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Editor's note: Although this selection of pockets should be the key to modern (tubular steel, pliable metal sheeting,
texts on aspects of furniture design in dress. If you try to equip yourself with autogenous welding) provides us with
the 1920s may be read as self-contained, what you need you destroy the line of means of production which are infi-
it is intended primarily to complement your clothes; you are no longer well nitely more perfect and more effective
the articles by Benton and Macel else- dressed. You have to choose between than before.
where in this issue. working or being elegant. The insides of houses will no longer
The English costume which we wear look like those of the time of Louis XIV.
has nevertheless achieved one import- Hence the adventure.
The Problem of Furniture ant thing. It has neutralized us. It is use- Our needs are human needs. We all
ful to cultivate a neutral appearance in have the same number of limbs, with
The Adventure of Furniture the city. The main means of expression the same shape and the same dimen-
Renewal of the plan of the modern is no longer in the ostrich plumes of the sions. If there are differences on the
house cannot be undertaken effectively hat, it is in the face. This is enough. latter point, an average measurement is
without examining the question of Monsieur Waleffe, in Paris, disgusted
easy to find.
furniture. This is the Gordian knot. It with the English, preached a gigantic Standard functions. Standard needs.
must be cut, otherwise any pursuit of crusade: silk breeches and silk stock- Standard objects. Standard dimensions.
the modern idea is in vain. We are about ings, buckled shoes and suspenders, The idea of the standard is already
to change tack: a machinist age has 'French' elegance, Latin spirit! and well advanced. It is as old as the hills
followed the premachinist age; a new display of calves everywhere! This mis- and it has established the form of every
spirit has replaced the old spirit . . . fired; everyone just laughed. civilization ... The question of the
Woman has got there before us. She At St. Moritz, in the snow, modern modern standard is already well
has brought about the reform of her man comes into his own. At Levallois- advanced, but we take no notice of it.
dress. She found herself in this Perret, the headquarters of the motor The whole world has agreed on the
dilemma: to follow fashion and by doing car industry, the mechanic is a pioneer. format and dimensions of writing paper.
so give up what modern technology- We, office men, have been beaten by a Office furniture throughout the world is
modern life-had to offer. To give up considerable length by women.
adjusted to the format of writing paper.
The spirit of reform, then, has made
sport and, more materially, the chance The spirit of the machine age has
of employment which has given her a an appearnace, but no more. It still has used its ingenuity. What we have done
to make its impact on every aspect of life
productive role in modern life and for the motor car we have done for office
enabled her to earn her living. By furniture. A revolution has taken place:
following fashion she could have had So, what do we mean by furniture? the cabinet makers' workshops have
nothing to do with the motor car, she 'The means by which we make our social been closed and in other parts of the
would not have been able to take the rank known.' town we have created the steel furniture
underground or the bus, nor rush This, very precisely, is the way kings industry.
around in the office or in the shops. To think: Louis XIV was a brilliant expo- Accuracy, efficiency, purity of shapes
carry out the daily construction of her nent of this mentality. Shall we be and lines have arisen ...
toilet: hair-do, boots, buttoning her Louis XIVs? How about that! If there are I am going to maintain that apart from
dress, she would have had to give up millions of Louis XIVs on the earth, chairs and tables, furniture is in fact
sleeping. there will no longer be a Sun King.
So woman cut off her hair and her nothing more than pigeon-hole boxes.
Seriously, are we determined to be Now for the most part, these pigeon-
skirts and her sleeves. She goes around Sun Kings? holes at the moment are badly dimen-
bare headed, bare armed, with her legs Furniture consists of: sioned and of doubtful utility: at this
free, and she can dress in five minutes. Tables for working and eating. Chairs
More over she is beautiful; she enchants point I denounce waste, I will push the
for dining and for working. Armchairs
us with the grace of her figure, which enemy back into his trenches, and find
of various shapes for resting in various out what this furniture is really for. I
dress designers admit to have turned to
ways and boxes in which to stack the will make certain that, with the new
their advantage. objects we use. wood and metal industries, it is possible
The courage, the enterprise, the Furniture consists of tools, and ser- to construct accurate pigeon-hole fit-
inventive spirit with which woman has vants, too. Furniture serves our needs. ments with an admirable functionality,
revolutionized her dress are a miracle of Our needs are everyday ones, regular, of a size which is not approximate but
modern times. Thank you!
always the same; yes, always the same. definite and I will be led to conclude that
What about us men? A dismal state of Our furniture fulfils constant, daily,
affairs! In our clothes, we look like the traditional furniture of the cabinet
regular functions. maker and the salesman does not serve
generals of the Grand Army and we All men have the same needs, at the us well at all, that it is a cumbersome
wear starched collars! We are uncom- same times, every day, all their lives.
fortable in our working clothes. We relic, which opposes the economical and
The tools which would fulfil these efficient solution, since it obliges us to
need to carry about us an arsenal of functions are easy to define, and pro- build houses which are too large, and it
papers and small utensils. The pocket- gress, which brings us new techniques complicates existence by preventing
Journal of Design History Vol. 3 Nos. 2-3 ? 1990 The Design History Society 0952-4649/90 $3.00 157
cerned.
I draw a shelf with household linen,
sheets, table napkins, etc., a shelf with
personal linen, drawers with under-
clothes, stockings, etc.
I draw a shelf with shoes, a shelf with
hats.
I draw a garment hanging on a coat-
hanger;a dress.
That is all.
I have just made an inventory of the
objects in our daily use [1].
These objects are all in proportionto
our limbs, adaptedto our gestures.They
have a common scale, they obey a
standard. If I study the question-and 1 'C'est tout ...' Sketch illustrating that the 'casier', or pigeon-hole system of storage,
for twenty years I have been obsessed can accommodate every type of domestic object
by the anomaly of furniture(I formerly
earned my living by fitting out various
apartment houses)-I find a common problem of furniture and that of the production, which could be sold both to
measurement. I find the pigeon-hole aesthetic content of the home. After a the individual who is doing his own
which effectively contains all these rigorous analysis, we then came up with furnishing and to the architect at the
objects. the same dimensions again. planning stage. The former will deploy
I draw this pigeon-hole. It measures In 1925, the Esprit Nouveau Pavilion his pigeon-hole fitment against the
75 cm for the sides and 372 to 50 cm seemed to shed light, thought by many walls of his rooms or will use them to
depth or 150 X 75 at the front and 372to to be a pretty glaring light-on this establish either full-height or half-
75 for the depth. The variabilityof the question. height partitions (see the Esprit
depth measurement results from the Finally, in 1928, our expert in domes- Nouveau Pavilion, 1925); the latter will
variousmethods of the interiorarrange- tic interior design, Mme. Charlotte build the pigeon-holes into the walls.
ment of this pigeon-hole fitment. Perriand, also arrived at the same All that remains is to fit out the inside
In 1913, when I had to design collap- dimensions. While I am talking to you of these pigeon-holes. These 'fittings'
sible equipment for a travellingexhibi- now, in Buenos Aires, we should have a can range from the most simple, like
tion for decorative art (and decorative vast stand at the Salon d'Automne in available office furniture, to the greatest
art meant the whole bag of tricks from Paris demonstrating in peremptory possible refinement. These 'fittings', to
the office to the drawing-roomor the fashion the principle of the 'Equipment be installed later in the standard pigeon-
sitting-room),I discoveredthis standard of a modern dwelling' by standard hole boxes, can be sold at the Bazar de
formatof 75 cm and 150 cm. And I pro- pigeon-hole fitments. l'Hotel-de-Ville or in the Champs-
ceeded to forget about it. This has constructional, architectural, Elysees.
In 1924, we were preparing our Esprit economic and industrial implications: it When the house is completed, while
Nouveau Pavilion-in which we wished would be sensible to make pigeon-holes the painters are putting on the final
to solve once and for all both the industrially: containers in large scale coat, the day before the occupier moves
158 Journalof Design HistoryVol.3 Nos. 2-3 ? 1990 TheDesign HistorySociety0952-4649/90 $3.oo
^
-
--~--- and the production of furniture and
utensils throughout time. Needs and
AI k L possibilities have changed over time
and it is these changes which have
produceddifferentnew solutions which
we call styles (les styles).
To makenew furnituredoes not mean
inventing new, bizarre, or unprece-
dented forms. In times past the artisan
followed establishment tradition. He
conceived and made the furniture.He
satisfied the needs and the desire for
luxury of one class. Outside influences
modified these desires-furniture
sitting position
showing varieties of sitting
33 Sketch showing position changed, the styles changed. Creation
was a logical sequence, the artisan
followed a well-wornpath, he made one
the nineteenth century, the bourgeois Lifeis full of opportunitiesfor collect- piece of furnitureafteranother,and per-
became king and ordered for himself ing ornaments which can serve to fected them. What characterizedthese
armchairs infinitely more sculptured promotethought: periods was: the artisan (creator and
and gilded than any the princes of the This pebble from the seaside executant),the desire for luxury of one
blood had ever had. 'Good manners' this admirablepine cone class and, as a result, uniquepieces of
were taught at the convent. Nowadays these butterflies,these beetles furniturecreated to satisfy the desires
this is nothing but a bore! A person of this polished steel machine com- and whims of an individual.
distinction never loses his distinction, ponent Which features of this system still
even at the Carnival. This reassures us! or this piece of ore. survive? Which are no longer valid?
And, above all, we are about to sit The Gods? It is the mind which Whichhave changed?
down better! createsthem out of things of the earth. The consumers are composed of all
And the house has been stripped of The adventure?Ah, yes, the furniture classes of the population. Their needs
its furniture. adventure!Events are moving forward: conform to well defined types. The
Space and light abound. the concept of furniture has dis- furniturethey requireis an economical
We move about, we act quickly. one, that is to say a type of furniture
And perhaps we will take pleasure in appeared.It has been replacedby a new
word 'domesticequipment'. whose form and material allow it to
contemplation, during this hour of rest, perform the functions for which it is
this hour of relaxation at home? Le Corbusier,'L'aventuredu mobilier', intendedin the best possible way, with-
This is the root of the matter, having a Precisions, Cres, Paris, 1929. Translated out wasting time or being tiring to use,
think. by Jenny Monk. and whose price does not exceed the
About the harmony of proportions, consumer'sbuying power.
or about some poem of mechanics,
about the life of ancient or modern
peoples, even a poem in verse.
or some music
J10;II,:R1IJT
EICOI)
a piece of sculpture, a painting
or a diagram, IE
!IITI hINs;IOI
or about such and such a photograph st. . d
()4SSnJ1'Problem-solvig : n d: m s =
of a simple, sublime, fundamental or
exceptional phenomenon. 4 Problem-solving diagram: need + means = solution
160 Journal of Design History Vol. 3 Nos. 2-3 ? 1990 The Design History Society 0952-4649/90 $3.00