Through the impact of shops like Habitat and IKEA,
and of the countless glossy magazines, books and
catalogues that focus on the concept of 'interior
design', we have all become familiar with the idea of
our homes and public interiors containing items of
modern furniture and decor. Yet design historian and
critic Penny Sparke shows that, unlike designed
buildings and artefacts, the fixed idea of the 'modern
interior' has only ever been an abstract and idealized
concept, promoted through exhibitions, retail contexts
and the mass media, and that it rarely exists in an
absolute form. ''The Modern Interior'' provides a
persuasive account of the forces, conflicts and debates
that have underpinned the emergence of something we now
effortlessly refer to as the 'modern interior'. Offering
fascinating and eloquent insights into the work of
international designers including C.R.Mackintosh, Adolf
Loos, Josef Frank, Frank Lloyd Wright, Marcel Breuer,
Lilly Reich, Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, Philippe
Starck, and Charles and Ray Eames, Sparke focuses on the
realities as well as concepts of the modern interior,
whether in the hands of professional decorators and
designers, or in those of its amateur inhabitants. By
doing so, she deftly unravels the shift from Victorian
to modern style, and demonstrates that the easy
transition to the modern interior so frequently
portrayed is little more than a mythology. ''The Modern
Interior'' is essential reading for all students of
modern design, architecture and culture, as well as
anyone interested in why the interior spaces we inhabit
look the way they do. |
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