Dezeen’s information to mid-century fashionable design from A to Z
This site contains affiliate links. I may earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you.
To conclude our mid-century fashionable sequence, we have rounded up all the things it is advisable to know in regards to the design and structure motion from A to Z.
For the final article in our sequence exploring mid-century fashionable design and structure, we have collated 28 of its most influential proponents, furnishings designs, locations, supplies and corporations.
Learn on to find who makes up the mid-century fashionable A to Z:
A is for Arne Jacobsen
Danish architect Arne Jacobsen left his mark on each the structure and design world. Amongst his best-known furnishings items is the long-lasting Ant chair, named after its insect-like form.
“I based mostly my work on a necessity: what chairs are wanted?” Jacobsen stated of its design.
Lots of his most well-known designs such because the enveloping Egg chair had been initially made for architectural initiatives – on this case, the SAS Royal Resort, which was Copenhagen’s first skyscraper and which Jacobsen designed as “a complete murals”.
B is for Barcelona chair
The most effective-known furnishings items of all time, the steel-and-leather Barcelona chair was designed by architect Mies van der Rohe and inside designer Lilly Reich in 1929.
Initially made for the German Pavilion on the 1929 Worldwide Exhibition in Barcelona, the chair’s design was based mostly on the Roman sella curulis – an historic chair utilized by magistrates.
Although it was designed earlier than the heyday of mid-century modernism, it grew to become common within the Nineteen Forties when American furnishings model Knoll started placing the Barcelona chair into manufacturing.
C is for Charles and Ray Eames
Design duo Charles and Ray Eames met in 1940 and fashioned their design firm Eames Workplace after marrying in 1941. Identified for his or her democratic strategy to design, the Eameses labored with fashionable supplies comparable to moulded plywood and designed the world’s first moulded plastic chair, the Shell chair.
Different well-known items embody their wood-and-leather Eames lounge chair and Case Examine Home 8, which grew to become often called Eames Home, main architect Peter Smithson to conclude that the duo modified the face of contemporary design with “just some chairs and a home”.
D is for Day, Lucienne
Identified for her textile designs – most famously the Calyx sample she created for the Competition of Britain – Lucienne Day had a big influence on mid-century fashionable Britain.
Her designs, which had been knowledgeable by summary artwork, “hung in each ‘up to date’ front room in Britain” whereas Calyx gained a gold medal on the Milan Triennale.
The design additionally obtained the worldwide design award from the American Institute of Decorators, making Lucienne Day the primary British designer ever to win the award.
E is for Eero Saarinen
The work of Finnish-American designer Eero Saarinen spanned all the things from sculptural structure, such because the Gateway Arch in St Louis, to sculptural furnishings like his Tulip desk and chairs.
Though born in Finland in 1910, Saarinen’s household later moved to the US the place his architect father had been chosen to design the Cranbrook Instructional Neighborhood.
Saarinen adopted in his father’s footsteps, designing iconic buildings such because the Technical Heart campus for automotive model Normal Motors. He additionally labored with a number of different main mid-century fashionable designers, making a plywood chair with Charles Eames and designing the Womb Chair for Florence Knoll.
F is for Florence Knoll
Florence Knoll was each a designer in her personal proper and expert in getting the most effective out of different creatives. Main furnishings model Knoll‘s inside design arm, often called the Planning Unit, she created a number of designs which might be nonetheless in manufacturing at present together with her scaled-down chrome tables.
Knoll additionally commissioned merchandise by Mies van der Rohe, together with his Barcelona chair, introducing his designs to a brand new viewers.
“Florence Knoll Bassett could have finished greater than anybody else to create what we consider because the ‘Mad Males’ design of the mid-century fashionable workspace,” stated structure critic Paul Goldberger when Knoll handed away in 2019.
G is for Gio Ponti
Like a lot of his friends, Gio Ponti was a polymath who labored in each structure and design. As an architect, he constructed greater than 100 buildings together with the Concattedrale Gran Madre di Dio cathedral in Taranto, Italy, which was impressed by ornamental paper cut-outs.
Amongst his best-known buildings is the 32-story Pirelli Tower in Milan. As a designer, Ponti created items such because the well-known Superleggera chair, which has been known as a “masterpiece of modernity“.
H is for Hans J Wegner
The most effective-known Danish designers from the interval, Hans J Wegner’s most iconic piece is the CH24 Wishbone Chair, which was stated to seize “the essence of Danish design”.
It was amongst 500 chairs designed by Wegner, who specialised in seating and was often called the “Grasp of Chairs”.
“Many foreigners have requested me how we created the Danish type,” Wegner stated. “I’ve answered that it was a steady strategy of purification and simplification – to chop all the way down to the best potential design of 4 legs, a seat, and a mixed back- and armrest.”
I is for Isamu Noguchi
Whereas different mid-century designers dabbled in structure, Japanese-American Isamu Noguchi additionally labored as an artist. Amongst his most well-known merchandise are the sculptural Akari lights, which he designed in 1951.
“The sunshine of Akari is like the sunshine of the solar filtered via the paper of shoji,” he stated.
The Akari lights are nonetheless common and stay in manufacturing to this present day very like his Noguchi desk, produced by furnishings model Herman Miller. His artworks are repeatedly showcased around the globe, with Noguchi described as a “pioneer of social sculpture“.
J is for Jalk, Grete
Born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1920, Grete Jalk skilled as a cabinet-maker earlier than opening her personal design studio in 1954, creating streamlined furnishings items with revolutionary shapes.
Just like the Eameses, she was intrigued by the alternatives provided by moulded plywood and used the fabric to design items such because the GJ Bow Chair, which was bought by the Museum of Fashionable Artwork in New York. The origami-like chair, constructed from two folded plywood items, continues to be made by Lange Manufacturing at present.
Jalk additionally helped to advertise Danish design overseas, organising a travelling Danish design exhibition and becoming a member of the Danish Design Council in 1987.
Okay is for Kjaerholm, Poul
Primarily working in metal, which he mixed with leather-based, wooden and marble, Poul Kjaerholm additionally skilled as a cabinet-maker. His furnishings designs had been created for his buddy Ejvind Kold Christiansen’s model in 1955.
His best-known items embody the PK22 chair, pictured above, and the PK21 espresso desk, which had been each reissued by Danish model Fritz Hansen for the chair’s sixtieth anniversary in 2016.
Kjaerholm’s work is included within the everlasting assortment of museums together with New York’s Museum of Fashionable Artwork and London’s V&A.
L is for Lina Bo Bardi
Modernist architect Lina Bo Bardi, who was born in Italy however has change into recognized for her work in Brazil the place she designed a lot of her buildings, is without doubt one of the most celebrated ladies architects of the twentieth century.
In 2021 she was awarded the Particular Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement award on the Venice Structure Biennale for her “highly effective buildings”, which embody the concrete-and-glass São Paulo Museum.
Bardi can be behind Bardi’s Bowl Chair, a sculptural bowl-shaped leather-based chair that’s nonetheless produced at present.
M is for moulded plywood
In a interval when new supplies had been being invented and designers used current supplies in revolutionary methods, some of the explored was moulded plywood.
Among the many designers experimenting with the fabric, usually for seating designs, had been the Eameses, who created their LCW chair (pictured) utilizing a brand new expertise for working with moulded plywood and British designer Robin Day.
Day’s 675 chair, with its armrests and again fashioned from one piece of formed and moulded plywood, was initially designed in 1952 and stays some of the recognisable mid-century fashionable chairs.
N is for Nelson, George
American industrial designer George Nelson is thought for his bubble lamp (above), a easy, elegant design that’s nonetheless in manufacturing at present.
His different well-known designs embody the Marshmallow Couch, created along with designer Irving Harper, an revolutionary piece that featured 18 injection-plastic disks organized on a metal body.
Nelson, who skilled as an architect, believed that “design is a response to social change” and can be credited with developing with the idea for the primary pedestrian shopping center.
O is for Oscar Niemeyer
Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer had an enormous influence on fashionable structure, creating buildings together with the UN headquarters in New York and the Communist Occasion’s Paris headquarters.
However it’s his designs in Brasília, Brazil’s capital, for which he is finest recognized. Niemeyer designed most of its civic and authorities buildings, together with the Roman Catholic Cathedral, for which he gained the 1988 Pritzker Structure Prize.
Dubbed the “concrete poet”, Niemeyer’s work with bolstered concrete has continued to affect structure. His last constructing was a pavilion in a French winery, pictured above.
P is for Palm Springs
Identified for its many well-preserved mid-century fashionable buildings, Palm Springs, a metropolis within the California desert, options designs by architects together with Richard Neutra, John Lautner and Albert Frey.
Yearly, the town holds its Modernism Week, which invitations the general public to discover its mid-century heritage. Initially designed as a “place the place folks may escape metropolis life” based on Modernism Week CEO Lisa Vossler Smith, at present Palm Springs capabilities as one thing of a time capsule for these inquisitive about mid-century fashionable structure.
Q is for Quistgaard, Jens
Dubbed the “world-famous unknown Dane”, Jens Quistgaard was the chief designer for US-based homeware producer and retailer Dansk Designs for 3 many years.
On this function, he designed greater than 4,000 objects and introduced Scandinavian design to houses throughout America. Quistgaard produced loads of tableware and kitchenware, together with sculptural peppermills that resemble chess items and fruit, but additionally made placing pared-back furnishings designs.
R is for Richard Neutra
One of many main names in mid-century fashionable design is architect Richard Neutra. His futuristic, minimalist houses can nonetheless be discovered throughout California and promote for enormous sums.
The clear strains and angular shapes of his low-rise buildings helped outline a brand new architectural vernacular for the American state.
“I attempt to make a home like a flower pot, in which you’ll root one thing and out of which household life will bloom,” Neutra stated in an interview for the August 15 concern of Time Journal, for which he made the quilt.
S is for Stahl Home
Set within the hills above Los Angeles’ Laurel Canyon, Stahl Home has a glossy design that has change into an iconic image of the town’s modernist structure.
Designed by architect Pierre Koenig and accomplished in 1960, Stahl Home is an instance of one of many metropolis’s Case Examine Homes. These had been designed by well-known architects however meant as environment friendly, cheap mannequin houses. One other instance is the Eameses’ Case Examine Home 8.
Stahl Home, which is among the many most well-known – if not probably the most well-known – of the Case Examine Homes, was named one of many high 150 buildings on the American Institute of Architects‘ “America’s Favourite Structure” checklist in 2007 and listed on the Nationwide Register of Historic Locations.
T is for Thonet
Austrian furnishings model Thonet, recognized for its steam-bent picket furnishings, labored with a lot of designers in the course of the mid-century fashionable interval.
It manufactured designer Verner Panton’s cantilevered-wood S chair and likewise produced items by designer Pierre Paulin and tubular metal furnishings by architects Mies van der Rohe and Marcel Breuer
U is for Utzon, Jørn
The architect behind the Sydney Opera Home was the primary Dane to win the celebrated Pritzker Structure Prize and has a powerful roster of designs.
In addition to the sculptural opera home, which was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Website in 2007, Jørn Utzon is thought for the Bagsværd Church, which was accomplished close to Copenhagen in 1976, and Kuwait’s Nationwide Meeting constructing, accomplished in 1982.
V is for Verner Panton
The person behind the Panton chair, the world’s first all-plastic chair made in a single piece with a cantilever design, Verner Panton created a lot of seminal furnishings designs. These additionally embody his Coronary heart Cone chair and Flowerpot lamp.
Panton additionally labored extensively in inside design, creating colour- and pattern-drenched interiors together with the workplace for journal Der Spiegel and the inside of Copenhagen’s Circus venue.
Whereas he was pals with a lot of the opposite Danish designers working within the interval, Panton’s curiosity in revolutionary materials use and fascination with new manufacturing strategies meant he was usually on the forefront of the design scene.
W is for Wright, Frank Lloyd
One of many world’s most well-known architects, Frank Lloyd Wright is behind iconic buildings together with the Guggenheim Museum in New York, pictured, and Fallingwater, a vacation residence that has been referred to as the “finest all-time work of contemporary American structure”.
Constructed on a waterfall, Fallingwater underlines Lloyd Wright’s ability in creating sculptural, placing buildings meant to have a symbiotic relationship with their environment – an instance of his “natural structure”.
Whereas a lot of his works had been created sooner than the mid-century fashionable interval, which started within the mid-Nineteen Forties, they’ve come to characterize the type with their clear strains and sculptural designs.
Wright designed round 800 buildings in whole, 380 of which had been constructed. Many stay at present.
X is for X-leg by Aalvar Aalto
Also called the fan leg, architect Alvar Aalto’s revolutionary X-leg design was launched for armchairs, stools and tables in 1954. The design includes skinny L-shaped legs which might be linked collectively to kind a fan-like form, which solves the issue of sharp corners.
The desk was made in a wide range of sizes utilizing laminated beech and birch and produced by Finnish furnishings model Artek, like most of Aalto’s furnishings.
Y is for Yamasaki, Minoru
Although he is largely unknown at present, American architect Minoru Yamasaki was the architect behind the unique World Commerce Heart towers, which had been the world’s tallest buildings after they opened in 1973 however had been destroyed in a terror assault on September 11, 2001.
Yamasaki additionally designed the social housing venture Pruitt-Igoe in Missouri and the modernist Rainier Tower and Pacific Science Heart in Seattle. His untraditional strategy to modernism has influenced a lot of folks working at present.
“There are architects like Gyo Obata and Gunnar Birkerts, who started their profession working beneath Yamasaki and designers like Rem Koolhaas and David Adjaye who contemplate him to be a key level of reference,” stated Justin Beal, creator of a e-book on Yamasaki, Sandfuture.
Z is for Zenith Plastics
One of the vital well-known mid-century fashionable chairs, the Shell chair was designed by Charles and Ray Eames, who moulded its form to swimsuit the human physique.
Initially made as a metallic prototype, the Eameses had a breakthrough after they got here throughout a brand new materials by Los Angeles-based firm Zenith Plastics: fibreglass.
By combining fibreglass and molten plastic resin, the designers had been capable of create a light-weight chair that helped fulfil their purpose to get “the a lot of the finest to the best variety of folks for the least”.
Mid-century fashionable
This text is a part of Dezeen’s mid-century fashionable design sequence, which seems on the enduring presence of mid-century fashionable design, profiles its most iconic architects and designers, and explores how the type is growing within the twenty first century.
This sequence was created in partnership with Made – a UK furnishings retailer that goals to carry aspirational design at inexpensive costs, with a objective to make each residence as unique because the folks inside it. Elevate the on a regular basis with collections which might be made to final, obtainable to buy now at made.com.
