

Why the World Is Obsessed with Midcentury Modern Design - Thevet
http://curbed.com/archives/2015/04/08/why-everyone-is-obsessed-with-midcentury-modern-design.php

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grandalf
Rather than "mid-century", it's actually high modernism. Subsequent so-called
"modernism" ads needless, structually questionable adornment and archaic
features.

Similarly, high modernist poetry peaked in the 1940s and 1950s. Since then
we've had some good poetry but nothing that attempts to meld form and function
in the same way that modernist poets like Eliot and Stein were able to.

IOW there is nothing dated about it -- which is why we still love it. Until
furniture starts being made out of more space-age fabrics (or perhaps poetry
out of emoji) it's unlikely that modernity will have much more to offer to
furniture design or poetry...

Postmodernism is the realization that modern ideals have been met and that
some objective other than design and functionality can become the focal point.
Often, ironically, it's nostalgia of some kind.

There is nothing nostalgic about choosing modern designs. They simply optimize
form and function with current materials and technology. That materials and
tech for furniture have plateaued is a separate issue. Largely, the
innovations have been in production, distribution, and manufacturing. Someone
is far more likely today to live in a space adorned by modern designs mass-
produced by Ikea or Target.

On a separate note I just discovered startup furniture company "Joybird".
Pretty nice stuff, mostly so-called 'mid-century modern'.

~~~
TheOtherHobbes
"IOW there is nothing dated about it"

I'm surprised someone thinks this. To me most of it looks obviously dated, and
very much a spindly and kitschy consumer product of Cold War suburbia.

It has very little of the purity of real modernism:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_furniture](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_furniture)

As for Stein - not everyone was impressed by her contribution:

[http://www.romanianculture.org/downloads/testimony_against_g...](http://www.romanianculture.org/downloads/testimony_against_g_stein.pdf)

~~~
grandalf
> I'm surprised someone thinks this. To me most of it looks obviously dated.

I think this is mostly in the eye of the beholder. Is there really much
difference in the use of materials and form/function? I'd argue it's a minor
aesthetic difference.

Also, I'd also argue that a chair like this is postmodern in the same way as
designing a server case out of wood would be: Nostalgia for wood and desire
for modern structure, where other materials would do a far better job.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eames_Lounge_Chair_Wood#/media/...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eames_Lounge_Chair_Wood#/media/File:Eames_Wood_Chair.jpg)

~~~
nine_k
Wood is in no way nostalgic.

It's very practical, relatively cheap, reasonably strong, easy to process, and
easy to recycle. For instance, IKEA which is well-known for its expressly
inexpensive and minimalist furniture offers a lot of wooden furniture, kids
toys, etc.

Also, every day I take a few NYC subway trains. Each car has its electric
power collector mounted on a wooden plank. This is probably done because of
practical reasons (wood is cheap, strong, and is a good electric insulator),
not nostalgic.

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possibilistic
I find this style wholly garish. Thank you for giving me the vocabulary to
describe it.

Mid-century modernism is whimsical, busy, distracting. More than anything, it
belongs to our grandparent's generation; it's an admission that we didn't
reach the sought after future of robots and space travel.

I would take sleek lines and monochromatic shades over this any day. This is
just my personal opinion, of course. I'm very cognizant of the fact that many
people appreciate this style and find my own to be bland and drab.

~~~
coldtea
> _it 's an admission that we didn't reach the sought after future of robots
> and space travel._

Sought after by whom?

It's not something people particularly want (heck, most people don't even care
for sci-fi enough to have a couple TV channels and quality Hollywood genre
movies made)...

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hristov
I would like to congratulate curbed.com for finding a new level of
annoyingness in ads. They have a sound ad that does not have a corresponding
video window (at least i could not find any) where you can kill the sound or
pause the whole thing. So while I am reading the article I get to hear the
same inane chatter about barbecuing every couple of minutes. Thanks so much!

~~~
visarga
That's easy. All computers have a mute button.

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Brakenshire
I think, the reason why it is enduringly popular is that the designs are not
just aesthetic, they are also intertwined with developments in technology,
industry and the economy. 'Modern' design is essentially 'throw out all
previous ideas, start with a blank piece of paper, and remake things using
modern industrial methods and materials'. That isn't just a design or a
fashion, it is the embracing of a new reality.

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joshontheweb
Eames, one of the most important pioneers of the mid-century modern design had
a great motto: "The best for the most for the least." It was aimed merging
great design with mass production so the everyday man could have affordably
priced, well designed furniture. Not sure what happened, but these items are
now priced for the wealthy.

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brc
I'd have to check but I bet, in real terms, those wanes chairs are around the
same price as they were, adjusted for inflation. What has happened is the
production of even cheaper mass produced furniture. What you're not looking at
is the extinct hand made, ornate expensive furniture from the decades prior.
Things that would be, if sold now, even more pricey than an eames chair.

Properly cared for, one of those chairs will last a lifetime. That cannot be
applied to cheaper furniture.

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sobbybutter
I wonder why so many people love midcentury design. It's uncomfortable,
angular, fragile, cold, expensive, inhuman...you name it. Perhaps the items
are just social vectors into the design world, conferring a status of "social
elite" onto its participants. Any thoughts?

~~~
msandford
I'm a huge minimalist, and there's basically nothing else that embraces the
minimal aesthetic. I paid a lot of money (as a college kid) for a pair of
dressers that were made by Komfort and are very similar to this dresser:
[http://www.ebay.com/itm/Danish-Modern-Teak-Bedroom-
Dresser-b...](http://www.ebay.com/itm/Danish-Modern-Teak-Bedroom-Dresser-by-
Komfort-Bedroom-MCM-Eames-Credenza-/381221507439)

As a programmer and a reductionist it's very appealing to me. It's about as
simple as it can be with no extraneous ornamentation. The drawer pulls don't
stick out, and the glides are hidden too.

For some reason this really, really resonates with me in the same way that
Maxwell's equations are incredibly elegant or a Fourier transform explains so
much of the world in such a compact way.

At risk of sounding like a hipster, I liked "midcentury modern" before Mad Men
was cool. I think that my brain has worked the way it does for quite a while.
I'm predisposed to liking midcentury stuff because I'm always trying to find
the most compact, minimal form. In my mind the whole mapper/packer article
that made the rounds a while ago helps explain it; I'm always looking for a
more compact truth and that's bled over into the way I look at the physical
world too.

[http://the-programmers-stone.com/the-original-talks/day-1-th...](http://the-
programmers-stone.com/the-original-talks/day-1-thinking-about-thinking/)

~~~
prawn
That dresser might be somewhat minimalist (curved bevel on the drawer faces,
going by the photo), but a lot of MCM isn't to my eye. It's angled legs and
curved tables and spindly frames that complicate the look IMO. There's a lot
of contemporary furniture that I consider far closer to a minimal aesthetic.

~~~
slantedview
Some of the more revered MCM is not exactly minimalist - like maybe the
Brasilia line, but I'd say that most of it is, at least more than average
furniture. Consider this generic MCM styled dresser which I randomly found on
Google:

[http://scene7.targetimg1.com/is/image/Target/17214249_Alt01?...](http://scene7.targetimg1.com/is/image/Target/17214249_Alt01?wid=480&hei=480)

It's basically a box frame on a pedestal. That's a pretty classically styled
MCM dresser design, and it doesn't get much more minimalist than that: a box
set on legs. But outside of the MCM era, that pure of a design was nowhere to
be seen for the prior decades. In a typical house right now you're much more
likely to find something like this (random from Google):

[http://homesteadfurnitureonline.com/images/Dressers/master-d...](http://homesteadfurnitureonline.com/images/Dressers/master-
dresser-lg.jpg)

A mishmash of design elements from various periods. To me, the average MCM
piece is more minimalist.

~~~
prawn
I think my minimalist is probably too simple - my reaction to your first
example is that if the legs weren't tapered or there wasn't that inset lower
base, or the legs were removed or it had inset rather than jutting handles -
then that would be minimal.

But Google images suggests minimal is pretty loose! I guess it's relative.

------
pnathan
I would like to see the design world move on from modernism. It tends towards
the spare and geometric, and frequently divorced from the general concerns and
oriented towards the artistic aspirations of the designer.

As a simple example, consider the the 'flat' stylings. In a number of cases in
my experience, the flat style made it harder to use the program. That is
aggravating - it was art change for the sake of art change, adhering to the
tired old modernist ideas.

It's quite worth reading this debate:
[http://www.katarxis3.com/Alexander_Eisenman_Debate.htm](http://www.katarxis3.com/Alexander_Eisenman_Debate.htm)

And I find I am wholly on Alexander's kind of side.

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dgreensp
Did anyone hang in there long enough to get to the "Why?"

~~~
Brakenshire
Tl;dr timeless design and familiarity.

~~~
sliverstorm
Also that they were made for a certain kind of living, and we still generally
live in the same kind of places.

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detaro
"The World"?

Is it just me, or is it largely a US thing? I mostly see it from US sources,
but that could easily be selection bias...

Anyone any insights?

~~~
analog31
Perhaps one thing about the US is that we were in the right place at the right
time to experience a residential building boom just when MCM was the thing.

Disclaimer: I live in one of those houses, and enjoy the aesthetic. I've even
carefully maintained the Nelson bubble lamps.

------
beat
The article completely failed on the "why". It focused almost entirely on the
"what".

So why? First, the post-WWII era was a tremendously successful one. The world
was forward-looking and optimistic. Then, our pop culture was looking to a
peaceful, hi-tech future in space. What are we looking at in pop culture
today? Zombie apocalypse.

It was also the last strongly defined aesthetic. After its rococo climax in
late 1960s psychedelia, art lost direction. The gloom and negativity of the
1970s didn't find much shape in any art form but cinema, and ultimately the
Sex Pistols came along in 1977, pronounced modernism dead, and kicked its
corpse.

After punk, the world of high art aesthetics turned to postmodernism,
reassembling bits and bobs of history and multiculturalism into a shape that
reflected the past, not the future. Then the Internet came along, and design
focus shifted to the web. Out in the physical world, postmodernism degenerated
into mere hipsterdom.

I'm kind of hoping that hipsters are to postmodernism what psychedelia was to
modernism, and a new, popular aesthetic can rise - something that recognizes
the constraints and strengths of the 21st century. A lot of new art styles
come from new technologies, so maybe 3D printing will lead us somewhere
magical. One can only hope.

------
bootload
_" Some midcentury furniture designs, like the iconic Eames Lounge Chair,
never went out of production, but many others had fallen out of production by
the mid 90s."_

A startup founder I worked with in the 90's filled the office with Charles
Eames chairs and tables. A bit sparse but functional. The pieces were not that
expensive, more expensive than say IKEA, this was a legal startup.

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nkozyra
Trends come and go, this is a fruitless thing to worry about. Stick to what
works for you, don't worry about things that don't and eventually the stars
will align.

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kazinator
A lot of this can be explained by China.

They are kind of in their 1960's in some ways.

And China is where most of this stuff is made, so ...

~~~
calbear81
Actually, the higher end mid-century furniture makers are pretty committed to
US manufacturing. In particular, Herman Miller manufactures in Michigan and
furniture from places like Room & Board are mostly sourced from Virginia,
North Carolina and other traditional woodworking areas.

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TechNewb
The term "midcentury" does not seem appropriate anymore. Y2K.

~~~
possibilistic
I wasn't born in that era, yet I am immediately conscious of the style being
described. I think this is owed to both the cultural preservation afforded by
film and photography as well as the nostalgia of the previous generation
(there are undoubtably a disproportionate number of films set during this
period).

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mmaldacker
The barcelona chair is a classic furniture from the bauhaus period designed in
1929, which is not even close to the "midcentury" period defined in the
article.

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oliv__
".php" Hadn't seen one of those in a while.

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_cudgel
Isn't this entirely off-topic for HN?

~~~
moron4hire
Why does it matter? If it makes it to the front page, isn't it _de facto_ on
topic?

