Furniture of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

One of the question we frequently hear as a student in RISD is probably “Where are you from”. It may look like an easy question to many people, but to me it is a difficult question to answer; I was born and lived in California until I was three, brought up until I was 10 years old in Korea, lived in Sweden for another 6 years and went back and forth between two countries until I ended up in Rhode Island. Although my family and I am fully Korean, having homes in three different countries have made out family to become a slightly different from some other families. Among many small things that show our ‘strangeness’, one of the most evident things would be my parent’s home in Korea; every guest we ever had would always comment that our apartment interior is very exotic and nice. It is not very strange to hear that because our furniture is from all over the world; the kitchen table and wardrobe is from Korea, the bed and TV is from America, living room’s sofa, coffee table and paintings on the walls are from Sweden.

My mother has always been interested in interior goods and furniture, and just a couple of years ago she started a business that trade interior goods and furniture between Europe and Korea. During the past times I had been following my mother to IKEA stores in Sweden, Nagoya in Japan and furniture malls in Korea to dig up a new and fascinating products. As a current illustration student who previously couldn’t make up my mind between illustration, industrial design and business major, the history of industrial design course had initiated me to think back about the relationships between furniture I've been seeing from three different cultures; Korea, Sweden and United States.

Many hundreds of years ago, three cultures owned very different furniture styles because the differences in climate, environment, resource and lifestyles; and also because the technology hadn’t developed far enough to carry people and information around the world so easily like we do today. For example Korean furniture through out Joseon Dynasty (lasted through out late 14th century to early 20th century) were mainly consisting of container forms like wardrobe, cabinet, chest and etc. chairs were rarely made because Koreans traditionally took off their shoes before coming into the room, and would sit down on the floor cushion. Since they didn’t stand within the room often, the desks and tables were also low. Timber from jujube trees or paulownia trees were popularly used, and the surface of wood was coated with plant oil or lacquered to make the furniture durable and waterproof. Bamboo nails would be used to hold the form together in joints, and the color of the furniture would almost always be dark brown because pigments were seldomly used. When it needed more decoration, gold leaf, nacre, brass ornaments and black or dark red lacquer was used. The most significant characteristic of Korean traditional furniture is its minimalistic design that shows divided spaces of rectangles and squares. Ornaments were never used too much and the design was honest to its material.

In 1950s, Korean War had divided the country. Rapid industrialization caused Korea to quickly absorb the culture and lifestyle from Western countries. Interest toward traditional design has been diminished and Korean consumers have demanded European furniture in Provencal or Antique style. Ironically and sadly, western cultures seem to pay more attention to oriental design than Koreans do nowadays. However efforts have been made to reinterpret Korean traditional furniture design to modern market, like Hoon-Sang Cho’s works. His designs have successfully combined the motif and concepts of Korean design with new modernism ideas. However it is yet unsuccessful as a product because the cost is very high; the demand is too low to be mass-produced.

Let us look back at the history of furniture in the United State at this point. As far as the records tell us, the Americans started making their furniture since 17th century as beginning of the era of Colonization. Colonies were settling to the new land, and they often brought their furniture from England or France. Soon enough the settlers started to make their own furniture, but its style was merely copies of the furniture from their homelands; usually they would make in 15-year old English style. Shapes of flowers, leaves and crescents were carved into wood and sometimes painted in black, red and yellow. However the carvings were flatter than those of England and overall quality was crude. During the time of still-unsettled early colonists the most popular furniture was portable pieces like chests, trestle tables and joint stools. But as the time flew and colonists settled, bigger but more comfortable pieces like Carver chairs and Cromwellian type became consumer's favorite. As the Colonial period and the Revolution was over, consumers no longer preferred imported furniture from older civilizations. Many furniture factories began to arise (mainly in Maine, Vermont and Massachusetts) and began to produce simple wooden chairs which we now call kitchen chairs. As population of United States grew, Industrial Revolution had triggered some New Englanders to invent machinery that would increase the outputs. As a result the business of making furniture grew rapidly, but the primitive beauty of handmade products were diminished.

This is when Arts and Crafts movement arose in the United States, England and Canada of end of 19th century. Inspired by John Ruskin’s writing and romantic idealization, this movement’s aim was to deny ‘soulless’ machine-made architecture, furniture and decorative art (This movement was a reaction against industrialization, but it wasn’t an anti-industrial or anti-modern movement). In the United States the designers attempted to reinterpret European art (sometimes including Art Nouveau, since it shares same time period) for American taste. This movement inspired many furniture designers like Charles Rohlfs and Ernest A. Batchelder. Then in the early 20th century, architects, artists and designers were greatly influenced by De Stilj’s geometric shapes and bold primary colors and black, white and gray. Also BauHaus’ design tried to stress aesthetic fundamentals and strive for geometric pure forms in product designs, while being completely aware of if it could be mass produced and sold in markets (Arts and Crafts design often disdained the possibility of having the products mass produced). Gerrit Rietveld’s furniture design is a good example of work from this period. This modernism design along with functionalistic idea had continued since the beginning of 20th century until now along with the crisis of depletion of resources, crushing economy and growing population in United States and every other country. Then on 1970s, Swedish company called IKEA introduced itself to furniture markets of United States, Europe and Asia.

Now would be a great moment to go over history of Swedish furniture design. During early the 18th century, Sweden was a poor country that constantly suffered from the wars between Russia and Europe, with doubled population to feed. As a result the only way to prevent famine was to immigrate; over 1 percent of Swedish population had immigrated to the United States. Thus part of Swedish culture that could count as luxury such as food, art and furniture design could not be developed very much.

However, Sweden manages to come over the crisis and in the late 18th century, Gustavian furniture design was introduced as King Gustav III got on the throne. King’s extensive travel to France had major influence to the style, and soon enough Swedish designers started to develop its own style with the elements of strong neo classical style on symmetry and straight line columns. Muted and light colors were often used on the designs. Sweden’s design was then influenced by Germany’s Bierdermeier style, which had elements of keeping clean lines and minimal ornaments among the middle class people (who couldn’t afford expensive French Empire style which was popular at that moment among bourgeoisies). The theme of simple elegance that started from here would remain until today's Swedish design.

From the middle of 19th century to the beginning of 20th century there were two vital moments that influenced Swedish modern design for good. First was the Stockholm International Exhibition in 1930, that had a great impact on functionalism, and International Exhibition called H55 (held in Helsingborg) that first introduced Swedish design industry to the whole world. One of the most famous designers that was influenced by these two exhibitions is Bruno Mathsson. Bentwood furnitures, which show smooth curved lines of wood panels, is still considered as one of the main Swedish designs. Timber being the major source of the country, light colored wood of beech, birch and maple are often used in Swedish furniture. The grain and color of the wood is usually left revealed to be seen, and even if it is painted it is usually in bright colors (this color choice derives from long, dark and harsh Scandinavian winter; Swedes knew to appreciate warm colors). The design is aimed to be simple and functionalistic at the same time.

In 1970s, people became aware of the limited resources we have on the planet. The very first country where this realization had an actual influence on industrial design was Sweden. Concerns of growing population, depletion of resources and reduced purchasing power of consumers lead a Swedish furniture company, IKEA’s business to flourish; it was the only company that pronounced Swedish design strongly enough while keeping the price as lowest as possible by producing the parts overseas and leading the consumers to come, purchase and assemble at home. The philosophy behind IKEA’s success can be explained by a quote from the founder Ingvar Kamprad; “It is easy to make a desk that cost 1000 dollars, but it’s not easy to make a good quality desk that cost 50 dollars.”

Swedish style had proven to be successful on reading the consumers' needs for many decades now. Its functionalism and affordability had been a successful design all over the world, and the number of design business is still growing in Sweden as we speak. Even in Korea, where classic European style had been dominating the market, news had shown that IKEA store is going to be opened in the summer of 2008 due to the demands of Korean consumers – just like what happened in the United States, and Sweden.

Reflecting back on what we have seen, I believe that even though furniture design of all three cultures started off somewhere very different, now the design is simultaneously developing into the same trend as the cultures become globalized. I think the unification of all cultures and designs was already foreseen as the technology had allowed the world to communicate and travel with ease. However I do believe that it is us, the designers’ job to be pay attention and make use of the essential elements of our own culture’s design in order to develop it further and introducing it to the world. How sad would it be if our future design industry was filled with similar designs with no cultural distinctions? IKEA had already proven that a world-famous furniture design should be able to tell its own stories of its culture. I also want to note that we may be facing a drastic change in furniture trend in near future. The functionalist movement had been going on for almost a century, and we know from the past that a trend tend to last shorter than it did four hundred years ago. One of the most talented designers among us will be designing the future that everyone will want to imitate, and I believe that the hint lies not only in the current era, but also in our past.

Sitting

FOLDING CHAIRS

A Folding chair has been an important piece of furniture in households for centuries, since ancient Egyptians to current 21th century. For many centuries folding chairs was used for ceremonial events or to show the prized status of the owner. However as era changed, a folding chair became a symbol for functional (and usually with affordable price) furniture that can maximize the portability and/or that can be shrunken in means of size in order to be stored with ease in a small space.


2000 BC
Egyptians


Egyptian folding stool was developed 2000-1500BC as a portable chair for the commanding officer in the army. Also Tutankhamun’s throne was a foldable seat with a back support; both the furniture that remained and paintings in ancient tombs show how foldable seat behaved as a symbol of authority. Much later the folding stool as a ceremonial chair developed in two ways: secular and Christianity.



800 AD

Medieval Europe

In medieval Europe, Franconia, times it was emphasized that the crossing “X” structure which became a symbol of authority; the crossed legs would be facing front instead of facing the side. The throne of Dagobert I, King of the Franconians, is a good example. The furniture is heavily ornamented because of the development of new tools and working method, and also because of the will of higher class society to differentiate themselves from the others.




1600 AD
Renaissance

This is also the time when a folding chair could actually fold for convinience. Before this era, most of the chairs were impossible to fold even if it had a crossed leg. Sedia della forbice, or the scissors chair, can be found in early medieval period, followed by the 'sedia a tenaglia' (the pincer chair). However during the baroque period chairs with crossed legs were not always foldable, especially during the period of
louis XIV-XVI, when the 'X' structure contained an exclusive value to it. The field chair of Napoleon I (or the ‘fauteuil’) is a ancestor of the director’s chair in the 20th century.



1700 AD

End of Renaissance

In 18th century Europe, a folding chair became an integral part of domestic furnishings. The return to rich decoration during the baroque period meant that chairs with crossed legs were not always foldable, especially during the period of louis XIV – XVI when the 'X' structure had exclusively symbolic value once again. A renaissance chair was the most popular kind in this era. The majority of the chairs of all countries until the middle of the 17th century were of oak without upholstery with leather sometimes employed a cushion; subsequently velvet and silk were extensively used, and at a later period cheaper and more durable materials.




2000 AD

Modern Design

By the 19th century, folding chairs became a widespread utilitarian feature of public spaces where there is regular need to rearrange or remove the seating. Chairs no longer is a symbol of wealthiness after the boom of industrialization; even the richest use simple-shaped chairs and the poor may have X-shaped chairs - because the price is much more affordable.
Today designer’s main goal of designing a folding chair is to create a basic seating surface that is comfortable for a short time and be stored/moved easily by folding it up. A good example is a folding chair in military use – military objects respond above all to precise, immediate functionalities. But it was never designed to be beautiful. This solution of design, ironically, comes from the previous ‘Napoleonic fauteuil’ from the Renaissance when ornaments were greatly appreciated.

However appreciating functionality did not mean the death of aesthetic beauty of folding chairs. Recent technology had boosted the product designers to adapt and develop new uses of new materials with new uses and new design solutions. Modern furniture designs often possess reduced the status value of the object, and the uniqueness and innovative design is very stressed.

A great example of chair design that fully serves its purpose as functionality is cardboard chair designed by Gary Ramler. 400,000 of this cardboard chairs (and tables) were produced as the official furniture supplier for the Sydney Olympic games in 2000. This chair cannot be folded, but is demountable and uses very cheap material that also can be recycled after its use. It doesn’t have durability like other materials have, but it is designed to focus on how to use a nature-friendly material that can be mass-produced and assembled in seconds. The chair was designed with triangular geometry to support even the most heavy-weighed athletes in Olympics. The chairs could last for three years or longer, but it did have a disadvantage; it could not handle rain. Thus the chairs were used only indoors (except swim-related buildings).






This is a chardboard chair/writing desk designed by RISD student in ID department in 2006. No cuts, no glue, no tape was used in building the furniture. Over 110,000 viewers watched this short video on Youtube and many were asking for the tutorial. There are many other videos posted up by RISD students on Youtube, so you may want to check them all out!



As the world's population grow and industries get bigger, many designers are looking for a method that has the most efficient way to use a low-cost material into both functional and aesthetic piece of furniture. However there also are many designers who strive for purely aesthetic design rather than focusing on the functionality, like non-portable chairs emerging out of the wall/floor or an expensive chair made of thousands of CDs and metal that cannot be moved without a help of machinery.

The design movement in Bauhaus had inspired countless number of designers to strive for functionalism in 20th and 21st century, and I think it is evolving its way through and is changing every day; however one thing I believe in is that the designers will continue to produce furnitures that are affordable for more people by using low-cost material and production method because of the growing population and economic collapse that has been occuring through out the world these days.

Lighting

BRINGING LIGHT INTO HOME

For the ancestors of humankind that lived thousands of years ago, darkening sky meant that it was time to stop every activities and hide in a safe place till the sunrise. Nocturnal preys had senses that were better adapted to darkness than ancestors of humans (who had eyesight that was not very different from ours), and the only way to prevent their attack was to find a safest place to sleep and hope the sunlight to come out.
About 790,000 years ago, human ancestors discovered that fire could bring back light during nights, and could scare animals away. First time they obtained from natural forest fires, but later they figured out a way to use flint, dried moss and bark to light fire. That was when human beings could control light and darkness during night times; now it was possible to do continue their activities even at night, even in the deepest cave. Not all pebbles were suitable for flints and it was extremely valuable; many tribes fought and killed other tribes in order to obtain/defend flints from others.

790000 BC ~ 700 BC

Ancient Candles


Ancient civilization used natural fuels and flint to light up their dark cave and homes. They would soak dried moss with animal fat and burn it in a hollow stone or shell, or in some places burn a dried candlefish (a.k.a. Eulachon, or oilfish; kind of fish that preserves lots of fat in its body). As humans began to produce pottery, the shape of lamps began to vary in different places. Wicks were later invented to control the rate of burning, which usually was made from dried plants or fiber. Around 7th century BC, the Greeks made terra cotta lamps to replace the simple handheld torches (the word lamp is derived from the Greek word lampas, meaning torch). Early lighting fuel consisted of olive oil, beeswax, fish oil, whale oil, sesame oil, nut oil and etc, contained in pots.



~ 1800 AD

Oil Lamp


Although an oil lamp was used ever since fire was discovered in ancient times, a major improvement was made in lamp design as the central burner was invented. Now the fuel was enclosed in metal vessel and you could control the intensity of the fuel burning and intensity of light by the adjustable metal tube. A while later small glass chimneys were added to the design to protect the flame (and the environment, since lamps were usually used indoors) and to control the flow of air to the flame. A Swiss chemist, Ami Argand, was credited with first developing the principal of using an oil lamp with hollow circular wick and the glass chimney in 1783. In 1859, drilling for petroleum oil began and kerosene (petroleum derivative) lamp grew popular.



1800 AD

Gas Light


William Murdock, a Scotsman is generally regarded as the father of gas lighting. In 1792 he heated coal to produce natural gas and used it to light his home and office in Cornwall, England. German entrepreneur Frederick Winsor was the first person to patent coal gas lighting in 1804 and a "thermolampe" using gas distilled from wood was patented in 1799. His main interest in gas was for street lighting. In 1809, Windsor established the first public gas company, The Gas Light and Coke Company, which remained in existence until the company was nationalized in 1948. Early in the 19th century, most cities in the United States and Europe had streetlights that used gas fuel; gas lights on streets were very popular because gas lights could light themselves, without help of a person.



1870 AD

Incandescent light bulb


Incandescent lamp is the most common method of lighting used in current era. Sir Joseph Swann of England and Thomas Edison both invented the first electric incandescent lamps during the 1870s, but Thomas A. Edison's lamp became the first commercially successful incandescent lamp Edison received U.S. Patent for his incandescent lamp in 1880. Contrary to popular belief, Thomas Alva Edison did not "invent" the first light bulb, but rather he improved upon a 50-year-old idea. The two inventors that patented an incandescent light bulb before Thomas Edison could not raise the financing to commercialize their invention. However Thomas Edison, who had been working on the same idea, bought the rights to their patent with his syndicate of industrial interests with $50,000 to invest - a sizable sum at the time. Incandescent lamps require a low manufacturing cost, and work well on either alternating current or direct current. As a result the incandescent lamp is widely used in household and commercial lighting.




1962 AD

Light-Emitting Diodes (LED)


The light emitting diode (LED) is p-n junction semiconductor lamp which emits radiation then biased in a forward direction. The emitted radiation may be either invisible (infrared) or in the visible spectrum. LED's are commonly used in indicator lighting applications. Due to their very long life and low operating current, they are ideal replacements for incandescent lights. Early LED's came in red only. These red LEDs were bright enough only for use as indicators, as the light output was not enough to illuminate an area. Next green and amber were introduced. By the mid 1990's blue and white LED's had been developed. As the LED materials technology became more advanced, the light output was increased, while maintaining the efficiency and the reliability to an acceptable level, causing LEDs to become bright enough to be used for illumination, in various applications such as lamps and other lighting fixtures.

Many experts agree that if developed further, LED could replace incandescent light bulbs and fluorescent lamps in near future; especially because the fact that the earth is running out of fossil fuels is a major concern in every countries all over the planet, and many researches have been made to figure out a way to use less fuel and energy to replace current lighting system.

Dealing With the Past

MEMORIES OF THE DEAD

There is one fact that never changes; everything that lives die at certain point. No matter if you accept death or not, death has always been a large part of human civilization and always will. Different people dealt with death on their own ways; some believe in afterlife while the others don't, and some are tormented by the memories of the dead while the others accept the death and lives along with it. Here is some of the methods that some people dealt with the memories of the past ones.



2750 BC

Egyptian Tombs


Ancient Egyptians believed that the pharaoh became Osiris, king of the dead, after his death. Even after pharaoh became the king of the dead, some part of spirit would remain within his body. Thus if the corpse was not treated with proper care, the owner of the body would not be able to carry out his duties as Osiris. If this happened, the cycle would be broken and disaster would befall egypt. In order to prevent such a catastrophe, each dead pharaoh's body was carefully mummified. Everything the king would need in his after life was provided in his grave, such as vessels of gold, furniture, food and doll-like representations of servants to serve him. Pyramids were built in order to protect the tomb.


200 AD

Catacomb

The word catacomb comes from Greek kata kumbas, "near the low place" and originally it meant a certain burial district in Rome. But it can refer to any network of caves, grottos, or subterranean place that is used for the burial of the dead. A catacomb would have many loculi, or stone shelves where bodies were laid; if the person was considered important, him and his family would have a separate room where their coffins were placed. Their room would also be decorated; paintings of biblical stories were often found on the ceiling and the walls. However catacombs weren't places that you would like to return again; luculi was just a invention to maximize the use of the space.



1500 AD

Shrunken Head


Jivaro Indians warriors in Ecuador and Peru bring his enemy's head to his village after the war. He would carefully take the skull out, throwing it into a river as a sacrifice to the anaconda, Ani. He would then boil the skin in water for about 2 hour so that the hair won't fall out. After the boiling the head is about 1/3 of its original size. In order to shrink it even more, the warrior uses hot stone and hot sand to heat the head, and hangs it over a fire. as a result the head is shrunken into the size of an orange. The purpose of making a such trophy was in order to paralyze the spirit of the enemy and prevent them from harming the murderer as a revenge. Jivaro Indians would substitute the human head with sloth's head if he had not time to cut off his victim's head during the war. Thus shrunken heads were treated as an object that proved the owner's power, rather than treated with respect in memorial way.




The footage show the world's smallest shrunken head, which was made from a pygmy (mature male's average height was 4' 11"(150cm) or less).




1972 AD

"Frozen Sleep"


As technology developed, the defintion of death have become even more ambiguous; an organism is 'clinically dead' when it had stopped breathing, while it is 'biologically dead' when its brain cells die because of lack of oxygen (which usually happens after clinical death). Today, both the legal and medical communities use "brain death" as a legal definition of death. However many others have opposed against this idea, according to their belief (especially religions).

Alcor Foundation is an organization who brought up a new way to deal/define someone's death. Located in Arizona, United States, Alcor has started to freeze dead bodies, or "patients" as they call them, believing that the patients will be revived again when the technology is advanced enough in future. There were 5 people whose bodies went through replaceing the blood with an anti-freezing solution to keep the cells safe during the freezing process. Now, there are 838 'patients' who are waiting for the future technology to thaw out and revive them. Alcor Organization also offers neuropreservation, which is to preserve just the brain of a person (the Alcor Foundation claim that it is all it takes to preserve a human being).

In 2002, a popular science magazine 'New Scientist' offered one reader the chance to have their body frozen right after the death. The competition promised to have the winner's corpse "healed and revived" when and if the medical technology allows. Normally this process would cost approximately 49,000USD.








2008 AD

Underwater Graveyard


Neptune Memorial Reef is located at the coast in Florida, 15m below the surface of water. The ashes of the dead is mixed with cement and placed at the underwater temple; along wit the structures and sculptures. The CEO of the company claims that the graveyard is designed in contemporary way and aesthetically, and wishes that the place would become the most visited diving spot in the planet. Anyone is allowed to dive into graveyard located in 16 acres of open water, and the company offers glass bottom boat tours, snorkeling, and scuba diving.





This is a home video was filmed and uploaded by a visitor. As you can see the diver is carrying a spearfish,
which could mean that he had been spearfishing around the memorial reef. Is this inappropriate, or does this fit to the company's intention of making the place more open and public to visitors?


The ways of facing death is has been and will keep changing as long as the humans exist; perhaps the debate will settle on the day when a dead speaks to the living.