At its height, the streamlined design was accompanied by certain modern ideals. The easy-to-clean exterior of many of these products held out the promise of a life free of dust and unnecessary dirt.
Daily life, too, could be streamlined. An example was the emergence of ‘scientific management’ at the beginning of the 20th century. Armed with stopwatch and camera, ‘time-and-motion’ experts scrutinized workers as they went about their jobs before recommending ways of making the process more efficient.
Futurama
In 1939, Norman Bel Geddes designed the Futurama attraction for the automobile manufacturer General Motors, whose distinctively streamlined pavilion made it a high-profile presence at the New York World’s Fair. Bel Geddes installed moving models that displayed his vision of 1960: a vision that reflected GM’s dream of a system of highways all across America, with streamlined, semi-automated cars zooming effortlessly back and forth. Everything was entirely geared to automobile traffic. As they left the pavilion, each visitor was given a badge with the words ‘I Have Seen the Future’.
The streamlined human
The most extreme expression of the streamlining ideal focused on the human body itself. Belief in eugenics, a pseudo-science which aimed to ‘improve’ human beings genetically, was widespread in the 1920s and 1930s. This so-called improvement of human beings was to be done by allowing the ‘best’ people to reproduce, and supposedly ‘inferior’ ones not to have children. Disabled people who were seen as inferior by eugenicists were sometimes even forcibly sterilised.
The question of who was seen as perfect, and who as flawed, was ideological. It had little to do with objective science. Against this background, the fascination of many designers of the time with the evolution and perfection of humans, animals and objects takes on a decidedly dark side.
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Historical streamlining books
Much has been and continues to be written about streamlining, the design style as well as the scientific phenomenon. A selection of historical books by curator Tomas van den Heuvel.
Streamlined solar cars
Solar cars need to be as efficient as possible and are therefore completely streamlined. In this video, Luc Evertzen of Solar Team Twente tells you more about the importance of streamlining solar cars.
Streamlined athletes
Cyclist Ellen van Dijk is a seven-time world champion and set the world hour record in 2022. In this video, she elaborates on why streamlining is important to her.
Streamlined animals
In search of the ideal streamline, people often look to nature. But what are we actually talking about when we talk about streamlined animals?
Streamlining and aerodynamic drag
What is a streamline? And what is aerodynamic resistance or ‘drag’?
Future
In our present age of climate upheaval and fuel shortages, reducing air resistance is right back at the top of the design agenda.
Performance
Aerodynamics or hydrodynamics are crucial to speed sports like swimming, cycling, skating, bobsledding and skiing.
Style
It was no coincidence that the streamlined look became so popular in the 1930s.
Icons
New, streamlined vehicles were frequently held out in advertisements as the future of transport. In this way, streamlined trains, cars, aeroplanes and boats assumed an iconic status.
Experiment
Many early experiments set out to compare forms in order to identify the perfect one.
Enchantment
For hundreds of years, a galloping horse was viewed as the epitome of speed. But this would change in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. New inventions like the train, the car and the aeroplane meant that speeds that once seemed fantastical were becoming increasingly possible. This new potential for progress had a huge…
Nature
Learning from nature can still be very useful when it comes to creating aerodynamic designs.
What exactly is streamlining?
The term “streamline” originates from science and engineering, but what is it?
