Hugo Kükelhaus (March 24, 1900 – October 5, 1984) was a German carpenter, writer, pedagogue, philosopher and artist.
In 1932, he published his first book Das Gesetz des Ebenmasses (The Law of Structure), where he developed on the golden section to canonical figures, by which furniture could be constructed to a human scale.
From 1934, he was also a member of staff at the Alfred Metzner publishing house in Berlin, which published the Schriften zur deutschen Handwerkskunst (Writings to the German Arts and Crafts) series (1935 ff) as well as Deutsche Warenkunde (German Journal of product trade), a news service on excellently designed products of trade and industry.
He took great care in observation and concluded that modern humankind had, in its technical advancement, robbed itself of the fundamental experiences necessary for the development of the body and the senses.
He critiqued the increasingly inhumane tendencies of modern architecture of the Seventies, and developed basic principles of "organological" building.
In the foreground is the corporeal and physical engagement with roundabouts, swings or the texture of the ground beneath the visitors feet.
Notwithstanding the question if this world of stimuli consists of physical or social circumstances and factors – its multifariousness is life’s condition."
Andreas Luescher (2006) Experience Field for the Development of the Senses: Hugo Kükelhaus' Phenomenology of Consciousness International Journal of Art & Design Education 25 (1), 67–73 doi:10.1111/j.1476-8070.2006.00469.x Full text available at: