International Style Organic Design.

Organic Design means where architects build new buildings that connect with their surroundings, whether it is nature, cities, urban etc. Interiors were made to be similar to the exterior of the architecture. They used organic shapes, soft flowing forms, natural materials such as stone and wood. Whether with designers they produce their product with natural forms and materials.

Most two popular designers of the Organic Design are:

                              Frank Lloyd Wright 

 Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

Frank Lloyd Wright was one of the most important American architects of the twentieth century. One of his best architecture is the Falling Water house, build directly onto a river. It was build in 1935 in Southwestern Pennsylvania. This house has simple and geometric forms all over. The interior is an open space with a fireplace in the middle and furniture all over the area but mostly against the wall. It was the most modern house of that time even for today’s architecture it is still a very good example of architect.  Wright was not only an architect but also a product designer such as couch, chairs, tables, desks mostly every piece of furniture. The falling water house is filled with almost all his designs. As for all geometric and very sharp edges is the same way, as the De Stijl style would do in their designs.

The Interior of the Falling Water

Charles Rennie Mackintosh was a Scottish architect, designer and an artist.

Mackintosh produced quite a lot of products that their design is still popular and impressive nowadays. His products match to one another such as the Willow Chair that rests on a box instead of legs. Its broad, curved back has a pattern of rectangles

and parallel lines. This grid pattern is taken up again in the DS 322 table. The grid is a different shape and much bigger but it still have the connection of it.

                                                                                        Willow chair

Alvar Aalto did a huge success in the history of design. In 1924 he married the designer, Aino Mariso and for five years they conducted experiments together into the bending of wood. Having turned to laminated wood and plywood as his material of choice. Two of his best chairs are the No 41(Paimio) and the No 31 (cantilevered). These two chairs made a huge success in his life. He changed the look of wood from straight to curves, loops, flows and soft rounded edges.

No 31 Cantilevered                                                      No 41 Paimio

Charles and Ray Eames were a married couple that conducted a lot of products in the industry of design. Their first chair was the Lounge Chair made out all from Wood, they worked together with Eero Saarinen, and it was blown away by the viewers. This chair does not have sharp edges just curves and bended wood all over, the same as Aalto experimented with. It has a strange look for its legs the front are more longer whether of the back are lowered but it still has stability and comfort. The most known chair for this couple is the

Lounge chair and Ottoman almost perfect seating. It looks both offices and private homes. This armchair was a delicate process for the huge amount of bending in the wood especially the bottom part of the seat when it was done they stacked it up with foam and covered it with leather. This was the same process for the stool.

The International style was a great success and made a huge impact on architecture and design. It is the beginning of a new way of building things where one can combine the nature with the man made products.

Reference:

Bernard Polster, Claudia Neumann, Markus Schuler  and Fredrick Leven, 2004. The AZ of Modern design

Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau was a new style that begin in the early 1890's. Art Nouveau was not only in architecture but also in product and art where designers always looked towards the future but in the manner of soft flowing lines that make the design itself elegant. As for the world was getting modernised in those early years of the twentieth century, designers and architects wanted their stuff created and modern as possible so the people will admire their work more. We now recognize it as the style of the age. As for Art Nouveau their was some kind of a rule, nature had to be included whether it is water, animals, plants or flowers. They had a theme to stick with. By time it spread almost all over Europe and almost all parts of the North America.

The Interior of Tassel House

This is one of the first Art Nouveau buildings it was made in the early 1890's by Victoria Horta, the Tassel House, this was made specific for scientists. One can see that there is no need for a special investigation on what style it was. As from the floor, walls, columns, stairs, every corner of the house is full with the style of Nouveau. This can be tell for the elegant, well designed floor tiles, the paint on the walls, the metal work even on stone with all those soft flowing lines all over inspired from plants and flowers.

 Decanter

This decanter was designed by an English designer C.R Ashbee she did a large number of decanter but this was inspired by the Art Nouveau era. As it has that green glass finished look it has more to do with the handle were it has the same movement as the curve lines of the interior of the Tassel House.

"The French were more influenced by the symbolism of the style . They viewed art as a mean of discovering the soul, the parts of existence which modern materialism appeared to have left behind." (Paul Greenhalgh. (Year 2000) Essential Art Nouveau)

Divan Japonais

Divan Japonais was one of the many cafe-concerts in the late nineteenth century Paris frequented by Toulouse Lautrec. In his poster features two of his favourite Montmartre stars. Here the designer made up a poster for advertising of the cafe-concert. It was a new thing of symbolising and attract the people to the poster and the concert itself. He used mostly earth colours even the outlines are not sharp edged. He also depicted the commercial quite well because one can understand what is happening in the picture without even reading the description.

In that period designers use to steal imagery outside their country in this case, Europe. They would do this to keep the customers amazed and keep producing better and different products, such as the Islamic and Japanese art and culture. The curling, linear shape known as the ‘arabesque’ occurred throughout Islamic textiles, given form to ceramics and glass.

This was made by the designer Tiffany and co in 1896. This glass explains everything, the curling, the linear shape, colour that it was inspired by another country. We also can see that this vase is depicting a flower, staying with the theme of nature.

The most important thing to Art Nouveau was nature we can see it almost in everything they painted or designed. Designers did not stick with the most famous natural elements such as water, roses, lilies, lions but they wanted to seek in depth of this theme. "Many designers used metamorphosis as a strategy, fusing animals, plants and human forms. Nature became the major vehicle for the creation of interiors, which were ‘ total works of art’." (Paul Greenhalgh. (Year 2000) Essential Art Nouveau).

The Winged Female

The winged female figure done by Rene Lalique in France. It is a bronze sculpture of a nude woman raised by 'wings' that are more of a strange looking butterfly wings. The wing itself is used for a stand and the nude is attached in a specific position. 

Art Nouveau finished with the start of the First World War. The style was lost and began to be recognised in the 1960’s, many buildings and objects were lost or destroyed. Today Art Nouveau we see it as the style that made modern environment where it not only changed peoples experience but also their expectations of what the new century would bring.

Reference: 

Paul Greenhalgh. (Year 2000) Essential Art Nouveau