnsworth. Here, Mies explored the relationship between the individual, man-made shelter, and nature. This masterpiece showed the world that exposed industrial structural steel and glass were materials capable of great architecture. The glass pavilion is raised six feet above a floodplain next to the Fox River, surrounded by forest and rural prairies. The highly crafted pristine white structural frame and all-glass walls define a simple rectangular interior space, letting nature and light envelop the interior space. A wood paneled core (housing mechanical equipment, kitchen, fireplace, and toilets) is positioned within the open space to define the living, dining and sleeping spaces without using walls to surround rooms. No partitions touch the surrounding all-glass enclosure. Without solid exterior walls, full-height draperies on a perimeter track allows freedom to provide full or partial privacy when and where desired. The house has been described as sublime, a temple hovering between heaven and earth, a poem, a work of art. The Farnsworth House and its 60 acre wooded site was purchased at auction for US$7.5 million by preservation groups in 2004 and is now operated by the Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois as a public museum. The influential building spawned hundreds of modernist glass houses, most notably the Glass House by Philip Johnson, located near New York City and now owned by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The iconic Farnsworth House is considered among Mies's greatest works. The house is an embodiment of Mies' mature vision of modern architecture for the new technological age: a single large space with a minimal "skin and bones" framework provides a steel and glass enclosure with a clearly understandable order, with interior space loosely defined by independant partitions within the overall room, free-flowing to suggest freedom of use. His ideas are stated with clarity and simplicity, using materials that are allowed express their own individual character.

In 1958 Mies van der Rohe designed what has been regarded as the pinnacle of the modern high-rise architecture, the Seagram Building in New York. Mies was chosen by the daughter of the client, Phyllis Bronfman Lambert, who has become a noted architectural figure and patron in her own right. The Seagram Building has become an icon of the growing power of that defining institution of the 20th Century, the corporation. In a bold and innovative move, the architect chose to set the tower back from the property line to create a forecourt plaza and fountain on Park Avenue. Although now acclaimed and widely influential as an urban design feature, Mies had to convince Bronfman's bankers that a taller tower with significant "wasted" open space was a viable idea. Mies' design included a bronze curtain wall with external H-shaped mullions that were exaggerated in depth beyond what is structurally necessary, touching off a conversation among some of his more zealous followers about whether Mies had or had not committed Adolf Loos' "crime of ornamentation". Philip Johnson had a role in interior materials selections and the plaza, and he designed the sumptuous Four Seasons restaurant. The Seagram Building is said to be an early example of the innovative "fast-track" construction process, where design and construction are done concurrently. Using the Seagram as a prototype, Mies' office designed a number of modern high-rise office towers, notably the Chicago Federal Center, which includes the Dirksen and Klusinski Federal Buildings and Post Office (1959) and the IBM Plaza in Chicago, the Westmount Square in Montreal and the Toronto-Dominion Centre in 1967. For the TD Centre he designed the font used on all the signage including the concourse area. The signage was still used in 2007, although is slowly being replaced as retailers update their store facades as leases turn over.

Mies also designed a series of four middle-income high-rise apartment buildings for developer Herb Greenwald (and his successor firms after his untimely death in a plane crash), the 860/880 and 900/910 Lake Shore Drive towers on Chicago's Lakefront. These towers, with facades of steel and glass, were radical departures from the typical residential brick apartment buildings of the time (interestingly, Mies found their unit sizes too small for himself, choosing instead to continue living in a spacious traditional luxury apartment a few blocks away). Again, these towers became the prototype for many more apartment tower blocks across the country designed by Mies' office.

During 1951-1952, Mies' designed the steel, glass and brick McCormick House, located in Elmhurst, Illinois (15 miles west of the Chicago Loop), for real-estate developer Robert Hall McCormick, Jr. A one story adaptation of the exterior curtain wall of his famous 860-880 Lake Shore Drive towers, it served as a prototype for an unbuilt series of speculative houses to be constructed in Melrose Park, Illinois. The house has been moved, but it exists today as a part of the Elmhurst Art Museum.

Mies last work was the Neue Nationalgalerie art museum, the New National Gallery, in Berlin. Considered one of the most perfect statements of his architectural approach, the upper pavilion is a precise composition of monumental steel columns and a cantilevered (overhanging) roof plane with a glass enclosure. The simple square box is a powerful expression of his ideas about flexible interior space, defined by transparent walls and supported by an external structural frame. The pavilion is a relatively small portion of the overall building, serving as a symbolic architectural entry point and monumental gallery for larger scale art. A large podium building below the pavilion accommodates most of the buildings actual built area in more functional spaces for galleries, support and utilitarian rooms.

The campus of Whitney Young High School and the adjacent Chicago Police Academy are two examples of the influence van der Rohe had on Chicago architecture.

FURNITURE

Mies designed modern furniture pieces using new industrial technologies that have become popular classics, such as the Barcelona chair and table, and the Brno chair. His furniture is known for fine craftsmanship, a mix of traditional luxurious fabrics like leather combined with modern chrome frames, and a distinct separation of the supporting structure and the supported surfaces, often employing cantilevers to enhance the feeling of lightness created by delicate structural frames. During this period, he collaborated closely with interior designer and companion Lilly Reich.

MIES AS EDUCATOR

Mies played a significant role as an educator, believing his architectural language could be learned, then applied to design any type of modern building. He worked personally and intensively on prototype solutions, and then allowed his students, both in school and his office, to develop derivative solutions for specific projects under his guidance. But when none was able to match the genius and poetic quality of his own work, he agonized about where his educational method had gone wrong.

Mies placed great importance on education of architects who could carry on his design principles. He devoted a great deal of time and effort leading the architecture program at IIT. Mies served on the initial Advisory Board of the Graham Foundation in Chicago. His own practice was based on intensive personal involvement in design efforts to create prototype solutions for building types (860 Lake Shore Dr, the Farnsworth, Seagram, S.R. Crown Hall, The New National Gallery), then allowing his studio designers to develop derivative buildings under his supervision. Mies's grandson Dirk Lohan and two partners led the firm after he died in 1969. Lohan, who had collaborated with Mies on the New National Gallery, continued with existing projects but soon led the firm on his own independent path. Other disciples continued his teachings for a few years, notably Gene Summers, David Haid, Myron Goldsmith, Jaques Brownsom, Helmut Jahn, and other architects at the firms of C.F. Murphy and Skidmore Owings & Merrill.

But while Mies' work had enormous influence and critical recognition, his approach failed to sustain a creative force as a style after his death and was eclipsed by the new wave of Post Modernism by the 1980s. He had hoped his architecture would serve as a universal model that could be easily imitated, but the aesthetic power of his best buildings proved impossible to match, instead resulting mostly in drab and uninspired structures. The failure of his followers to meet his high standard may have contributed to demise of Modernism and the rise of new competing design theories, notably Postmodernism; alternatively, his disregard for costs, context, and his clients' needs may have damaged Modernism's reputation along with his own.

DEATH

Over the last twenty years of his life, Mies developed and built his vision of a monumental "skin and bones" architecture that reflected his goal to provide the individual a place to fulfill himself in the modern era. Mies sought to create free and open spaces, enclosed within a structural order with minimal presence. Mies van der Rohe died in 1969, and was buried near Chicago's other famous architects in Uptown's Graceland Cemetery.

-African Chair-

Satu kerja daripada tahun-tahun awal Bauhaus, mengandaikan hilang untuk masa lampau 80 tahun, telah sembuh: orang Afrika Chair, dicipta oleh Marcel Breuer dalam kerjasama dengan penenun Gunta Stölzl. Hanya sebelum ini dikenali dokumentasi ini takhta seperti sebuah perabot adalah sezaman hitam putih mengambil gambar. Dibuat kayu yang dicat dengan satu tenunan tekstil berwarna-warni, kerusi ini mewujudkan semangat Bauhaus awal objek lain tiada yang suka. Ia adalah karya pertama oleh Marcel Breuer, yang kemudian meneruskan untuk menulis sejarah reka bentuk dengan perabot kelulinya yang berbentuk tiub. Dengan sokongan Ernst von Siemens Art Foundation, ia adalah mungkin untuk menjamin dongengan ini dan unik berkhidmat koleksi Bauhaus Archive di Berlin.

Hari ini pun, warna-warni dicat dan upholsteri kerusi sejenis kayu keras membangkitkan persatuan-persatuan visual yang adalah berkait dengan nya hak milik; bagaimanapun, ini menyediakan tiada maklumat mengenai tujuan asal kerusi. Pelbagai hipotetikal guna pada masa penubuhannya adalah mungkin: kerusi boleh telah berkhidmat sebagai satu 'takhta' untuk pengarah Bauhaus, yang ditakrifkan sebagai nakhoda peranannya sebuah bangunan tumpang selaras imej kendiri Bauhaus awal. Takhta seperti pembinaan juga boleh dirujuk untuk persefahaman bagi ibu seni bina semua kesenian dalam teori seni bina yang klasik, dengan sebagai pemimpin arkitek dan penganjur - satu peranan dengan yang Walter Gropius dikenalpasti semua hidupnya. Bersama dapat difikirkan adalah tafsiran sebuah perabot ini serupa satu perkahwinan simbolik kerusi, memberi ungkapan untuk hubungan rapat antara Marcel Breuer dan Gunta Stölzl pada masa. Semua penjelasan-penjelasan percubaan ini adalah ditapis dari ramai hemat dan teori-teori yang telah beredar serentak pada tahun-tahun awal Bauhaus; mahupun kemudian ataupun kemudian adalah komen-komen yang mana-mana khusus dibuat mengenai kerusi. Dengan kemunculan pepatah Bauhaus Art dan Technology - Satu New Unity bermula dalam 1923, ia menjadi satu simbol untuk satu era sejarah Bauhaus yang telah datang untuk satu matlamat. Oleh sebab itu, ia adalah satu manifestasi fizikal yang tiada tara alam semesta konsepsi dan kompleks Bauhaus awal.

Bauhaus Archive adalah membentangkan kerusi ini dalam konteks tambahan daripada kerja Bauhaus awal yang menekankan kepentingannya yang unik. Pameran itu juga termasuk satu gambaran Bauhaus Marcel Breuer Film, yang telah dicetak dalam 1926 dan percubaan untuk menunjukkan pembangunan rekabentuk perabot di Bauhaus - daripada orang Afrika Chair untuk perabot keluli berbentuk tiub.

-Bicycle-

Chronology of the Growth of Bicycling and the Development of Bicycle Technology

Many people claim credit for inventing the first bicycle. The answer to the question often depends upon the nationality of who you ask; the French claim it was a Frenchman, Scots claim a Scotsman, the English an Englishman, and Americans often claim that it was an American. Since the early 1990's the International Cycling History Conferences, with proceedings Cycle History (San Francisco), has worked to get past the jingoism. Our current understanding of the history of the bicycle suggests that many people contributed ideas and developments:

1418

Giovanni Fontana built the first human powered land vehicle -- it had four wheels and used an endless rope connected via gears to the wheels.

1493

Sketches showing a primitive version of a bicycle, purported drawn by Leonardo da Vinci, surfaced in 1974. Further examination of the drawings indicates these are not by da Vinci's hand. The speculation that these are a sketch by a pupil after a lost drawing by da Vinci is also considered false. An age test was performed, but the library in Milan (belonging to the Vatican) conceals its negative outcome, see http://www.cyclepublishing.com/history/leonardo%20da%20vinci%20bicycle.html. Experts consider the sketches a hoax.

1791

Comte de Sicrac is credited with building the "celerifer" - purportedly a hobby horse with two wheels instead of a rocker. This is now considered a patriotic hoax created by a French historian in 1891. It was debunked by a French researcher in 1976. In fact, a Jean Sievrac (!) of Marseille obtained an import price for a four-wheeled speed coach called celerifer in 1817.

1817

Variously called the running machine, velocipede, Draisienne and dandy horse, it was invented by Karl Drais, in response to widespread starvation and the slaughtering of horses, the consequence of a crop failure the year before (caused by the eruption of Tambora). It had a steer-able front wheel. This is the first appearance of the two-wheeler principle that is basic to cycling and motorcycling and minimizes rolling resistance. The velocipedes were made entirely of wood and needed to be balanced by directing the front wheel a bit. People then did not dare to lift the feet off safe ground, therefore the velocipedes were propelled by pushing off with the feet. After the good harvest in 1817 riding velocipedes on sidewalks was forbidden worldwide, since the velocipeders used the sidewalks, and because they could not balance on the rutted carriageway, the fad passed. It took nearly 50 years, until a roller-skating boom created a new public with a better sense of balance. For more information see: http://www.maxime-verlag.de/presse_Drais/2005_01_29newscientist.html and http://www.karldrais.de/?lang=en&sid=bd15ff8c6ef29db0e7dd1d7e6e1680ae

1839

Another entry in bicycle lore: Kirkpatric Mcmillan, a Scottish blacksmith adapted a treadle-type pedals to a bicycle, is considered a hoax, see the David Herlihy's book.

1863

Bone Shaker or Velocipede: Made of stiff materials, straight angles and steel wheels make this bike literally a bone shaker to ride over the cobblestone roads of the day. The improvement is a front wheel with peddles -- direct drive, fixed gear, one speed. This machine was known as the velocipede ("fast foot"), but was popularly known as the bone shaker, They also became a fad, and indoor riding academies, similar to roller rinks, could be found in large cities.

1870

Ordinary: These are better know as the "high wheelers". It is more comfortable to ride than its predecessor, but it requires an acrobat so they popularity has always been limited. This was the first all metal machine to appeared. (Previous to this metallurgy was not advanced enough to provide metal which was strong enough to make small, light parts out of.) The pedals were still attached directly to the front wheel with no freewheeling mechanism. Solid rubber tires and the long spokes of the large front wheel provided a much smoother ride than its predecessor. The front wheels became larger and larger as makers realized that the larger the wheel, the farther you could travel with one rotation of the pedals. You would purchase a wheel as large as your leg length would allow. These bicycles enjoyed a great popularity among young men of means (they cost an average worker six month's pay), with the hey-day being the decade of the 1880's. Because the rider sat so high above the center of gravity, if the front wheel was stopped by a stone or rut in the road, or the sudden emergence of a dog, the entire apparatus rotated forward on its front axle, and the rider, with his legs trapped under the handlebars, was dropped unceremoniously on his head. Here the term "taking a header" came into being. This machine was the first one to be called a bicycle ("two wheel").

1872

Friedrich Fischer (German) first mass-produces steel ball bearings, patented by Jules Suriray in 1869.

1876

Browett and Harrison (English) patent an early caliper brake.

1878

Scott and Phillott (English) patent the first practicable epicyclic change-speed gear fitted into the hub of a front-driving bicycle.

1879

Henry J. Lawson (English) patents a rear wheel, chain-driven safety bicycle, the “Bicyclette” (his earlier models were lever driven).

1880

Thomas Humber (English) adapts the block chain for use with his range of bicycles.

1880's

While the men were risking their necks on the high wheels, ladies, confined to their long skirts and corsets, could take a spin around the park on an adult tricycle. These machines also afforded more dignity to gentlemen such as doctors and clergymen. Many mechanical innovations now associated with the automobile were originally invented for tricycles. Rack and pinion steering, the differential, and band brakes, to name a few!

1880

Bicycle Activism: Good roads society organized by bicyclist and lobbied for good roads -- paving the way for motor vehicles!

1884

Thomas Stevens struck out across the country, carrying socks, a spare shirt and a slicker that doubled as tent and bedroll. Leaving San Francisco at 8 o'clock on April 22, 1884, he traveled eastward, reaching Boston after 3700 wagon trail miles, to complete the first transcontinental bicycle ride on August 4, 1884. After a pause, he continued east, circumnavigating earth, and returning to San Francisco on Dec 24, 1886. See Around the World by Bicycle, 2000 reenactment of 1884 ride, and 2006 reenactment of 1885 ride.

1888

Pneumatic tire: First applied to the bicycle by an Irish veterinarian who was trying to give his sickly young son a more comfortable ride on his tricycle. This inventive young doctor's name was Dunlop. Now that comfort and safety could be had in the same package, and that package was getting cheaper as manufacturing methods improved, everyone clamored to ride the bicycle.

1890

Safety Bike: As the name implies the safety bike is safer than the ordinary. The further improvement of metallurgy sparked the next innovation, or rather return to previous design. With metal that was now strong enough to make a fine chain and sprocket small and light enough for a human being to power, the next design was a return to the original configuration of two same-size wheels, only now, instead of just one wheel circumference for every pedal turn, you could, through the gear ratios, have a speed the same as the huge high-wheel. Initially, the bicycles still had the hard rubber tires, and in the absence of the long, shock-absorbing spokes, the ride they provided was much more uncomfortable than any of the high-wheel designs. Many of these bicycles of 100 years ago had front and/or rear suspensions. These designs competed with each other, your choice being the high-wheel's comfort or the safety's safety, but the next innovation tolled the death of the high-wheel design -- pneumatic tires. This is basically the same design as standard contemporary bikes. The safety bike allowed large numbers of people to take up cycling. Bikes were relatively expensive so use was somewhat restrict to the elite.

1890

Mass Production: The bicycle helped make the Gay Nineties what they were. It was a practical investment for the working man as transportation, and gave him a much greater flexibility for leisure. Women would also start riding bicycles in much larger numbers.

1894

Change In Social Order: Betty Bloomer's bloomers become very popular. Ladies, heretofore consigned to riding the heavy adult size tricycles that were only practical for taking a turn around the park, now could ride a much more versatile machine and still keep their legs covered with long skirts. The bicycle craze killed the bustle and the corset, instituted "common-sense dressing" for women and increased their mobility considerably. Victorian women cyclists. American Music and women bicyclists. Women and bicycles.

1894

The bicycle messenger business started in California when a railway strike halted mail delivery for the Bay Area. An ingenious bicycle shop owner in Fresno came up with the idea to deliver it by bicycle. He set up a relay between Fresno and San Francisco, with 6 riders covering about 30 miles each. The last rider would cover 60 miles.

1894-95

Annie Cohan (a.k.a. Annie Londonderry) bicycles around the world. Scant information has her leaving Boston in June 1894 on her Sterling bike and finishing her ride in Chicago in Sept 1895.

1895

Ignatz Schwinn and Adolph Arnold formed Arnold, Schwinn & Company to produce bikes.

1896

"Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel. It gives woman a feeling of freedom and self-reliance." Susan B Anthony.

1898, 1899, 1900

Major Taylor was the American cycling sprint champion, and he topped all European champions as well. Taylor was one of the first black athletes to become a world champion in any sport. (Taylor is celebrated in Andrew Richie's book Major Taylor: The Extraordinary Career of a Champion Bicycle Racer, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.) See also: The Major Taylor Association, The Major Taylor Society and The Major Taylor Velodrome.

1903

Internal hub gears invented by Sturmey Archer. By 1930 these were used on bikes manufactured around the world. There dominance lasted until the 1950s the parallelogram derailleur was introduced. See also Sturmey Archer Bicycle Hubs.

1920

Kids Bikes: The focus of planning and development of the transportation infrastructure was the private automobiles. Bicycles use declined and the bicycle was considered primarily as children's toys. Kids bikes were introduced just after the First World War by several manufacturers, such as Mead, Sears Roebuck, and Montgomery Ward, to revitalize the bike industry (Schwinn made its big splash slightly later), these designs, now called "classic", featured automobile and motorcycle elements to appeal to kids who, presumably, would rather have a motor. If ever a bike needed a motor, this was it. These bikes evolved into the most glamorous, fabulous, ostentatious, heavy designs ever. It is unbelievable today that 14-year-old kids could do the tricks that we did on these 65 pound machines! They were built into the middle 50s, by which time they had taken on design elements of jet aircraft and even rockets. By the 60s, they were becoming leaner and simpler.

1930

Tullio Campagnolo patents the quick release hub.

1930's

Schwinn introduced the fat tire, spring fork, streamline Excelsior, designed to take the abuse of teenage boys, which was the proto-type mountain bike. The Schwinn Excelsior frames became the model for the early mountain bikes almost fifty years later.

1938

Simplex introduced their cable shifted derailleur.

1940

Women bicyclists in the French Resistance. by Rebecca G. Halbreich, published in Ex Post Facto, 1994.

1950s

Tullio Campagnolo introduced cable-operated, parallelogram derailleur. Campagnolo. For two decades Campagnolo equipment dominated true racing bikes. Eventually, he acquires 135 patents.

1958

Women ride in the first-ever World Championships on the road and track. Balina Ermolaeva becomes the first women's World Sprint Champion; Elsy Jacobs takes the road race.

1962

Renaissance: President's Council of Physical Fitness. Renewed interest in bicycle for recreation and fitness. This was the seed of a new major bicycle boom that accelerated through the 60's. The "English 3-speed" was the fancy consumer model of the time. Before the end of the decade it was the 10-speed derailleur "racing bike" which dominated the American market (the derailleur had been invented before the turn of the century and had been in more-or-less common use in Europe since).

1970

Earth Day: Increased awareness of westerns civilization's level of consumption of natural resources, air pollution, and destruction of the natural environment. This generated a new spurt in the growth of bicycle sales and bicycling, especially around college campuses.

1973

Oil embargo: Fuel shortages and shifts in relative price of transportation options created an environment which encouraged bicycle commuting. Many of the new recruits to bicycling stuck to it after the end of the embargo and became enthusiasts. There was also reinvigorated interest in the engineering of bicycles, including renewed interest recumbents and fairings.

1977

The prototype of the mountain bikes were first developed in Marin Co, California, north of San Francisco. Joe Breeze, Otis Guy, Gary Fisher, and Craig Mitchell were the earliest designers, builders and promoters.

1978

A new round of steep oil prices increases further encouraged bicycling. More bikes than car were being sold in the USA. Triple chain-ring cranks had become widely available, adding to the range of situation that bicycle were practical for.

1980's

Renewed interests in health and fitness, by the middle and upper class perpetuated the acceptance and growth of commuting, recreational and touring bicycling.

Bike messengers develop should backs to carry large envelopes flat. The style migrates into general use as an alternative to back packs, ruck sacks and purses.

Aerobic exercisers take the padding out of bike shorts and use them in exercise class. The style migrates into general use -- some wearers haven't exercised in decades.

1984

Tour de France Feminine run for the first time (winner: Marianne Martin.)

Women's road race included in the Olympics for the first time (winner: Connie Carpenter.) Successes by American racing cyclist in the 1984 Olympics drew attention and added prestige to cycling. The ranks of racing cyclists grew substantially.

Cogs began to be added to the rear gear cluster the number of speeds increase from 15 to 18, 21 and 24.

Three-time national XC champion Jacquie Phelan founds the Women's Mountain Bike and Tea Society; the first formal outreach organization for women. WOMBATS is dedicated to introducing women to mountain biking in a fun, non-competitive environment.

1986

Department of the Interior and Nielson surveys show that bicycling is the third most popular participatory sport after swimming and general exercise.

1990

Shimano (Japanese) introduces integrated brake/gear levers.

1994

Sachs (SRAM) introduces PowerDisc, the first mass-produced hydraulic disc brake system.

1996

Mountain Bike compete at the Olympic Games for the first time in Atlanta, GA USA.

2000

Rohloff Speedhub 14 speed internal hub gearing system, with no overlapping ratios and a gear range as wide as a 27-speed derailleur system.

2002

Campagnolo introduces 10 cog rear cluster, allowing 30 speed bicycles.

For more information, click this url:

http://www.pedalinghistory.com/PHhistory.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycles

-Memphis-

The Memphis Group

The Memphis group comprised of Italian designers and architects who created a series of highly influential products in the 1980's. They disagreed with the conformist approach at the time and challenged the idea that products had to follow conventional shapes, colours, textures and patterns.

The Memphis group was founded in 1981. One of the leading members of the group Ettore Sottsass called Memphis design the 'New International Style'.
Memphis was a reaction against the slick, black humorless design of the 1970's. It was a time of minimalism with such products as typewriters, buildings, cameras, cars and furniture all seeming to lack personality and individualism.

In contrast the Memphis Group offered bright, colourful, shocking pieces. The colours they used contrasted the dark blacks and browns of European furniture. It may look dated today but at the time it looked remarkable. The word tasteful is not normally associated with products generated by the Memphis Group but they were certainly ground breaking at the time.

All this would seem to suggest that the Memphis Group was very superficial but that was far from the truth. Their main aim was to reinvigorate the Radical Design movement. The group intended to develop a new creative approach to design.

On the 11th of December 1980 Scottsass organised a meeting with other such famous designers. They decided to form a design collaborative. It would be named Memphis after the Bob Dylan song ''Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again''. Coincidentally the song had been played repeatedly throughout the evening.

Memphis was historically the ancient Egyptian capital of culture and the birthplace of 'Elvis Presley'. This was quite ironic but so were most of the pieces created by the group.

The image below is of the 'Super lamp' created by Martine Bedine. It is made of metal, which has been painted and lacquered.

The group decided that they would meet again in February 1981. By that time each member would have had time to generate design proposals. When they did meet themembers of the group had produced over a hundred drawings, each bold, colourful.

They drew inspiration from such movements as Art Deco and Pop Art, styles such as the 1950's Kitsch and futuristic themes. Their concepts were in stark contrast to so called 'Good Design'.

The group approached furniture and ceramic companies commissioning them to batch produce their design concepts. On the 18th of September 1981 the group showed its work for the first time at the Arc '74 showroom in Milan. The show exhibited clocks, lighting, furniture and ceramics created by internationally famous architects and designers.

The image below shows the 'Carlton bookcase' for Memphis designed by Ettore Sottsass.

In the same year the group published the book 'Memphis, The New International Style. The book served to advertise the groups work.

Many of the pieces featured in the exhibition were coated in brightly, colourful laminates. Laminates are most commonly used to protect kitchen furniture and surfaces from staining as a result of spillage. The group specifically chose this material because of its obvious ''lack of culture''.

The workof the Memphis Group has been described as vibrant, eccentric and ornamental. It was conceived by the group to be a 'fad', which like all fashions would very quickly come to an end. In 1988 Sottsass dismantled the group.

The group may no longer exist but it has certainly influenced graphic design, restaurant design, fabrics and furnishing.

- Ettore Sottsass Jr -

Ettore Sottsass (14 September 1917 – 31 December 2007) was an Innsbruck-born Italian architect and designer of the late 20th century. Sottsass was a flamboyant, influential, highly original and occasionally despised Italian designer and architect who was a leading member of the group which established postwar Italy's reputation for design. Sottsass made his name in the 1960s as an industrial designer for Olivetti (particularly the iconic red Valentine portable typewriter).

CAREER

Sottsass was born September 14, 1917, in Innsbruck, Austria, and grew up in Milan, where his father was an architect. In 1939 he graduated from Politecnico di Torino in Turin with a degree in architecture. He served in the Italian military and spent much of World War II in a concentration camp in Yugoslavia. After returning from the war, he set up his own architectural and industrial design studio in Milan in 1947, one of a new group of Italian designers which included Gio Ponti and Carlo Mollino dedicated to postwar reconstruction.

Interested in south Asia, Sottsass traveled to India only to return to Italy a very sick man. Luckily, Sottsass had been befriended by Adriano Olivetti, son of Camillo Olivetti, a leading northern Italian industrial magnate. When Sottsass returned to his homeland, Olivetti was so concerned about the health of his friend that he gave Sottsass a blank check to seek a cure in the United States. While spending a year in and out of California hospitals, Sottsass managed to make friends with Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, as well as other leaders of the Beat Generation. Rejuvenated in health and spirit, Sottsass returned to Milan where he began working as a consultant designing the Olivetti's electronic equipment, typewriters and office furniture in 1959, despite his lack of technical knowledge. He designed a pop-influenced “totem”, and the ELEA 9003 calculator over his 40 years working with Olivetti. His redesign of the the ELEA 9003, Olivetti's mainframe computer, won him Italy's highest design award in 1959. Sottsass added blocks of color to distinguish the various components of the computer from one another and lowered the height of the machine so workers could see one another over the top.

In 1969 he, along with Perry King, designed the bright red portable Olivetti Valentine typewriter with a lightweight plastic case. It became the ultimate fashion accessory for the “girl-about-town” of that era. Compared with the typical drab typewriters of the day, the 1969 Valentine was more pop art than industrial machine.

In 1981, Sottsass and an international group of young architects and designers, all in their 30s except for Sottsass who was 64, came together to form the Memphis Group. A night of drinking and listening to Bob Dylan’s ‘’Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again’’ gave the group its name. Memphis was launched with a collection of 40 pieces of furniture, ceramics, lighting, glass and textiles which featured fluorescent colors, slick surfaces, intentionally lop-sided shapes and squiggley laminate patterns. Some critics of Memphis claimed that only affluent Dallas psychiatrists would ever buy such designs.

The groups colorful, ironic pieces departed considerably from his earlier, more strictly modernist work, and that was hailed as one of the most characteristic examples of Post-modernism in design and the arts. Sottsass described Memphis in a 1986 Chicago Tribune article: "Memphis is like a very strong drug. You cannot take too much. I don't think anyone should put only Memphis around: It's like eating only cake."

As an industrial designer, his clients included Fiorucci, Esprit, the Italian furniture company Poltronova, Knoll International, and Alessi. As an architect, he designed the Mayer-Schwarz Gallery on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, California, with its dramatic doorway made of irregular folds and jagged angles, and the home of David M. Kelley, designer of Apple's first computer mouse, in Woodside, California. He collaborated with well known figures in the architecture and design field, including Aldo Cibic, James Irvine, Matteo Thun.

Sottsass had a vast body of work; furniture, jewelry, ceramics, glass, silver work, lighting, office machine design and buildings which inspired generations of architects and designers. In 2006 the Los Angeles County Museum of Art held the first major museum survey exhibition of his work in the United States. A retrospective exhibition, Ettore Sottsass: Work in Progress, was held at the Design Museum in London in 2007.