Furniture Design History Flashcards
1
Q
Koloman Moser & Josef Hoffmann
A
- Secessionist architects
- Founded Wiener Werkstätte in 1903
- Also designed furniture for Thonet
2
Q
Wiener Werkstätte
A
- Find solution for poorly designed industrial furniture
- Craft-focused enterprise
- Beginning of truly progressive design
- Creation of radical new aesthetic that became style and substance of 20th century design
3
Q
Thonet
A
- First company to mass-manufacture furniture - since 1850’s
- Innovative approach to wooden furniture production
- Worked with the best designers
4
Q
Michael Thonet
A
- Cabinet maker and entrepreneur
5
Q
Frank Lloyd Wright
A
- Larkin Building, Buffalo, NY
- Larking Office Chair
6
Q
Sitzmaschine Chair
A
- Designed by Josef Hoffmann at Werkstätte in 1905
- Considered one of the first “modern” chairs
- Significant break from past and combined function/restrained expressive ornament
- Heralded ascendance of functionalism/utility over adornment (along with Larkin Office Chair)
7
Q
Gerrit Rietveld
A
- Experimental work at the cutting edge
- Contribution to reinvention of furniture was as significant as Picasso’s engagement with abstraction or Strauss’s increasing use of dissonance
- Red Blue Chair
- Sideboard
- Rejection and deconstruction of structure/decoration
8
Q
Bauhaus School
A
- Founded in 1919, Weimar
9
Q
Wassily Chair
A
- Marcel Breuer
10
Q
Mart Stam
A
- Dutch architect
- Credited with producing first cantilever chair
- Awarded European patent
11
Q
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
A
- Considered to be greatest of all Modernist architects
- Several groundbreaking furniture designs - 1920’s
- Barcelona Chair
- Visually extravagant, minimalist version of Modernism
- More democratic designs
12
Q
Le Corbusier & Charlotte Perriand
A
- Took traditional types of furniture and recreated using pared-down industrial aesthetic
- Shapes and styles of the past made way for clean lines of new materials
- Despite prominence, their designs were not easy to manufacture and had high cost
13
Q
Isokon
A
- UK Company
- Promoted technical innovation in furniture design - produced innovative products in 1930’s
- Employed Marcel Breuer as director of design
14
Q
Alvar Aalto
A
- Finnish architect
- Had greatest impact on subsequent manufacturing and design: lamination of large, complex one-piece forms
- Paimio Armchair
15
Q
Practical Equipment Ltd (PEL)
A
- Established in UK in 1931
- “Modernist” steel furniture with some sophistication for mass market
- Large volume of low-cost contract furniture
- RP6 Nesting Chairs
16
Q
Finn Juhl’s Pelican Chair
A
- Danish designer
- One of his least technically advanced designs, but sculptural and visual language was entirely original
- From a modern perspective, well ahead of its time
17
Q
Hans Wegner’s Peacock Chair
A
- 1947
- First great impact on European and American design
- Still rooted in craft vernacular vs. “new world” envisaged by Eames/Saarinen
18
Q
Hans Wegner’s Wishbone Chair
A
- Mature style that strongly referenced past but had modern sensibilities
- Still required significant amount of benchwork - less successful due to manufacturing cost
- Never meant to be a “people’s” chair
19
Q
Utility Scheme
A
- Created in 1941 due to material shortages - continued until 1948
- Oversight of textiles/furniture with efficient design
- Well made and sustainable
- Restrained in style, but represented sound design principles
- Part of post-war reconstruction of society/economy/infrastructure
20
Q
Robin Day
A
- UK designer
- Built on success in 1948 MoMA furniture competition with Clive Latimer
- Became design director for Hille
- Created Hillestak Chair in 1950 - marked shift in British design
- Created one-piece injection-molded polypropylene chair - important technical innovation
21
Q
George Nelson
A
- One of USA’s foremost architects in 1940’s and 50’s
- Swag Leg Chair
22
Q
Dieter Rams
A
- German industrial designer
- Huge influence on product design from 1950’s onwards
- 606 Universal Shelving System for Vitsoe + Zapf
- Possibly first designer to be described as minimalist
- Simplicity, sensitivity to composition/proportion
23
Q
Verner Panton
A
- First cantilevered, monobloc injection-molded plastic version of S Chair at 1967 Milan Furniture Fair
- For Herman Miller
24
Q
Vico Magistretti
A
- Selene (another of the first monobloc chairs), 1969, with furniture-design company Cassina
25
Q
Gaetano Pesce
A
- First designer to fully use properties of polyurethane foam
- UP series of chairs for C&B Italia
- Could be packaged in vacuum-sealed bag
26
Q
Peter Opsvik
A
- Not concerned with styling
- ## Tripp Trapp Chair - universal chair that was height-adjustable for children and adults
27
Q
Memphis Group
A
- Based in Milan
- Sought to break with the past in 1980’s
- Direct influence often overstated
28
Q
Philippe Starck
A
- Greatest influence in 1980s
- Many successful products
