Ellipso ¹⁹⁸³

Thanks to designer Jean-Jacques Stiefenhofer, the ­influence of Bauhaus reached the field of Antwerp design training in the late 1960s. Stiefenhofer had studied at the Hochschule für Gestaltung Ulm, the progressive German ­design school that had been set up in 1953 on the model of the Bauhaus. In 1967 Jean-Jacques Stiefenhofer established the product ­development course of the Nationaal Hoger Instituut voor Bouwkunst en Stedenbouw (National Higher Institute for Architecture and Town Planning, today part of the University of Antwerp). He introduced the comprehensive multi­disciplinary design approach and the broad scientific basis that ­characterized both the Bauhaus and HfG Ulm. It is in part thanks to this training that Xavier De Clippeleir fell under the spell of geometric structures as the starting point of a design. His toy Ellipso consists of 12 elliptic elements that spin on their axis and with which users can create different forms. It is no coincidence if Swiss manufacturer Naef also sells the building blocks of the Bauhaus student Alma Siedhoff-Buscher.

SOURCES

Katarina Serulus, Van industrial design tot product­ontwikkeling, in: Els De Vos en Piet Lombaerde (red.), Van academie tot universiteit. 350 jaar architectuur in Antwerpen, UPA, Brussel, 2013, ­pp. ­178‑183;
Met dank aan Xavier De Clippeleir en Katarina Serulus.