High Tech Design

High Tech Design was first introduced in architecture in the mid 1960s. It was influenced from the geometric forms of the previous Radical Design proposals of Buckminster Fuller where during that time designers thought that technology was taking over the world and thus created their own style. 

With the advance in technology in 1967 it was invented "The Amazing Urbmobile" As cities were becoming more congested, it was planned that the Urbmobile will combine the vehicle driving to work with rapid transit. It was sone by simply dial a code into the phone and a driverless car will arrive at the nearby station. Then selecting the destination and let the Urbmobile do the rest. However, this system would have been too expensive to implement and maintain although it could keep traffic to a minimum and prevent car pollution.

When it comes to buildings, architects were making use of raw industrial elements including in the interior design. This style can also be compared with De Stijl as primary colours were often used with modern elements.

Norman Foster was one of the British architects who took Buckminster Fuller's geodesic domes as his inspiration and applied it to High-Tech. 

Geodestic Dome, 1958

Michael Hopkins was another British architect who worked on High-Tech designs. Including his own house, its interiors mainly include straight lines constructed from steel with open plans and large windows. Scaffolding poles were used to hold the ceilings instead of walls or partitions. As already mentioned when compared to the Schroder House designed by Gerrit Rietveld, they are very similar including the primary colours red, blue and yellow.

Hopkins house, 1979                                                                                           Schroder house, 1920s

New industrial materials and equipment were used in High-Tech design, these included:

- Trolleys,

- Rubber flooring,

- Clip-on lighting,

- Galvanised zinc shelving

This style had influenced later designers including Ron Arad and Tom Dixon. In 1978, the authors Joan Kron and Susan Slesin published a book with the name of High-Tech: The Industrial Style and Source book for the Home, only by this time High-Tech was superseded by Post-Modernism.

References:

Denise Ngo, 2011. Archive Gallery. [image online] Available at: http://www.popsci.com/technology/gallery/2011-06/archive-gallery-how-space-age-influenced-design?image=8 [Accessed 6th January 2014]

Jonathan Glancey, 2009. Man on the moon. [image online] Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/sep/22/moon-norman-foster-architecture [Accessed 6th January 2014]

Anon. n.d. Hopkins house. [image online] Available at: http://www.engineering-timelines.com/scripts/engineeringItem.asp?id=747 [Accessed 6th January 2014]

archdaily, n.d. AD Classics: Rietveld Schroder House. [image online] Available at: http://www.archdaily.com/99698/ad-classics-rietveld-schroder-house-gerrit-rietveld/ [Accessed 6th January 2014]

William Stout, n.d. William Stout Architectural Books. [image online] Available at: http://www.stoutbooks.com/cgi-bin/stoutbooks.cgi/43179 [Accessed 6th January 2014]