László Moholy-Nagy and Alvar Aalto's Biocentric Vision of Design and their Admiration for Invisible Structures: 'Elastic, Standardization as Biosemiotics

Alvar Aalto and László Moholy-Nagy shared the conviction that biology and technique are closely connected. They admired natural and biological forms and developed a reflection around the notion of standardization. The way they conceived the osmosis between technology and nature and the invisible structures that connect them cannot but be related to their endeavour to take seriously into account the socio-economic, and psychological aspects that characterize the creative process. At the centre of Moholy-Nagy’s teaching and artistic practice was the belief in the sociobiological ends, on the one hand, and the possibility to conceive every aspect of creative practice in a holistic and unified way. This was very apparent in his teaching philosophy at the New Bauhaus, the School of Design and the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), which was based on the intention to reveal the invisible structures of biological functions, and the relate the new dimensions of the industrial society to their emotional effects. Aalto and Moholy-Nagy saw the exchanges between nature and technology and their confluence as an opportunity for rethinking the concept of standardization and the construction of light. Their originality in standardization challenged the rigidity of the more canonical modernist architects and artists. Their writings and designs constitute important precedents for the leading paradigms of industrial, architectural and urban design as mechanisms imitating nature.