Furniture (Page 2)

things such as chairs, tables, beds, cupboards, etc., that are put into a house or other building to make it suitable and comfortable for living or working in

People have been using natural objects, such as tree stumps, rocks and moss, as furniture since the beginning of human civilization and continue today in some households/campsites. Archaeological research shows that around 30,000 years ago, people started constructing and carving their furniture using wood, stone, and animal bones. Early furniture from this period is known from artwork such as a Venus figurine found in Russia, depicting the goddess on a throne.

The first surviving extant furniture is in the homes of Skara Brae in Scotland and includes cupboards, dressers and beds, all constructed from stone. Complex construction techniques such as joinery began in the early dynastic period of ancient Egypt. This era saw constructed wooden pieces, including stools and tables, sometimes decorated with valuable metals or ivory. The evolution of furniture design continued in ancient Greece and Rome, with thrones being commonplace and the klinai, multipurpose couches used for relaxing, eating and sleeping. The furniture of the Middle Ages was usually heavy, oak, and ornamented. Furniture design expanded during the Italian Renaissance of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

In both Southern and Northern Europe, the seventeenth century was characterized by opulent, often gilded Baroque designs. Revival styles usually define the nineteenth century. The first three-quarters of the twentieth century are often seen as the march towards Modernism. One unique outgrowth of post-modern furniture design is a return to natural shapes and textures. (Wikipedia)

MoMA Wassily Chair featured image

He attended the Vienna Akademie der bildenden Künste in 1920 and the Bauhaus in Weimar from 1920 to 1924. In 1920, he moved to Vienna, intending to become a painter and sculptor. However, he left the Akademie der bildenden Kunste because he was displeased with it, and he enrolled at the Bauhaus in Weimar, where he became one of its most well-known students. Read More →

Croisette Bench by Pascal Mourgue

Pascal Mourgue is a French designer and artist. He was professionally active in Paris and the brother of Olivier Mourgue. He considers himself more of an artist than a designer. He is noted for modern yet timeless style. He designs products for both home and the office illustrate his belief that utility and fine art need not be exclusive.Read More →

Guilloche design term

The guilloche is a decorative element that encircles a line of bosses with two bands or ribbons intertwined. In the British Regency style, it was particularly well-liked and adopted by furniture designers from Renaissance to the Twenties and Fifties.Read More →

James Evanson stools

James Evanson has been at the forefront of the “functional art” movement around the world. His work has travelled worldwide since his first exhibition in 1979 at the Art et Industrie Gallery in New York. For the Memphis Collection in Milan, new work was created just for the occasion. The “Lighthouse” lamps gained international acclaim and became an icon of the 1980s.Read More →

Bruno Mathsson Swedish Designer & Architect

Mathsson grew up in the town of Värnamo in Sweden’s Smland region, the son of a master cabinet maker. After a brief period of schooling, he began working in his father’s gallery.Read More →

Vintage armchair Jumbo fibreglass

Alberto Rosselli (1921-76) Italian architect and industrial designer. He was born in Palermo. He was professionally active in Milan. Read More →

Vladimir Kagan featured image

Vladimir Kagan was a German furniture designer who was active in New York and studied architecture at Columbia University. He was known for his form and Asian undercurrent, and experimented with rubber products to build comfort into tight seat and back upholstery.Read More →

John Makepeace featured image

He started designing furniture in 1961. In 1964, he set up a workshop in Farnsborough Barn, Banbury, moving in 1976 to Parnham House in Dorset. He established the Parnham Trust and School for Craftsmen in Wood in 1977.Read More →

Armchair, 1907 - 1913 designed by Gustav Stickley

The term mission furniture was first popularized by Joseph P. McHugh of New York, a furniture manufacturer and retailer. The word mission references the Spanish missions throughout colonial California. The style became increasingly popular following the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo.Read More →

Jordi Veciana featured image

He worked for eleven years creating product, furniture, and store interiors, first at Vignelli Associates and then at Polo Ralph Lauren. In 1998, he returned to Spain and began working as a creative director for Grupo Inditex, developing new concepts for the Zara Group’s distinctive retail environments. In 2003, Veciana formed Castel Veciana Arquitectura in collaboration with architect Jordi Castel. He began working with Metalarte shortly after that.Read More →

Léon Jallot featured image

Léon Jallot (1874­-1967), a scion of the French Art Nouveau, stood out within the movement as an ébéniste, or cabinet maker.Read More →

Akari Lamp featured image

Isamu Noguchi designed the first of his lamps to be produced by traditional construction methods in Gifu, Japan, known for its manufacture of lanterns and parasols made from mulberry bark paper and bamboo. Akari is handcrafted with washi paper from the inside bark of the mulberry tree and bamboo ribbing stretched across sculptural moulded wood shapes.Read More →

Kisho Kurokawa featured image

In 1960, at the age of 26, he made his debut into the world as one of the founders of the Metabolism Movement.  Read More →

The Lassen brothers’ archive of architecture and furniture design represents the finest qualities of the Danish design tradition and deserves a wider audience.Read More →

Chaise Lounge by Marcel Breuer

Marcel Breuer designed this chaise lounge during his influential period in England (1935-37). His work for the London-based design and architectural firm Isokon is the most recognizable of this period. The chaise was designed for the 1936 Seven Architects Exhibition for Heal & Sons Department Store.Read More →

Fall Front Desk example

Fall Front Desk – Section of the front face of cabinet, desk or drawer that is hinged at the bottom and can open by falling forward.Read More →

Cristian Cirici featured image

Between 1962-65, he worked in the office of architects Frederic Correa and Alfonso Mila and, in 1962, in the office of architects James Cubitt and Partners, London. In 1964 (with Pep Bonet, Lluis Clotet, and Oscar Tusquets Blanca), he founded the Studio PER. Read More →

Mantel Clock designed by C.F.A Voysey (Museum of Fine Arts, Houston)

Charles Francis Annesley Voysey was a renowned architect and designer of modern homes, bridging the gap between the Arts and Crafts and modernist movements. Voysey designed small and medium-sized houses and furniture, influenced by Modernism and Japanese art.Read More →

Armand-Albert Rateau

Armand-Albert Rateau (1882–1938) was a French furniture designer and interior decorator. His name and work became well known for his contributions to the Art Deco style, which was gaining popularity at the time. He created the fashion house Lanvin and ran the Lanvin-Décoration interior design department on rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré. He became one of France’s most influential designers of the Art Deco furniture and decor movement. In 1921–22, he was the manager of Lanvin-Sport.Read More →

Black Wire Chair by Oki Santo

Oki Sato, a Canadian-born Japanese designer, was born in 1977 in Toronto, Canada. He received his M.Arch. from Waseda University, Tokyo, in 2002 and established his design studio, Nendo, in 2002. Nendo is renowned for its minimalist products that challenge user preconceptions of what an object should be or look like. The Sawaru lamp is a superb illustration of the studio’s capacity to reimagine the objects in our environment.Read More →