What’s old is new again
Modern design has stood the test of time
It’s happening all across the country, says Phil Miller, a furniture industry executive based in High Point, N.C.
“I see a fundamental shift toward modern design,” he says. “As people choose their home décor, furniture choices with modern lines once again have wide appeal — and it’s growing.”
So you could say he’s looking ahead while looking back, because today’s modern is also yesterday’s.
Modern was the signature design style of the middle of the last century.
Its roots date to architect Walter Gropius’ Bauhaus School in Germany from 1919 to 1933. His vision included the union of the arts and industry, and the movement’s hallmarks included a melding of function and design, a lack of ornamentation and ostentation and a focus on harmony and nature. Simultaneously, the pioneers of Scandinavian design with their emphasis on clean lines and simple shapes also had an influence.
What emerged is what came to be
called midcentury modern, or, simply, modern design. Having withstood the test of time, it looks as fresh today as it did all those decades ago. Older generations still appreciate — and collect — it and new fans among younger generations are embracing it, too. Some of the designers and their pieces of furniture — Eames, Nelson, Saarinen, Noguchi, Neutra and more — have become household names among those who know and care about good design.
Architect Justin Racinowski’s midcentury home in Fox Point is furnished with pieces from the same era: among them an authentic Eames lounge chair manufactured by Herman Miller and a replica Wassily chair designed by architect Marcel Breuer of the Bauhaus School. It was named for the artist Wassily Kandinsky.
Racinowski is known and respected locally for the restoration he did on the Adelman home in Fox Point, which was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Racinowski’s own house was part of the
Wright and Like home tour last summer.
“Furniture was an intrinsic part of the architecture of the midcentury,” he says. “Many furniture designers of the era were architects, and many architects also designed furnishings for the homes they built.”
He says modern furniture often is “low and horizontal, reflecting the architecture of the era.”
“The furniture was able to be mass produced, and that really changed how it was designed,” he explains. “Function took precedence for the first time. It also was a time when people were optimistic about the future and were willing to embrace futurism, even in their furniture.”
One well-known name in modern architecture is Richard Neutra, who was born in Vienna in 1892 and went on to design remarkable and functional modernist homes in California. He also designed furniture.
“His son, Dion, carried on his work,” says Racinowski. “I met Dion and it was magical!”
Jesse Damrow, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Architecture, creates his own heirloom-quality modern furniture at his woodworking studio in Twin Lakes, which he sells through Joint Effort Studio, a store he founded in Walker’s Point.
Damrow, who also lives in an authentically furnished midcentury modern home in Fox Point, describes modern furniture as “simple, timeless and minimalist with clean lines.” Those adjectives also apply to the furniture he creates and to the vintage pieces he carries in his shop.
Damrow has been influenced by Scandinavian designers and considers Danish furniture designers Hans Wegner and Finn Juhl to be his biggest inspiration.
“I have a Wegner ‘Papa Bear’ chair that I purchased at an estate sale that has to be the coolest chair in Wisconsin,” Damrow says with pride.
JoAnn Feldges’ title is studio proprietor of the Milwaukee location of Design Within Reach, a wellknown source for modern furniture. She describes modern design as having “simplicity of form, originality, quality, absence of decoration and an emphasis on functionality.”
She says the modern aesthetic is timeless.
“It bucks current trends and rather focuses on the need for function, while not sacrificing beauty,” she says. “That makes it adaptable.”
Design Within Reach carries modern furniture from iconic designers, Feldges says. And, yes, the word “iconic” is absolutely appropriate in this case.
“They include Charles and Ray Eames, Eero Saarinen, George Nelson and Jens Risom, as well as new designers such as Norm Architects, Loll Designs and Matthew Hilton, who carry on the spirit and ideals of these icons of modern design.”
Speaking of big names in modern design, Miller, who is vice president of sales and marketing for Thayer Coggin, explains that his company still produces furniture designed by Milo Baughman, who created original modern pieces that were both distinctive and purposeful. Baughman met company founder Thayer Coggin in 1953, and their professional relationship lasted 50 years.
Thayer Coggin has reissued many of Baughman’s designs to the same exacting specifications. They are crafted in North Carolina and sold through stores such as Crate & Barrel, RH (Restoration Hardware) Modern and Design Within Reach.
Miller says Baughman’s modern design is as relevant today as when originally introduced.
“They were properly scaled for the houses of the era, which were most often in the 1,600- to 2,400square-foot range,” he says. “That’s not unlike the scale needed for today’s smaller living spaces as people choose to downsize or live in more urban settings.
“Modern design also is clean, fresh and forward thinking,” he says. “It enhances today’s environments, which generally are uncluttered with a ‘less is more’
aesthetic. Interior designers are being very precise about how to fill these new, well-thought-out spaces, and Baughman designs fit right in.”
Plus people of all generations are opting for the streamlined look of modern furniture, he says. “Millennials have embraced it, and baby boomers who are choosing to live smaller and more simply have a newfound appreciation for it.
“I see the entire furniture market moving in a modern direction.”