Fifty years ago Hin Bredendieck was hired to run the Industrial Design program at Georgia Tech after having taught at the New Bauhaus in Chicago, which became the Institute of Design and then merged with the Illinois Institute of Design. Brendendieck was both a graduate of the Dessau Bauhaus and worked in the Bauhaus workshop helping design and fabricate some of the most iconic objects of Modernism.

While at Georgia Tech, he labored for years to document what he felt were the most important principles of design and design education. A limited edition of his manuscript has been published through the generosity of ID alumnus James L. Oliver (BSID 1965; BME 1967), who was a student of Bredendieck’s and who had treasured his typescript from which the book has been created. This project marks a critical turning point for what is now the School of Industrial Design as it soars to new heights with fresh perspectives, a vocal and engaged alumni body and exciting work that reaches into engineering, sciences and the humanities.

From the Editor’s Preface:
Beyond Bauhaus: The Evolving Man-Made Environment demonstrates how Professor Bredendieck viewed the progression of his teaching beyond the Bauhaus model; however, the influence of his Bauhaus training is palpable in his writings, his designs and the program he created. In introducing his system of teaching, he explained, “the approach I suggest is a logical continuation, not so much because I am a product of the Bauhaus but because I see in the early Bauhaus approach the origin of the general ideas expressed here. The Bauhaus accepted the machine as a partner in the task of fulfilling the needs of our society. We must now, as it were, accept the intellect as a worthy partner in design.”

Professor Bredendieck retired from Georgia Tech in 1971, having touched the lives of hundreds of graduates, who would go on to become product designers, entrepreneurs, engineers, inventors, artists and teachers. He remained engaged in the design profession and an outspoken member of the Industrial Design Society of America (IDSA). In a 1987 article in the IDSA Newsletter, his influence was recognized: “With Walter Schaer and Eva Pfeil at Auburn, Hin Bredendieck at Georgia Tech, and Walter Baerman at North Carolina State, designers often referred to this educational triangle as the “New South.” These design educators brought to the South a new design approach which considered user-centered research a prerequisite for intelligent and responsible product development.” In 1994, Bredendieck received the IDSA Education Award for his lifelong commitment to design education. He is still recognized on the IDSA website as one of the discipline’s early influences.