Design at Southern

This web site is a celebration of a half-century of design at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale (SIUC). The Design Department at SIUC has been training product, shelter, and visual designers since 1955. R. Buckminster Fuller brought his comprehensive design science approach to the school when he joined the faculty in the late 1950s. This is a collaborative history project put together by interested alumni and staff from throughout the country. This web site is not officially associated with Southern Illinois University or any SIU Alumni organization. The views and opinions expressed are those of the individuals who assembled the various pages. For more information go to the Contact page listed in the main menu above.

the SIU design / Bauhaus connection Many SIU design department teachers studied under Moholy Nagy at the New Bauhaus in Chicago, Illinois. Later it was renamed the School of Design. In the 1950s it was incorporated into the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) as the Institute of Design. There are many pedigogical and philosopical links between the SIU department of design and the broader Bauhaus movement.The Bauhaus-- founded in Germany at the end of World War I--was dispersed during the 1930s by the Nazi party. Bauhaus teachers and students settled at Black Mountain College in North Carolina and at the New Bauhaus in Chicago. In the 1950s, New Bauhaus students from Chicago and Black Mountain came to Carbondale to carry on the Bauhaus tradition in rural mid-America. Click for more . . . SIU design moved to Pulliam Hall in 2015 Take an on-line tour of the purpose built facility that replace the “Blue Barracks.” The design wing opened during Design Days 2015. Click for more Take an on-line tour of the purpose built facility that replace the “Blue Barracks.” The design wing opened during Design Days 2015. Click for more . . .

Tim Hagerty - the Experimental Freshman Year (EFY) Gary DeCourcy - designing the Edwardsville campus Joe Eddy Brown - Design 205 & Rapael Wimple IV Don Johnson - environmental design & spilled oil Paul Pauesick - inflatable domes & polyhedra math Bill Perkins - remembering John McHale and Herb Roan Stephen Pevnick - redoing the “Space Between” Lee Spalt - cardboard walls & Alton Boxboard Lee Spalt - Twenty questions: I was grilled by Harold Cohen Cape Girardeau - migrant worker health bus project - 1975 Tony Gwilliam - YouTube video • website

Inventor of the Future: The Visionary Life of Buckminster Fuller

New biography of Bucky available

Inventor of the future is a comprehensive biography of Bucky that covers his inventions, travels, businesses, friends, false claims of invention, family, work with students, foibles, partners, backers, exagerations, supporters, more foibles, inventions, secretaries, assistants, hanger-on’ers, valid claims, co-workers if any, followers, girl friends, and the like . . . from the birth of his aunt Margaret Fuller to the activities of his off spring long after he had passed on. Go to the Amazon page for this book. I recomend it to anyone wanting to understand the man, Bucky.

Professor Harold L. Cohen

passed away on Tuesday, November 2, 2021. Trained in the Bauhaus tradition of art and design at the Institute of Design in Chicago, Cohen was the chair of the Southern Illinois University Department of Design in the 1950s and 60s. For more goto the: • Obituary in The Buffalo (NY) News • A Man Called Bucky by Mary and Harold Cohen • 1995 talk • University of Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning obituary

Shared Vision: The Second American

Bauhaus

Shared Vision: The Second American Bauhausis a 2012 book about the SIU Design Department. It features interviews with and photographs of design teachers and students between 1955 and 1985. The author, Al Gowan, was a design student,1953-55 and 1959. Click for more about the book.