HISTORY OF 20th CENTURY INTERIOR DECORATION AND FURNITURE — PART 1

History Of 20th Century - Part 1

The 19th century had exhausted all the vocabulary of the old design, and creative people in all fields were searching for a new design continent like Columbus. What they sensibly did was dump what they had consumed, go back to the basics, and learn about different ways. There was also another application involved.

The Clear Cut in the Past

The design of the 20th-century furniture marks a clean break with the past. Something that never happened, even when civilization took over another civilization.

Accepting the Industrial Revolution

People understood the importance of the machine and acknowledged the increasing value of the machine and the dependence of the final effects of mass manufacturing on a good initial design suited to the machine and not to the craftsman. Then, from the late 19th century, the idea of simplicity and the superiority of feature over shape had spread. Influences of Social and Technology Changes

There have also been major shifts in modern life. The need for social equality, technological progress, practical design, and fast-moving contact between countries pushed two artists from Art Nouveau in the late 19th century, architect Louis Sullivan in Chicago and Van der Velde in Belgium. They initiated what was later called the Modern Movement, with the goal of developing a bigger, brighter, more realistic world. Significantly, most of the designers were architects in the early 20th century.

Van der Velde

Contribution Art Movement 

Cubism

Then the reaction towards 19th-century classicism resulted in the rise of art movements such as cubism, fauvism, De Stijl, the likes of which had never been documented before. 

                                                    Fauvism                                                      

All these movements were more or less influenced by the development of furniture design, although they were absorbed a little later, because painting, sculpture, and architecture, especially painting, were the spheres in which they were born.

De Stijl

Role Various countries

It is also relevant that various countries have played different roles at different periods in the development of production techniques. And that. With their share of the contribution, they have also had an equal influence over other countries.

                                                               Art Nouveau architecture

Mental Approach to Design

Another critical aspect was the mental approach towards design: the conceptualization was unrestricted, the gift of Art Nouveau, but it was not excessive, resulting in discomfort, a characteristic of Art Nouveau, and because of the explosion of knowledge and simple connectivity, concepts and styles were borrowed from all over the world, ranging from high cultures to tribal cultures.

 

Product of the Revolution in Technology

Quick and simple connectivity, sophisticated mass production, and popular taste have allowed the freedom to create a piece in any part of the world. And just to make a point, people are moving back to some element of old styles or styles entirely.

 

Development of furniture in Germany

Germany has never made any significant contribution to the world of furniture design, and was perhaps waiting for the beginning of the 20th century. As mentioned above, the return to fundamentals was introduced, encouraged, promoted, and distributed through colleges, organizations, and movements. Germany was the first to make these and available.

 

The Deutsche Werkbund, 1907.

In 1907, a group of architects, craftsmen, and manufacturers called the Deutscher Werkbund (Deutscher Werkbund) was set up to create and encourage good furniture design by working together for this purpose. In order to accomplish this aim, they separated themselves from the principles of Art Nouveau, and what was ultimately done was the birth of industrial design.

 

                                                                       Industrial design

Bauhaus, from 1919 to 1933.

Bauhaus School

Influenced by the ideals of the Werkbund, architect Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus in 1919, a pronounced bow-hows school in Weimar, Germany. What was achieved here was like the production of the Gobelins under the reign of Louis XIV, but more intense, powerful, thought-provoking, and lasting.

In no time did the school become the center of the Modern Movement. The functional, light, simple and technically sound designs that have been built here have illuminated the time between the two world wars and are still influential. The school had the names of the great ones, such as Gropius Mies van der Rohe. Marcel Breuer, Charles Eames. 

Progress in the Bauhaus

 Steel Tubular Chair

The use of non-conventional materials for the construction of computer-friendly furniture, such as steel tubes, plywood, hardboard, laminated boards, and foam rubber upholstery was a major development. 

Marcel Breuer

Marcel Breuer created the first steel tubular chair made of a single piece believed to be inspired by the curves of his bicycle handlebars. He followed this with a wide range of furniture, including tables, chairs, and chairs with linen, glass, and wood.

Contribution of Breuer and Mies

Perhaps the most original aspect of the metal furniture designed by Mies and Breuer is its application of the cantilever principle, as they alone, as architects, might think of it. This has helped us to mix strength and lightness. Mies designed a remarkably elegant cantilever chair in 1926, and Breuer followed with a more balanced and practical chair two years later. Breuer's cantilever S-chair concept was modified for mass production in the Thanet factory and is now on the market all over the world.

Barcelona Chair

Mies Van Der Rohe

 

Cantilever Chair in 1926

         

Marcel Breuer 

 

In 1929, Mies designed the Barcelona foam rubber upholstered steel tube chair for the German Pavilion, designed by himself to be a classic.

Closure of the Bauhaus

Hitler closed the Bauhaus in 1933, and the principal designers had to flee to the others.

Countries, in particular the United States. Switzerland, France, and England have spread the ideas of the Bauhaus from their adopted nations. And what used to be German has been international.

The Bauhaus and his Book

 Book cover

The Bauhaus has gained success in all aspects of architecture, including graphic design. The typeface in which this book is printed is based on the typeface developed by Herbert Bayer at the Bahaus and, for that reason, is called the Bauhaus.

Modern Designs

Germany, like other cultures, is affected by developments in other nations. The concepts of the Bauhaus still seep the air in order to form what is considered the "German look"-functional, strong and so well created. German designers and manufacturers are also renowned for their effective storage structures for every living area of the workforce.

Furniture Creation In Netherland

Netherlands had not made any valuable contributions before the 20th century, but in the form of a few components or certain types of domestic furniture. Although in the first third of the 20th century, Germany was the focal point of revolutionary ideas. The Netherlands became its producer for a small amount of time due to the efforts of the De Stijl Group.

De Stijl, 1917

 Art made by Piet Mondrian

The painter Piet Mondrian was the founder of the Stijl movement, which, while short-lived had deeply affected all fields of art and linked subjects. Mondrian's art stresses the beauty of shape and structure, and the geometric nature of primary colors.

Contribution of de Stijl to furniture design

 Red-Blue" chair

Abstract geometric shapes, if Mondrian had been translated into the field of decorative arts without compromising by Gerit Thomas Rietveld and the result was furniture that was rigid in the extreme, purposely purged of all decorative creations. The most prominent work of Rietveld is the angular "Red-Blue" chairs of 1917. The German painter Breuer, who was then at Bauhaus was very fascinated with his approach to architecture.

  Rietveld Schröder House

Furniture Creation In France 

Previously, France was the expert of furniture architecture, once again one of the centers of Art Nouveau, at the beginning of the century, and to some point it existed of Art Deco.

Art Deco, 1920-1935.

Poster In 1937

The word derives from the name of the exhibition that took place in Paris in 1925. L'Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Moderns introduced the world with a new theme.

 Paris in 1925

Art Deco, with the spirit of Art Nouveau, borrowed patterns, on the one hand, from the Empire and the Directoire periods, and on the other hand, from Cubism and Futurism, and from Chinese and Egyptians, Africans and Mayans, and several other styles. Somehow, its appeal is so high, at least to some designers and consumers, that it heals itself on a regular basis. We are moving into what is now called the Post Modern design, which is very intimate with the spirit of Art Deco.

Cubism Art

Art Deco Types

Art deco, the way it was made, can be defined as Luxurious and Popular, farmer being built and made for the rich few, and later for the consumer market.

Art Deco Characteristics

Typical Art Deco pieces avoided sharply rectangular borders and followed triangular shapes. Luxury materials and excellent craftsmanship were used and, to show them, smooth, plain surfaces were left untouched. Tables, particularly dining tables, were constructed of a single giant central pillar, avoiding four or six legs. Chairs were made of high back law in Louis XIV fashion which required lower tables and other arrangements.

New components

From here a cocktail table and a cabinet with a heavy Chinese presence appeared. A lot of furniture, particularly bedroom furniture, was built-in, both for simplicity and utility.

Outstanding Art Deco Designers

 Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann

Writing table

The most typical French deco designer was Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann, whose work easily met the technical standards set by his colleagues in the 18th century, and in certain ways, such as the construction of drawers, actually achieved them. More experimental designers like Pierre Legrain and Marcel Coard occasionally made furniture inspired by Africans art in carved wood which had emerged before the war with the paintings of Picasso's Negro Period.

The New Revolution in France

France has always been intrigued by the curve. Baroque, Rococo, Art nouveau, Art Deco all rejected straight lines, sharp angles, and angularity which are marks of the new movement and so it is understandable that what France added to it was by two ex-patriots the swiss-born architect Le Corbusier and Irish born Eileen Gray.

Contribution of Le Corbusier

Le Corbusier

 Le grand comfort designed by Le Corbusier, 1928

Architect Le Corbusier, that is, The Crow designed furniture according to the Bauhaus concepts, but his parts were difficult to produce and often uncomfortable to use, but sometimes incredibly elegant to look at. If Breuer and Mie's most striking technical contribution was that of a cantilever chair, Le Corbusier's was a shape of an armchair with wide cushions and leather, skin, or canvas upholstery fitted on a tubular steel frame. The moving of the skeleton from the inside to the outside of the upholstered furniture produced during the last three decades has illustrated and stressed the role of Corbusier's style. His most famous item is the revised edition of the chair lounge.

Chair lounge.

In this part one we have seen the history of furniture from 1907 to 1940, I hope you all were curious about the history of Interior Furniture, Ref: Ahmed Kasu. Stay tuned for part 2 it will be uploaded very soon, till then you can go through the below blog i.e  History Of Bohemian Style and It's Connection with INDIA.

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