After Modernism

After Modernism

If prewar modernism was utopian and theoretical, then postwar modernism was applied and practical. This is where architects, such as Mies van der Rohe, Philip Johnson, and Le Corbusier, began to take a new direction in their work and where Brutalism became more apparent throughout the world. 

Osvaldo Borsani

Osvaldo Borsani is known for his furniture company, Tecno, that creates high-end furniture for offices. He is also recognized as one of the masters of Italian postwar
modernism and became quite proficient in both the corporate and residential world. His main challenge consisted of creating a chaise with an infinite number of positions, like a chair with many adjustments. This, and other pieces, lead to Borsani seen as a designer with tasteful interiors and the combination of his own works with others. 

Roberto Matta

Roberto Matta, more so known as a Surrealist painter, produced a Malitte seating unit that not only increased expectations, but introduced Matta to the other side of the design world where he alternatively worked as an architect and furniture designer.
After working for Le Corbusier, Matta became a Surrealist painter and sculptor. From there he turned to furniture design that became an extension of his sculptors. His Malitte unit consist of polyurethane foam-covered chairs with fabric. This line was frequently pictured as a blocky contemporary art piece with all five pieces piled together.

Florence Knoll and Ettore Sottsass

Florence Knoll established furniture in the 1960s and 1970s that responded to fractured societal design aesthetic by retreating to the Bauhaus ideal. With an inward focus on good design, Knoll expertly could detail a sofa as elegantly and economically as herself, making her stand out even more. Ettore Sottsass trained and worked as an

architect but was mostly known for his office furniture designs and lamps, ice buckets, silverware, and an Olivetti typewriter. After opening a studio in Milan, he designed soup plate and coasters, a decanter, and a carpet that feature bright colors. In addition, his works focused on lighting and ceramics which were made of acrylic, aluminum, and various tropical woods. While his work was quirky and sometimes irreverent, Sottsass created forms to look like other things, like a bookcase in the form of a lightning bolt.

Conclusion

While it is not easy to predict where things will go, especially in the design industry, it is critical that we do not make the same, or similar, mistakes to those before us. This alone explains why it is so important to study and understand the history of interiors and furnishings, as well as the rise of the interior design world. It is also helpful to see what other have done, the response to their work, and how we as the current designers can learn and create from their instances.