The Emergence of Modernism

The Emergence of Modernism was a new direction of design. The designers wanted to use clarity and force to achieve movement. These designers felt that traditional styles were becoming outdated compared to the new environment of the industrialized world. 

One designer that was very influential in the United States during this movement was Frank Lloyd Wright. He worked out of the Chicago area for most of his career. He did projects in other states and also Japan. He was famous for his prairie style houses.

Frank Lloyd Wright's home with studio addition

This home is located in Oak Park, Illinois. When the home was bought it was much smaller, they expanded the home itself, and also with the studio addition. After the family lived here the space was converted into apartments and then restored back to it's original use. Now they give tours of the space and you can see the space as it looked when he lived there.

 Stained glass window at Dana Thomas House

Another thing that Frank Lloyd Wright was famous for was the stained glass he used for windows in his homes. This particular window is at the front of the Dana Thomas house in Springfield, Illinois. Most of his work is inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement and it is all handcrafted. 

Home designed by Taliesin West students.

When designing a modern home, some could use some of Frank Lloyd Wright's work to inspire them. Students at Taliesin West. Even though this is not a prairie style home, Frank Lloyd Wright did have some homes that looked like this, for example, the Fallingwater home in Pennsylvania. 

Fallingwater, Pennsylvania (model)

Inside of a modern home

The inside of most of Frank Lloyd Wright's homes were just like the Arts and Crafts movement, except not everything was hand crafted. This is a modern look at something that could have been inspired by either Frank Lloyd Wright or an Arts and Crafts home. You can see all the wood work and also the detailing on the ceiling and arch of the doorway. The sloped ceiling is also something that Frank Lloyd Wright would have done because all of his homes had multiple levels, some up to 6. Most of the homes however didn't look like it had as many levels as it did, so he had to get creative with the slopes and levels of the ceilings. 

Here is a computer graphics video I found of the Fallingwater house he built.

Fallingwater

Peer Discussions:

I like how Katie went through all the different designers throughout this time. Each of them had their own style so it was nice seeing the different homes/buildings they all worked on.

I also liked how Sammy N focused on the furniture that Wright created. I mentioned it briefly but he really did have his own unique style in furniture. 

Deutscher Werkbund Movement

The Deutscher Werkbund Movement was founded in Munich, Germany in 1892. By 1899, the design had spread to Vienna, Austria and Berlin, Germany as well. Deutscher Werkbund (translation German workshop) was focused on having the highest quality design to the mass produced output. We can compare this movement to the Arts and Crafts movement, but this time they chose to use machines to achieve designs. 

Stoclet Palace: Brussels (1905-1911)

Josef Hoffmann designed this home for Adolphe Stoclet. The amazing thing about this house was that Josef Hoffmann designed everything for it. Including the structure of the building its self, the interior, and also the furniture for the home.

Morris Chair (1905)

Josef Hoffmann also decided to remodel the Morris Chair that was designed by Philip Webb. This particular chair is made out of beech wood and has a ratcheted back. We can still see the high chair back design that was popular in most chairs during the Arts and Crafts movement.

This is a modern chair that resembles the Kubus Chair designed by Josef Hoffmann in 1910. Even though the original chair is coming back as a modern style, this chair has the same shape and more clean cut lines than the original. The features of the chair are that it is square and fully upholstered. 

Bart Canapé Chair - designed by Barb Schilder. 2012.

This modern chair reminds me of the Palais Stoclet chair. It goes against the cube shape of normal chairs and has the angular back just like the Palais Stoclet chair used in the Great Hall.

The Vienna Secession was a movement to protest against Historicism but not using Art Nouveau. The group of designers that followed this movement were Joseph Olbrich, Gustav Klimt, Otto Wagner, Adolf Loos, Josef Hoffmann, and Koloman Moser. The Secession Building was designed by Joseph Olbrich and was designed to symbolize "proto-modern". It was built in 1897. Here is a video I found of some detailing of the outside of the building. 

Secession Building

Peer Discussions: 

I like how in Sammy's blog she showed different patterns being used against each other in her modern picture of a bedroom. Different patterns were something huge with some designers.

I also like in Ali's blog, the 2nd "Today's Applications" picture she used. I see a lot of different pieces of furniture that were modernized from this movement, that were used for different things. This picture brings all of those pieces together.