A Brief History of Modern Contemporary Furniture Design Roots: From Arts and Crafts to Bauhaus
All designs are contemporary and modern when they are first created and enter into the mainstream, but the Modern Movement evolved at the turn of the 20th century and came to symbolize a philosophy in design that endures over a century later. The suffocating clutter and gilding of the Victorian era was coming in to question as the world was seized by the new Industrial Revolution; a period which allowed mass produced items to be manufactured quickly and at lower costs. Modern design simply developed from the philosophies of the same great thinkers that Arts and Crafts philosophies came from, artisans like William Morris.
Early pioneers of the modern movement felt the home was a machine for living and held a very clean and clinical line when designing for the “machine.” The Modern design removed all ornamentation and focused on the integrity of materials - many materials never before seen in furniture construction. Designers like Breuer took unheard of industrialized materials like metal tubing to craft their furniture. Aalto used curved laminated strips of wood to create strange new forms in furniture. Thinking outside the overly ornate box became the battle cry of the Modern designer.
While William Morris and his peers in the Arts and Crafts Society believed that all civilized people deserved to own nice things they also believed that the nice things should be crafted by hand by true artisans. This left a bit of a gap between ideals and delivery, and an elitist appearing one at that. Artists could not mass produce high end furniture fast or cheap enough for the masses. Instead of fight it, Modern designers decided to use the industrial age to their advantage, creating artist inspired pieces using the very machines that Morris avoided thus delivering low cost, functional esigns to consumers.
Although many designers from many countries can be credited for their contribution to Modern contemporary design, Germany’s writers and architects were some of the original propagators of the cause. Designers like Hermann Muthesius coined terms used in Modern theory, like “sachlichkeit”, the slogan of the Modern movement. 1906 Dresden saw the Deutsche Werkstatten displaying their first mass produced items followed by the 1907 development of the Werkbund. With the ending of WWI the Germans conceived and supported one of the greatest hothouses of design in history, the Staatliches Bauhaus school.
The Bauhaus school was a school and a workshop where students were encouraged to explore and use industrial materials and processes, always keeping in mind whatever form they designed was to be created to serve and its form should follow its function. This axiom of less is more can be seen today in the designs created by the Amish in the spirit of the purist of Modern design. From glass topped tables to sleek black finishes, suited for home, office or even modern coffee shops and lounge designs, the Amish bring you the beauty and function of the Modern cotemporary designer in the form of solid hardwoods to last generations.
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