What’s the history of door handles?

Both modern door handles and antique door knobs play an indispensable role in the replacement of space in rolling history. Although doorknobs are ubiquitous and play an important role in the tactile experience of architecture, they are rarely recorded. It has no serious history and only sporadic design surveys, mostly sponsored by manufacturers. However, in the development process of door handle design, we have a micro understanding of the history of architecture, the general situation of production and the development of design, as well as its relationship with manufacturing, technology and the body.

 

 

Doorknob and Rose (1833-47), made by Copland and Garrett, stocktrent. Victoria and Albert Museum, London

 

As long as there are doors, there are door knobs. They could be the original beginning, iron or wooden latch, a rotating wooden handle, a rope or a belt. By the 18th century, houses in Central Europe displayed delicately wrought iron handles on their front doors. French palaces were made of exquisite brass, while British houses preferred simple round or oval handles. The manufacturing industry is relatively localized, and types develop in specific areas, each with its own style and materials. They may be wooden handles of beehives and small levers with wooden handles, or they may be made of porcelain or ceramics, just like ceramic door handles.

 

At the turn of the 20th century, architects, not craftsmen, began to turn their attention to door handles. The emergence of Art Nouveau and the concept of architecture as a Gesamtkunstwerk led to the proliferation of ornate, organic brass door handles. It reflects the smooth lines of the structure, and makes us realize that the handle is the epitome of the building, not a craft accessory. Peter Berens, Hector Guimard, Joseph Maria Albridge, Joseph Hoffman and dozens of others have created a complex, intense and compact designs that reflect the whiplash or geometric fascination of their buildings. Anthony Gaudi designed the exquisite scroll door handle of Casa Batlló from 1904 to 2006, which has a kind of Rococo feeling removed and is still in production.

 

 

Door handle (c. 1900), designed by Alexandre-Louis-Marie Charpentier and manufactured by Fontaine Frères & Vaillant, Paris. Victoria and Albert Museum, London

 

The next big change is to apply functionalist sensibility to the handle. Modernists, especially Bauhaus designers, understood that every element of the building could express the whole idea. On the doorknob, they found the perfect tool to simplify the building into the simplest form. In 1923, Walter Wilmar founded the most complete school of design. He was the most complete designer of Powell de Powell's design. Based on square and cylindrical cross-sections, lever is a mixture of Platonic modern geometry, constructivism and supremacy. It looks like a part of a machine, but of course it's handmade. It was one of Bauhaus's first products to raise money, but with some limited success - handles can still be found in public buildings across Germany. It became a manifesto of modernism, a radical, crude design, work, look elegant, feel comfortable. Wilhelm Wagenfeld, another Bauhaus designer, designed several handles based on similar construction games, and Mies van der Rohe also tried a series of amazing ergonomic handles to avoid the geometric rigor of architecture.