• Archives of design research
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• v.18 no.2 s.60
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• pp.325-334
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• 2005

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the fundamental reasons and general circumstances of the introduction of geometric shape to the 20th century's design education. The modern design education was directly influenced by the German Kindergarten Movement and its educational ideal, so they began to employ geometric shapes in visual education. When Friedrich Frobel, a professional German child educator of the 19th century, invented the 'Spielgaben,' it soon became a popular educational tool. It was a turning point in the child educational system, from then they began to actively employ 'tools' in art education. The Spielgaben was created based on the geometric principle of a popular block game of the 19th century. On the other hand, a game program called 'Bechaftigungsmaterial' led early Modernists to adopt geometric shape in their works. Then, geometric shape were applied to a primary educational program designed by the Bauhaus that gave birth to the Modern design education in the 20th century. likewise, the substantial reasons why the principles of point/line/plain and geometric shapes had been taken in the 20th century design education can be explained through this historical background. This research is to investigate how Kindergarten Movement and Modern design education can be associated with each other, particularly in the light of geometric elements. Therefore, I first referred to the historic records in order to reveal their relation, and then analyzed the similarities and differences between the two activities. In result, I could explore the relationship between child educational tools and the 20th century's design education.

• Archives of design research
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• v.18 no.4 s.62
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• pp.237-246
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• 2005

This study was intended to enlighten two-faced desires of the Bauhaus, revealing that it is closely related with the child education rooted in Frobel. The Bauhaus declared to disconnect with the traditional education standing for Academies and asked students to go bad to such 'innocence' as children had. The faculty of Bauhaus tried to understand of the essence of the world through primary geometrical forms as 'purity' without any inessential things as $Fr{\ddot{o}}bel$ did. Their attempts not to admit any nonessential things, however, and dinging to purity was rather a sort of neurosis. The modernism is not different from the child art hiding sadistic and dictatorial elements behind the myth of 'innocence'. Considering the child education was born and grown with nutrition from the bourgeois development, it was not compatible with democratic ideals of the Bauhaus. While the new types of schools for children provided an excellent preparation for the Bauhaus to initiate a new design education, people of the Bauhaus were going toward a different direction from aspiration of the bourgeois, strong supporters of the new schools.