ABSTRACT
At the very core of the unique design culture in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) lay a shared understanding of design as an activity carried out for the benefit of mankind. Product longevity was a further dominant concern for industrial designers in the GDR, continuously shaping design discourse over the years and leaving formative traces in the objects they designed. GDR designers also considered it vital that the objects they designed were capable of being mass-produced as efficiently as possible, in order to maximize the availability of affordable goods to meet the needs of the population. A design project that exemplifies how the various aspects of this deep-seated concern for economical mass production translated into product design in the GDR is System 80, a modular system of electrical switches and sockets for installation in domestic, public and industrial environments. Practical functionality and economical manufacturability were considered more important, and formalism could also undermine product longevity by inducing 'moral obsolescence'.
