Post Modernism

April 15, 2017

When modernism came to a standstill, post modernism became the designated movement of the times. Economics started to improve and the consumer culture was more self oriented with the "grab all I can for myself" mindset. Recycling became an activity to be pursued for environmental issues as well as promoting the DIY spirit.

The Memphis Movement was an eclectic group of designers dedicated to abolish Modernism and it's strict design mandates. Members of the Memphis Movement included: Ettore Sottsass, Michele de Lucchi, Micael Graves, and George Sowden. They were inspired by Art Deco and Pop Art.

The New York Five was a group of five post modern/contemporary New York City architects: Peter Eiseman, Michael Graves, Charles Gwathmey, John Hejudk and Richard Meier.

Michael Graves is a post modern architect and a member of The New York Five. He embraced decorative detail, strong color and forms and he had eccentric taste. He also embraced classical architecture and returned the use of ornamentation. He used colors that represented the colors of nature. He also was a pioneer of accessibility of interior design due to his own handicap.
He has design buildings like The Humana Building in Louisville, KY, The Portland Public Service Building in Oregon and the Headquarters of Walt Disney Company in California.

Extra Video: 

https://charlierose.com/videos/11877

This is a video interview from 1996 with Michael Graves talking about some of his projects hes done. 

Peer Reveiw: 

Alex: I really like how you incorporated clothing into the Memphis Movement discussion you had. 

Demi: Thank you for sharing your video on Richard Meier. I enjoyed hearing his opinion. 

Mid-Century Modernism

April 5, 2017

Mid-century modern architecture included: flat roofs, angular details, and asymmetrical profiles, expansive walls of glass, clean lines and wide open floor plans, first to use bi-level structures, married indoor spaces to the outside and was extremely popular on the west coast. The color tones were warm, earthy tones like olive green, burnt umber, pumpkin and mustard yellow. Also there were trendy colors used like pink, gray, turquoise, black and yellow. Two people who were very successful in this time period were Charles and Ray Eames.

Charles Eames was born in 1907 in St. Louis. He attended Washington University for two years after being thrown out because of his support of Frank Lloyd Wright. He later started working at Cranbrook Academy as the head of the design department.

Ray Kaiser Eames was born in 1912 in Sacramento. She studied in New York and then moved onto Cranbrook Academy where she met Charles.

They married in 1941 and moved to California where they continued their furniture design. Herman Miller soon took over production of their furniture. They were very successful in designing many pieces for Herman Miller.

Eames Molded Plywood Chair

Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman 

Eames Wire Base Low Table Outdoor

Extra Credit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8rICo44kAE

This is a video called "A Journey into The World of Charles and Ray Eames. It talks a lot about their thinking and the way they designed furniture. I believe it was very interesting! 

Peer Review: 

Haley: I loved watching your video you posted! It was fun to watch them transform that space! 

Savannah: Your video on the Eames Molded Plastic Chairs was very interesting to watch. I thought maybe they would go into how they were made but they just showed a lot of chairs and what contexts they could be brought into so that was nice. 

Modernism in America
April 2, 2017

Modernism started in Germany and France but was spread quickly throughout the globe. The closing of Bauhaus caused many designers to flee from Europe and come the the United States. I want to go into commercial interior design so I was especially interested in Perkins and Will. Perkins and Will design firm was established in 1935. "Founded on the belief that design has the power to transform lives and enhance communities, we collaborate with clients all over the world to create healthy, sustainable places in which to live, learn, work, play, and heal." I believe that is a very powerful statement from their Firm Profile. The firm does works in architecture, interior design, branded environments, urban design and landscape architecture. Perkins and Will is consistently ranked among the world's top design firms.

Some works they have done are:

The Johns Hopkins Hospital

Ballou Senior High School 

University of Oregon, Matthew Knight Arena 

I wish to work in an architect firm like Perkins and Will one day. 

Peer Review: 

Bailey: It was interesting learning more about William Lescaze. I enjoyed all your sky scraper pictures. 

Kate J: I really enjoyed your pictures you chose of Richard Neutra's houses. The lighting in the Kronish house picture really makes the house look elegant.

Clodagh 

Clodagh is an American designer from Ireland. She pulls a lot of inspiration from nature and biophilic designs. She was one of the earliest adopters of Feng Shui in her design practice.  She has a trade mark of "Life-Enhancing Minimalism". She owns a multi-discipline design firm based in New York City founded in 1989. Clodagh is made up of three distinctive business divisions: Clodagh Design International, Clodagh Design Signature, and Clodagh Collection. I hope to be a commercial interior designer one day and I really enjoy her work.

www.clodagh.com 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-4k-6oVSm0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecYJ5AS3iys

Lisa: I love your Dorothy Draper interior with the leaves on the walls. Its super fun!

Sara: I really enjoyed watching your Elsie de Wolf youtube video. It was very interesting! 

ART DECO

In the art deco time period there was tension between functionalists and decorators. The functionalists valued function, simplicity, mass production, designing for the common person and social good. The decorators valued labor intensive craftsmanship, elite market, and they weren't concerned with social theory. France was the point of origin of art deco. It was a very fashion oriented style that was strongly decorated and the furniture resembled skyscrapers. There were certain aspects of the art deco era. The essence of art deco were chevron shapes, zig-zags, folding screens, stepped furniture that looked like skyscrapers, large mirrors and prominent light fixtures.

Michel Roux-Spitz
He was a french architect who had a highly decorated style. It was a fashion oriented style that was not concerned with functionalism. This is his Bureau de Administrateur.

Maurice Dufrene 

I really enjoy Maurice Dufrene's furniture. It was hand crafted furniture that was simple with not much decorative detail. 

Current Applications of Art Deco 

Peer Review 

Somang: Really nice blog! I love how much detail you get into. Explaining the difference between art deco and art nouveau was really nice. 

Haley: I like how you included the pictures of the buildings. It really shows how the design of that era was focused and inspired from those. I love your current applications. 

The Emergence of Modernism
2/26/17

Frank Llyod Wright was one of the first architects that I had ever learned about. Falling Water was the first house of his that I studied. Wright was the first major modern architect. Throughout his career, he has designed over 1000 structures, and completed 532 works. He started his own practice in Oak Park, Illinois. "Wright's residential design concepts for incorporating private areas with the public areas of the house illustrates a kindred manipulation of a square and rectangle grid derived from the art-glass and wall tiles".

The Robie House

This is the finest example of the "prairie style".  "With the Frederick C. Robie House, he broke down old barriers, creating a residential design with a horizontal roofline, large overhanging eaves, continuous ribbons of windows, and a wide-open living space at its center."

Current Applications 

This home reminds me a lot of the Robie House with just a little more flare to it. 

The interior of this home is a lot like Frank Lloyd Wrights ideas about a family room and centered gathering. 

Extra Credit: 

This website has two awesome videos that I can't download to my blog but visit this website and its a great resource to look inside some homes! 

http://interactive.wttw.com/tenbuildings/robie-house

Peer Review: 

Kendra: Your video about Falling Water was very informative, That is one of my favorites from him. I really like your current applications, especially the second one because of the warmth it puts out. 

Lisa: I figured a lot of people would want to focus on Frank Lloyd Wright this week but I like that you focused on The Bauhaus. A couple of your pictures were unable to load but I liked your current application chair and furniture piece. 

PROTOMODERNISM


Some of the works in this era are predictive of the modernism to come. Many designers, artists and architects of this time believed that decorative motifs are the carriers of meaning  and not necessarily opposed to  artistic expression. Some considered these works to be "avant-garde" which means those who experiment with forms and ideas before they were widely accepted. The design revolution known as the Vienna Secession came about in a period in which there were significant achievements in many fields, including art history, psychology and philosophy.

The Secession Building: An Exhibition Hall



With encouragement from Klimt, Olbrich recieved the commission to design the Secession building, a work that established Olbrich as a major force in Australian design and a progressive architect. The Secession Building was formed from pure geometries.


Austrian Post Office Savings Bank

The Post Office Savings Bank was designed by Otto Wagner. It is made of glass and aluminum and is one of the monuments of the early modern movement. It resembles a church  with a double-height central nave, complete with clerestory, and side isles. The floor is also made out of translucent glass bricks.

Current Applications

Peer Review

Savannah: I really like your current application pictures. The second one in particular. It has many geometric shapes and I like how it is really open. The openess reminds me of the ceiling in the Post Office Savings Bank.

Sara: I've come across the Minimalist documentary that you are talking about but I haven't stopped to watch it. With that said, I don't think I could live in a tiny house but maybe watching that documentary will open my mind a little bit. I like the idea that it talks about a small apartment and how to make the most out of it. I believe as a designer that is something we should be aware of! I think I'll watch it soon! Thanks for the suggestion!

Art Nouveau

This era was focusing all about nature and movement. The "Whiplash" was something new and made a huge impact in design. Art Nouveau is a mixture of international style art, architecture, applied art, and decorative art. Unlike Arts and Crafts, Art Nouveau embraced technology and the manufacturing process. Art Nouveau also was inspired by artists and paintings of the time, artists like VanGogh, Munch and Gaugin. Most architects associated with Art Nouveau  were furniture designers. 


Belgium's Greatest Art Nouveau Architect, Victor Horta 

Hotel Tassel 

Horta's Hotel Tassel is considered one of the earliest and finest examples of the Art Nouveau style in architecture. In many of his designs, he used a hard material such as iron but created it in a way that was flowing, detailed and nature-like. Horta also became know for his townhouses in Brussels. 

Hotel Solvay

Armand Solvay commissioned Horta to design this house for his bride, giving him freedom of creation and unrestricted funding. The appealing space of this building flows light everywhere against carefully arranged colored walls, floor coverings and glass work.

Contemporary Art Nouveau architecture: 






EC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIo2VUz9A5c

Peer Review: 

Haley Becker-- I really enjoyed the pictures you chose for your examples. I would have like to known the names of the places these were found in. The green walled place looks beautiful, along with the beautiful ceiling in the other picture. I really like your current fireplace picture! It is a beautiful piece that is very art nouveau. 

Becca-- I find Antoni Gaudi very interesting and fascinating. He designs in such a fun yet beautiful way! I really like how she chose to focus on him and on the facts of his life. It was really interesting. What part I found most interesting about her blog was when she was talking about the Sagrada Familia. It was so interesting to learn that it still isn't complete and to watch the video about how much still needs to be done for it to technically be complete. Great blog!! 

1/29/17

Arts and Crafts

Arts and crafts focused on craftsmanship and simplicity. The use of woods was huge in this era. Also, exposed hinges on furniture and doors is something the craft makers liked to include. Because they thought that hand crafted furniture was cherished in this time period, you can see a lot of built ins throughout a space.
The 8 major characteristics of arts and crafts, as said in class, are:
1. completely hand-made
2. wood joints visible
3. based on medieval designs
4. influenced by Shaker furniture
5. simple honest design
6. Predominate wood oak (not mahogany)
7. very heavy furniture
8. large exposed hinges

I absolutely love The Gamble House. The use of wood in every aspect of the house is beautiful. There is so much detail that the Greene brothers put into this beautiful house.

Although you can't see the entire room in this picture, you can tell that it was arts and crafts inspired. The bold wooden window frames highlight the probably medieval inspired stained glass. The chairs are what really give it away. Those chairs are inspired by the Mackintosh chairs that Charles Mackintosh would craft.

This house appears to be arts and crafts inspired by use of wood throughout. There are also built-ins. Even the light fixture appears to be something that would have been used. The wood appears to be a little lighter than what may have been used in the arts and crafts era but maybe this was the homeowners choice to make it more contemporary.