Modern Furniture: Timeless classics
Prior to the modernist design movement, functionality to the back seat appeal to the popular ornamental furniture style. The modern movement reintroduced simple efficiency and originality to the home furnishings marketplace, and innovation to home decor. Modernist design schools like Bauhaus and Werkbund revolutionized home furniture. By investing in the creativity of their artists along with modernist philosophies, the introduction of advanced manufacturing methods and new materials for home furnishings design emerged. Many of the original modern furniture designs are still popular today, like the Eames Chair, the Barcelona Chair, the Wassily Chair and many others. This article presents the classic modern furniture pieces that are still popular today.
The Wassily Chair, also known as the Model B3 chair, was designed by Marcel Breuer in 1925-26 while he was the head of the cabinet-making workshop at the Bauhaus, in Dessau, Germany. Despite popular belief, the chair was not designed for the non-objective painter Wassily Kandinsky, who was concurrently on the Bauhaus faculty. However, Kandinsky had admired the completed design, and Breuer fabricated a duplicate for Kandinsky’s personal quarters. The chair became known as “Wassily” decades later, when it was re-released by an Italian manufacturer named Gavina who had learned of the anecdotal Kandinsky connection in the course of its research on the chair’s origins.
This chair was revolutionary in the use of the materials (bent tubular steel and canvas) and methods of manufacturing. It is said that the handlebar of Breuer’s ‘Adler’ bicycle inspired him to use steel tubing to build the chair.
The Wassily chair, like many other designs of the modernist movement, has been mass-produced since the late 1920s, and continuously in production since the 1950s
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The Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman, correctly titled Eames Lounge and Ottoman, were released in 1956 after years of development by designers Charles and Ray Eames for the Herman Miller furniture company. It was the first chair the Eames designed for a high-end market. These furnishings are made of molded plywood and leather. Examples of these furnishings are part of the permanent collection of New York’s Museum Of Modern Art.
The chair is composed of three curved plywood shells. In modern production the shells are made up of seven thin layers of wood veneer glued together and shaped under heat and pressure. This differentiates the newer chairs from the “original” (vintage) chairs which used Brazilian rosewood veneers and were constructed of five layers of plywood. Also differentiating the very earliest sets from newer sets were rubber spacers between the aluminum spines and the wood panels first used in the earliest production models and then hard plastic washers used in later versions. In the earlier sets, the zipper around the cushions may have been brown or black as well, and in newer sets the zippers are black. The shells and the seat cushions are essentially the same shape: composed of two curved forms interlocking to form a solid mass. The chair back and headrest are identical in proportion, as are the seat and the Ottoman.
Mies van der Rohe Barcelona Chair
Perhaps the most famous of all modern chairs, the Barcelona Chair by Mies van der Rohe is a ubiquitous and unmistakable classic of modern design.
German-born American Architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe created the Barcelona Chair for the German Pavilion in 1929 for the Barcelona Exposition. While some have tried to mimick the sleek silhouette and structure of the Barcelona Chair, Mies van der Rohe gave the exclusive manufacturing rights for his design to Knoll in 1953.
The Barcelona Chair and matching ottoman feature carefully hand-tufted leather with hand-buffed frame and carefully welted Spinneybeck volo cowhide panels. The Barcelona Chair is meticulously hand-crafted from start to finish and is truly a modern masterpiece. The Barcelona Lounge Collection was honored with The Museum of Modern Art Award in 1977.
Mies van der Rohe’s revolutionary 1929 design is still relevant today, fitting seamlessly with almost any decor. The Barcelona chair and ottoman set is a modern must-have. Today Knoll manufactures the frame in two different steel configurations, chrome and stainless. The chair is almost completely hand-laboured. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s signature is stamped into each chair.
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Want to learn more about the modern design movement?
Check out these great books and magazines about modern furniture & design:
A History of Modern Design: Graphics and Products Since the Industrial Revolution by: David Raizman
This book is a beautifully illustrated documentation of the history of the modern design movement and includes everything from modern furniture to modern fashion and advertising.
Twentieth-Century Design (Oxford History of Art) by: Jonathan M. Woodham
This is a very thorough and well-presented history of modern furniture design by Oxford History of Art – an essential for any modern design library.
The Eames Lounge Chair: An Icon of Modern Design by: Martin Eidelberg, Thomas Hine, Pat Kirkham, David A. Hanks, C. Ford Peatross
The Eames Lounge Chair is a classic and this book commemorates its 50th anniversary with appropriate style and attention to detail.
Sourcebook of Modern Furniture, Third Edition by: Jerryll Habegger, Joseph H. Osman
A great resource and review of modern designers and architects.
Dwell
Dwell is the greatest magazine for staying up-to-date on modern design and architecture trends.
By: Mikey G
Archive for October, 2009
The Oriental vs. Contemporary Bedroom Design Theory
October 29th, 2009Primarily there are two basic themes under which a design can
be categorized, 1Oriental 2Contemporary.
Oriental Bedroom Design Theme
These kind of themes have a still drilled down niche design
themes, such as country, rustic, vintage, elegant, etc…
One of the major thing about these kind of themes is that much
emphasis is given on the natural beauty of any material.
These designs are close to nature or are shown to be close to
nature.
These kind of design styles are very rarely found in the urban
city interiors. Mostly the countryside homes adopt these kind if
themes, to replicate the flora and fauna of the outside environment.
The designer tries to include the patters seen in nature, such as
leaves, flowers, plants. All these natural patterns are seen on
wallpaper patterns, decorative lamps, curtains, furniture
upholstery, wall paintings, etc…
Homes which are build on country side such as farm houses, the scarcity
of space is not an issue, but this creates another problem as far as
designing interiors is concerned.
A bedroom, no matter of what size it is, requires some basic
furniture elements as functional needs, such as a double bed,
dressing table, wardrobes, study tables, a book shelf etc..
It is sometimes possible that because of the large spaces, the
bedroom looks empty after the furniture is arranged. At such
times decoration plays a major role. During ancient years
the palaces and castles had such large built spaces, where
extensive use of decoration was used in the form of paintings,
heavy decorative flooring patterns, carvings, moldings as a
decorative architectural elements.
So in this oriental design trend, decoration of the space using
various accessories plays a major role.
Contemporary design Theme
These kind of design themes are very new as compared to the
previously mentioned oriental design theme. But how did the
designers came along using these kind of designs
During the starting years of the 20th century, the Industrial
Revolution in Europe changed the face of our planet. It
was easy to design and manufacture goods on a mass scale
with amazing speed and efficiency.
This created a flood of industries in and around the cities.
These cities attracted large amount of people to migrate from
rural areas to city centers in search of a living.
Because of this migratory effect there was a sudden need of
housing requirement for the workers. This is where the concept of
an apartment was introduced. Because of the pressure of demand,
a school of thoughts emerged within the architects, who
believed that simplicity is the need of today is era.
They thought that, the design of the building has to be simple
and easy to build, then only we can compete with the growing
demand of housing needs in cities. That is why simple designs with mostly plane and square faces with square or rectangular openings
were used. These forms and masses were easy to build and still
beautiful. If everything from safety pins to space ships
could be built on a mass scale, why not buildings.
The school of thought believed that a plane rectangular form
is in itself beautiful and they proved this using infinite
permutations and combinations of the basic square form. That is
why decoration was given a second preference. Today we call this
school of thought as contemporary. In contemporary design
every element has an order.
That is why in today is modern interior design, simplicity is the
key to an efficient design. Unlike the previous oriental design
theme, the contemporary design theme states that any kind of
architectural decoration is always dependent on the basic form
of the building. The form itself is so beautiful, that the need
to further decorate it is not required. Today is modern interiors
spaces are simple to understand, simple to construct, and
project a kind of simplicity.
By reading the above paragraphs some of you might say that,
decoration is no more needed. But this is not true. I am not trying
to force some ideas here. But most people confuse the whole
concept of Interior Design and Interior Decoration. Both
are quite different and both have a unique value in today is
complex society.
Decoration was something the primitive man learned, looking at
the nature around him. He saw plants, flowers, birds, animals
and tried to copy these elements. We still use embroidery on
our dresses. But the modern design theory says that any sort
of decoration can only enhance the existing form, but can not
be an element of design.
What does this mean
In the above said example the embroidery pattern can certainly
add to the beauty of the cloth, but the modern theory denies to
accept the cloth to be of a cheap quality. It states that every form, texture, material, shape is in itself beautiful and must be
accepted as it is. Because of this the need to further decorate it
does not arise.
Thus decoration whether used in architecture or elsewhere is always
dependant on the form on which it is used, but design is
an independent entity which does not need any justification from the
external factors.
The two design themes mentioned above are still widely used today.
The user must look upon them from a point of view of what best suits
his her likes and dislikes. Only then can you give yourself and
your family the best quality of living.
I hope this article was informative to everyone
By: Satbir
