history of interiors and furnishings

Modernism is a design movement that happened between World War I and World War II. After WWI, there was a chance to redesign things and step forward in the future. Although it may seem that Modernism sprung out of nowhere, Art Nouveau, the aesthetic movement, and Prairie Style explored issues that contributed to this movement.  What also contributed to the movement was technological advancement, such as the development of skyscrapers, railroad stations, elevators, moving pictures, automobiles, and photography. Modernism embraced the Industrial Revolution. It relied on the use of machinery and mass production; and the machine itself was a source of design inspiration.  Functionalism is a term used to describe this new way of designing. It is a design philosophy that focuses on designing primarily for the function with no unnecessary ornamentation, and on designs that are easy to produce. The materials used to achieve this were: steel, glass, molded plywood, plastic, and conc...

Protomodernism is a design style that predicts the Modernism that is to come.  It began in 1959 as yet another movement against the Victorian style, but it used different methods that were unlike the Arts and Crafts Movements or Art Nouveau. Protomodern designers rejected "ornamentation." And although they also used nature as an inspiration, they used forms that were more linear and geometric. In Europe, Germany and Austria were the key players in this movement. In German, there was the Deutscher Werkbund movement, and in Austria, the Vienna Secession.  The Deutcher Werkbund was a German association of designers and artists who embraced the use of the machine. Their goal was to produce high quality design with mass production. So, design professionals and product manufacturers collaborated to improve the German design. This movement inspired the early works of well known Modern designers Le Corbusier, Gropius, and Mies van der Rohe.   "To secede" means "t...

In the United States, Art Nouveau was not a full-blown movement as it was in Belgium and France; however Louis Comfort Tiffany and Louis Henri Sullivan introduced America to this style of design.  Sullivan was an gifted architect and drawer, and Tiffany was skilled in artistic painting, stain glass, furniture making and interior decorating. It is amazing that these two designers had a variety of skills, so they were able to influence different areas of design.  Louis Comfort Tiffany is considered the most Art Nouveau of any American artist. He came from a family of jewelers, merchants, and designers. From traveling in Europe and North Africa, he was exposed to Romanesque art and Islamic ceramics. These were the basis for his experiments with stained glass. He produced the stained glass windows of several American churches, and created many lamps. I find it interesting that some of Tiffany's work was eventually sold by Samuel Bing in Paris. This is evidence that his work was ...