Their Molded Plastic and Fiberglass Armchair was low-cost and had a mix-and-match quality: the consumer could choose from three plastic colours (elegant greige, elephant-hide, or parchment) and could select a metal, wood or rocker base. The Eameses championed new technologies too, creating plastic resin or wire mesh chairs that were produced by manufacturer Herman Miller. Often a piece of furniture would combine only two materials or two colours – creating tension and harmony without fuss or superfluous ornament.Īrtist and architect Isamu Noguchi’s walnut hardwood and glass Noguchi table exemplifies this: it was described as a ‘sculpture for use’, and its duality of two elements created something flowing, self-supporting, and enticingly functional. ![]() They embraced relatively new materials like metal, glass, vinyl, and plywood, offsetting these with wood to create novel, exciting juxtapositions. Design could change the world for the better.ĭesign couple extraordinaire Ray and Charles Eames’s breezy, beautiful Californian chairs have become synonymous with the movement, and for them, as they stated, the ideology was simple yet powerful: “Getting the most of the best to the greatest number of people for the least amount of money.”įor mid-century designers, materials were used for their own distinct, even deliberately artificial qualities and never to imitate the groove of wood or marble. After Nelson’s casual, carefree yet elegant bench, the movement continued to prize the romantic idea that good design could change lives for everyone, not just the rich. It was created to be mass-produced in order to be affordable to the average homeowner, an ideal Nelson inherited from the Bauhaus sensibility – good design for all. ![]() George Nelson’s 1946 Platform Bench is often cited as one of the first memorable designs of the genre. ![]() It was rooted in notions of functionality, elegance and simplicity as championed by the likes of the Bauhaus and Le Corbusier, whose dictum – “a house is a machine for living” – filtered naturally, and often controversially, into the ideology of mid-century designers. Peaking as its name suggests as a style from the 1940s-1960s, the mid-century movement was the organic offspring of modernism. Before you head down to the Oval at Kennington’s Cricket Ground this weekend to fill your homes, here’s a guide to mid-century furniture, a movement that continues to define and grace our kitchens and living rooms. Now the darling of Etsy, upscale vintage stores and the mid-century modern furniture fair at the Oval (which is taking place in London this Sunday, May 15), the historic movement continues to permeate our sense of what’s contemporary. With its bubble shapes, neat proportions and alluring sugar-coated colours, the mid-century has been aptly described as ‘furniture candy’. ![]() When spoken aloud, the words mid-century modern also have a melodic quality to them the mirrored, doubling ‘Ms’ roll smoothly off the tongue, evoking the clean sculptural lines of the perfectly balanced aesthetic that it describes. The label is to-the-point and no-nonsense, much like the straightforward interior style, which championed notions of functionality, ease and modern simplicity. Writer and art historian Cara Greenberg coined the phrase ‘ Mid-Century Modern’ in 1984 – it was the title of her seminal book about what has since become a global and iconic design movement.
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