The System Approach and Design

Year: 2010 Authors: Ernő Rubik

Core claim

Rubik describes the Cube as emerging from an interest in space, movement, and the relationship between objects, time, and human perception.

Topics

systems thinking, space and form, mechanical puzzles, design process

Domains

combinatorics, geometry, topology, sculpture, architecture, industrial design, furniture design

Methods

open discussion, biographical reflection, design narrative

Media

Rubik’s Cube, Rubik’s Magic, Rubik’s Snake, Rubik’s 360

Paper text

The text below is the locally extracted OCR/Markdown version of the paper. Raw PDF files remain local and are not published here.

Bridges 2010: Mathematics, Music, Art, Architecture, Culture

The System Approach and Design

Ernő Rubik

An informal, open discussion with the inventor of Rubik’s cube.

Ernő Rubik is a Hungarian inventor, sculptor and professor of architecture. He is best known for the invention of mechanical puzzles including Rubik’s Cube, Rubik’s Magic, Rubik’s Snake, and Rubik’s 360.

Ernő Rubik was born in Budapest, Hungary, July 13, 1944, during World War II. His father, Ernő Rubik, was a flight engineer at the Esztergom airplane factory, and his mother, Magdolna Szanto, was a poet. He graduated from the Technical University, Budapest (Műszaki Egyetem) in 1967 as an architectural engineer and began postgraduate studies in sculpting and interior architecture. From 1971 to 1975 he worked as an architect, then became a professor at the Budapest College of Applied Arts (Iparművészeti Főiskola). He has spent all his life in Hungary.

“Space always intrigued me, with its incredibly rich possibilities, space alteration by (architectural) objects, objects’ transformation in space (sculpture, design), movement in space and in time, their correlation, their repercussion on mankind, the relation between man and space, the object and time. I think the CUBE arose from this interest, from this search for expression and for this always more increased acuteness of these thoughts…”

In the early 1980s, he became editor of a game and puzzle journal called …És játék (“…and games”), then became self-employed in 1983, founding the Rubik Stúdió, where he designed furniture and games. In 1987 he became professor with full tenure; in 1990 he became the president of the Hungarian Engineering Academy (Magyar Mérnöki Akadémia). At the Academy, he created the International Rubik Foundation to support especially talented young engineers and industrial designers.

—Wikipedia