FURNITURE DESIGN HISTORY

 

 

 

 

 

Achille Castiglioni, born in Milan in 1918, is best known for his economic and practical designs. He studied architecture at the Politecnico di Milano University and set up a design office in 1944 with his brothers, Livio and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni. Though probably known best for the futuristic Arco Lamp, designed in 1962, Castiglioni had numerous other design credits to his name. He was also the recipient of numerous design prizes throughout the course of his career, including seven Compasso d'Oro awards. Upon the designer's death in 2002, his family 'froze' the Castiglioni studio and converted it into a Museum in Milan, which is still open for visitors. The Museum of Modern Art has some of his most important designs in its permanent collection.

 

Though often solely credited, Charles Eames actually worked in duet with his wife, Ray. Born in America in 1907 and 1912 respectively, this creative duo made major contribution to the fields of architecture and design - as well as fine art, graphic design and film - over the course of their forty-year careers. Both were educated at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, where they became close friends with other renowned designers Eero Saarinen and Florence Knoll. The pair were married in 1941. As with their earlier molded plywood work, they pioneered technologies, such as the fibreglass and plastic resin chairs and the wire mesh chairs. Their most famous piece is the Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman.

Charles Eames Dining Chairs Charles Eames Lounge Chairs Charles Eames Office Chairs Charles Eames Barstools

 

 

Eero Saarinen was a Finnish-American architect and industrial designer, known for his simple, yet robust designs. Born in Finland in 1910, his father was the well-known architect Eliel Saarinen. After emigrating to the the USA at the age of thirteen, the young Eero learnt his trade at the Cranbrook Academy of Arts. Here, he became close friends with fellow design students Charles and Ray Eames, as well as Florence Knoll (née Schust). Saarinen first received critical recognition, while still working for his father, for a chair designed together with Charles Eames for the Organic Design in Home Furnishings Competition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1940.

 

   Finn Juhl Style

 Architect and interior designer Finn Juhl was born in Denmark in 1912. Over the course of a thirty-year career Juhl made major contributions to 21st Century interior design and is widely considered to be a foremost figure of Danish creatives. Though originally he was geared towards art history and painting, it was under the influence of his ambitious father that he persued the more reliable career path of architecture. He was admitted to the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts from 1930, where he studied under Kay Fisker, a leading architect of his day. After graduating, Juhl worked for ten years at Vilhelm Lauritzen's architectural firm. His work included numerous assignments within the field of interior design. Shortly after opening his own office, Juhl received several offers to design some premier addresses in Copenhagen, including Bing & Grøndahl's shop on Amagertorv and Svend Schaumann's florist's shop on Kongens Nytorv.

 

 Harry Bertoia Style

 Like so many designers, it was through Harry Bertoia's passion for the beautiful  and well-made that he stumbled on furniture design. Born in Italy in 1915, Bertoia took a random trip to visit his brother in  USA in his early teens and stayed there. He began to study the art of design and jewellery-making, before taking up a scholarship at Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1937. There he became close friends with other pioneering designers of his day, including Charles and Ray Eames and founding-father of the Bauhaus movement Walter Gropius.   After graduation, Bertoia initially opened a metal workshop. As the war caught on, however, metal became a rare commodity and he turned his interests to jewellery-making, allegedly designing the wedding rings of Charles and Ray Eames. In 1950, he worked with fellow Cranbrook graduate Florence Knoll. During this period he designed five wire pieces that became known as the Bertoia Collection. Among them was the famous 'Diamond Chair' a fluid, sculptural form made from a molded lattice work of welded steel. Sales of his Collection were so strong that Bertoia was able to turn his attention to sound art and sculpturing. Despite success in this area, however, he is perhaps most well-known for the wire chairs he produced early in his career. Even after his death in 1978, his legacy lives on and his chairs are much-imitated the world-over.

Hans J. Wegner was a world renowned Danish furniture designer. In his lifetime, he designed over 500 different chairs, over 100 of which were put into mass-production and many of which have become recognizable design icons.Born in Denmark in 1914 to a cobbler, the young Wegner was interested in wood-sculpturing from an early age. He completed apprenticeships as a teenager before going to the Danish School of Arts and Crafts and the Architectural Academy in Copenhagen. When architects Arne Jacobsen and Erik Møller established a studio together to design and build Åarhus City Hall in 1940, they took Wegner on as a trainee.    Even his earliest objects Wegner exhibited a typical approach of "stripping the old chairs of their outer style and letting them appear in their pure construction." It is said that he " always wanted to make unexceptional things of an exceptionally high quality." The most famous of his creations were the Peacock, Kennedy and Wishbone Chairs.

 

 Japanese interior designer Sori Yanagi was a foremost figure in the field of industrial and interior design. Born in Tokyo in 1915, he made contributions to furniture design, kitchen utensils, heavy bridge constructions and cars. After graduating from Tokyo Art School, Yanagi moved into general design. His curvaceous Butterfly Stool –designed in 1956 – was modelled on a Japanese Shinto shrine. Indeed, it was this piece that brought the designer international fame and recognition. The Stool won several awards, including the eminent Triennal di Milano Award in 1957 and later joined the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and Le Louvre museum in Paris. Even after his sudden death at the end of 2011, Yanagi’s values continues to resonate throughout the design community: universal, lively and legendary.

 

 Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier was an architect, designer and writer and widely considered a pioneer of modern architectural style. Born in Switzerland in 1887 (later to become a naturalized French citizen), he produced numerous designs and won several awards (including the Frank P. Brown Medal in 1961) over a career that spanned fifty years. His buildings are still standing in cities across Europe, India and America. Once quoted as saying that ‘chairs are architecture, sofas are bourgeois", Le Corbusier began experimenting with furniture design in 1928. The most famous of his collection is the now-iconic LC-Set. Indeed, the LC-2 and LC-3 Chairs are more colloquially referred to as the Petit and Grande Armchairs respectively. Though often subject to critique and questioning, the legacy succeeding Le Corbusier after his death in 1965 is undeniable; many of his furniture designs feature in homes, offices and commercial spaces worldwide.

Kindly note that The designer and his products name was mentioned to explain the history of furniture design and it doesn't  represent any of the items sold in this store.

Note that The designer name and his products was mentioned in this article to demonstrate  the history of furniture design and it doesn't  represent any of the items sold in this store.