The enduring influence of architecture on industrial design
Dieter Rams was an architect before he was an Industrial Designer.
He's said many times that architecture influenced all of his design work. This isn't unique to Rams, other designers like Charles and Ray Eames, Marc Newson and Philippe Starck took inspiration from architecture for their product work as well.
While researching Apple Pippin and the original Xbox for my post on Friday, I came across G4's "Countdown to Xbox 360" event from 2005. It's interesting to see the variety of iterations and the progression of the 360. Russ Glaser, UI Designer Program Manager at Microsoft, mentions that architecture was an inspiration for the design team.
This suggests a thoughtful approach to differentiating the 360 from its predecessor, drawing upon architectural forms to shape user perception of the console. I believe there is also be a conceptual link between the way architecture shapes our physical space and the way consoles create a virtual space for gaming and entertainment.
Principles of architecture—form, function and thoughtful use of materials—are common fundamentals that may lead to good Industrial Design work. Architecture remains a powerful guiding force for designing products, even gaming consoles.
"[Architecture] also influenced me in other ways, like the procedural methods. The principal architects of Apel and the Skidmore people, they studied every detail. It was all clarified in advance. That influenced me a lot when I got into the industrial design sector. In industrial design, everything for the production has to be clarified in advance with models and prototypes, all the details, for multiple parts."
-Dieter Rams
