history of interior design.doc

The History of Interior Design by John Pile In the modern world, human life experience is largely played out in interior spaces. We may love the out-of-doors for the sense of open air and sky, for the escape it offers from life inside enclosure, but the very joy of being outside reflects the reality that so much of life is spent inside. Buildings and their interiors are planned to serve the purposes and styles of the times of their origins, but they exert their influence on the activities and lives that they house as long as they continue in use. The study of interior design, its development and change through history is a useful way both to explore the past and to make sense of the spaces in which modern life is lived. Professional interior designers are expected to study design history, to know the practices of the past in terms of styles, and to know the names and the nature of the contributions of those individuals who generated the most interesting and influential approaches to design. Charles Rennie Mackintosh In Glasgow, Scotland, work related to Art Nouveau was produced for a short time by a few designers led by Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928). Mackintoshs work grew out of Arts and Crafts bases, but moved toward the freedom of Art Nouveau and became greatly admired by continental designers, including those based in Vienna. For private clients and for his own Glasgow flat, Mackintosh developed furniture designs that most often used simple, geometric forms, but then introduced exaggerated proportions, extreme high chair backs, and white or black paint finishes with decorative details in violet, silver, or gold. Painted ornamental elements were often added by Mackintoshs wife, Margaret Macdonald (1865-1933), who, along with her sister Frances (1874-1921), was an active participant in the Arts and Crafts movement and related design activities that were centered in Glasgow in the 1890s. It is a curious fact that the Arts and Crafts Movement, despite its aim to bring about a broad reform in Victorian design and taste, only succeeded in influencing a small group of supporters and enthusiasts able to afford its costly productions. However, in its rejection of meaningless mass-produced ornamentation, in its emphasis on honesty in the design expression of realities of function, material, and technique, Arts and Crafts pointed toward the future, almost in spite of itself. Its link to Art Nouveau, with its total rejection of historicism, makes it the starting point for all studies of modernism. Antoni Gaudi In Barcelona, Spain, although there is a variety of work in the Art Nouveau style, the dominant figure of Antoni Gaudi(1852-1926) stands out as the inventor of a highly personal vocabulary of flowing curves and unusual decorative details. Sagrada Familia church (1903-26) exhibit Gaudis fantastic and highly personal stylistic vocabulary on a major scale. Gerrit Rietveld The best known De Stijl (the style) work was produced by Gerrit Rietveld (1888-1964), whose Schruzer House at Utrecht is the most complete realization of the movements ideas. It is a rectilinear block made up of complex, interpenetrating planes of wall, roof, and projecting decks, with voids filled by glass in metal sash. The (upper) main living floor is divided by a system of sliding panels that permit rearrangement to achieve varying degrees of openness. Built-in and movable furniture of Rietvelds design is geometric and abstract in concept. Only primary colors and black are introduced within the generally white and gray tones of most surfaces. Because of its few members, short life, and limited accomplishments, De Stijl influence in the development of modernism has been less obvious than that of the pioneers in Germany and France. Alvar Aalto The most important of the second-tier pioneer modernists is the Finnish architect and designer Alvar Aalto (1898-1976). Aaltos career began amid the romanticism and Nordic nationalism of Lars Sonck and Eliel Saarinen, with its links to Neoclassicism and Jugendstil movements of the late 19th century. Americans were able to see an Aalto design at first hand at the New York Worlds Fair of 1939. The box-like interior space of the Finnish exhibit was made remarkably interesting by the introduction of flowing, free-form walls. A wall of wood strips leaned out over the main exhibit space that screened additional exhibit space on an upper level. A balcony restaurant with provision for film projection from a startling suspended free-form projection booth completed the exhibit. In spite of its small size and somewhat obscure location at the fair, Aaltos design attracted highly favorable critical comment. Philip Johnson In 1949, aware of Mies van der Rohes Farnsworth house, Philip Johnson (Philip Johnson was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1906. He received an A. B. in architectural history from Harvard University in 1930 and upon graduation became the Director of the Department of Architecture at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. In 1932 he co-directed the Modern Architecture exhibition at MOMA which introduced European modern architecture to a wide American audience. Building on the MOMA show, Johnson and Henry-Russell Hitchcock codified the principles of modern architecture in the book The International Style: Architecture since 1922 . During the 1930s, Johnson used his personal wealth to champion the cause of many modern architects most notably Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. In 1940 Johnson returned to Harvards Graduate School of Design where he trained under Marcel Breuer. He received a B.Arch in 1943 and practised architecture in Cambridge, Massachusetts until 1946, when he moved back to New York to serve as Director of Architecture at MOMA. He worked with Richard Foster from 1964 to 1967 and with John Burgee from 1967 until his retirement. He became a trustee of MOMA in 1958, received the AIA Gold Medal in 1978, and received the Pritzker Architecture prize in 1979. As an architect, Johnson is most widely respected for his work in the early 1950s while still under the influence of Mies Van Der Rohe. However, he altered his architectural principles from Modernist to Post-Modernist to anti-Post Modernist at will. This has led to the criticism that he showed more interest in style than in substance. He will probably be remembered more as a stimulator of ideas than as a designer. designed his own house at New Canaan, Connecticut, as an all glass-walled box with only a small cylindrical brick enclosure to house a bathroom and to provide a location for a fireplace. The kitchen was a counter with lift tops giving access to equipment. The furniture was all of Miess design, using brown leather on chrome frameworks, while major works of art introduced a variety of less rigorous forms into the space. The red tiles of the floor and the outward view into surrounding greenery establish color. This Glass House has become a famous example of the possibilities of an open plan carried to its logical, extreme conclusion. Walter Gropius The direct influence of International Style modernism increased hugely when several of the European leaders of the movement arrived in the United States. Walter Gropius(Walter Gropius was born in Berlin in 1883. The son of an architect, he studied at the Technical Universities in Munich and Berlin. He joined the office of Peter Behrens in 1910 and three years later established a practice with Adolph Meyer. For his early commissions he borrowed from the Industrial Classicism introduced by Behrens. After serving in the war, Gropius became involved with several groups of radical artists that sprang up in Berlin in the winter of 1918. In March 1919 he was elected chairman of the Working Council for Art and a month later was appointed Director of the Bauhaus. As war became eminent, Gropius left the Bauhaus and resumed private practice in Berlin. Eventually, he was forced to leave Germany for the United States, where he became a professor at Harvard University. From 1938 to 1941, he worked on a series of houses with Marcel Breuer and in 1945 he founded The Architects Collaborative, a design team that embodied his belief in the value of teamwork. Gropius created innovative designs that borrowed materials and methods of construction from modern technology. This advocacy of industrialized building carried with it a belief in team work and an acceptance of standardization and prefabrication. Using technology as a basis, he transformed building into a science of precise mathematical calculations. An important theorist and teacher, Gropius introduced a screen wall system that utilized a structural steel frame to support the floors and which allowed the external glass walls to continue without interruption. Gropius died in Boston, Massachusetts in 1969.) was the architect of his own house at Lincoln, Massachusetts (1937). A fine example of International Style design, it has a typical flat roof, large glass areas, and such details as an entrance shelter supported by tubular columns, an external spiral stair, and generous use of glass block. The white walls are, surprisingly, not of concrete or stucco but of the tongue-and-groove wood boards typical of vernacular New England building. The interiors are of elegant simplicity and display many pieces of furniture by various members of the modern movement. The house is now landmarked and open to visitors. Charles Eames Better known as the designer of the Eames chair (1940-1), Charles Eamess(Charles Eames (b. St. Louis, Missouri 1907; d. St. Louis 1978) Charles Ormand Eames was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1907. In 1924 he began his architectural studies at Washington University. In 1929 he traveled to Europe where he came in contact with the theories of the Modern Movement. Upon his return, he established the firm of Gray and Eames. Eames work from the 1930s consisted mainly of designs for stained glass, textiles, furniture and ceramics. In 1938 he received a fellowship to Cranbrook Academy in Michigan, where he studied under and collaborated with Eero Saarinen. In 1941 Eames moved to California with his wife, Ray Kaiser. Once there, they