Le Corbusier was born Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris in 1887 and was an architect and designer as well as being a writer, urbanist and painter. He was a pioneer in modern high design studies and many of his designs are reproduced today with minor changes. He was also very dedicated to providing better living conditions for the residents of crowded cities. As a writer he had a very developed sense of organization in formulating plans for a futuristic city.
As an urbanist he sought efficient ways to house large numbers of people. He believed that his new architectural designs would provide a new and organized solution to the over-crowding of large cities. His design would also improve the quality of life for those in the lower classes because they would have homes of their own and be up from the squalor that they had known before. In order to meet the needs of this, he built blocks of individual apartments for individual families.
When he changed his name and assumed the pseudonym Le Corbusier, which was a rewording of his grandfather’s name, he was able to reflect his belief that anyone was capable of reinventing oneself. As an architect, he always filled his finished work with other furniture that had clean designs and took up very little of his spacious rooms. When he focused his attention on furniture design, he brought with him his sleek tastes in architecture. Many of his designs are molded from tubular steel frames and heavily padded, making the furniture look very square and sleek. He is well known for his modern designs for club chairs, love seats, sofas, chaise lounges, coffee tables, ottomans, corner sectional sofas and sectional sofas with chaises attached.
Le Corbusier was a Swiss pioneer in both architecture and furniture design. His designs were made to be both functional and at the same time take as little space as possible. Because of his penchant for organizational skills he was able to help improve the over-crowding of large cities by coming up with a design for a building that put several floors of apartments together and thereby being able to house several families in their own homes and improving their quality of life. He was always writing and had an eye towards the future, especially when he came up with a plan for an organized city that featured transportation by automobile, which was a relatively new idea during his lifetime.
By: Bill Hinson
Posts Tagged ‘Coffee Tables’
Designer Furniture by Eileen Gray
December 8th, 2009Five Hottest Contemporary Modern Furniture Concepts
October 12th, 2009Congratulations on finally getting that shiny new house you’ve always dreamt of having, sporting the most modern innovations of architecture and ultra high-tech fittings and fixtures. However, if you don’t have an equally stunning collection of furniture to go with it, won’t it seem rather incomplete? Furniture have evolved in terms of appearance as well as utility and uniqueness over the ages, and some of them have long evolved past their original looks and purposes, and are now on a steady path to becoming more and more radical. Let’s take a closer peek at five of the most stunning and critically acclaimed concepts of contemporary modern furniture which are causing waves in the furniture market of the world.
1. LunaBlocks: People who have spent many hours playing with Lego bricks in their childhood and are aware of the many hours of fun which they can provide will be able to fully appreciate the unique do-it-yourself approach of LunaBlocks. LunaBlocks allow you to be creative and participate in the creation of your own furniture, as long as you have plenty of imagination, time and funds to do it. As the name of LunaBlocks suggests, they are basically gigantic Lego-style building blocks which can be combined and joined to make any type of furniture one may need – coffee tables, sofas, desks, chairs – the list can go on and on. The best part is, these pieces of furniture look very different from their ordinary counterparts because of their fashionable designs and very different means of construction, and they are perfectly suited for use in any modern home. However, LunaBlocks can be a bit pricey for many people, since a single LunaBlocks brick can cost between $20 and $55, and you’re going to need several if you want to make something that you can use.
2. Ghost Lounge: Cedri Martini’s designed this unusual chair while keeping high-end sports cars in mind, and its ultra-ergonomic streamlined appearance is a solid testament to that. It is fashioned completely from fiberglass, and sports a glossy finish which makes sure that your eyes will love it as much as your body does.
3. Sonic Chair: The spherical Sonic Chair integrates style and technology by incorporating a high-quality surround sound system into its structure, which lets its user enjoy their favourite music while relaxing in its cozy interior. It is available in a staggering 35 different shades of colour, and lets you play tunes from your portable music player through a docking port.
4. Untitled Chair: Designer Alessandro Bêda couldn’t find a name good enough for this seat which takes ergonomics to entirely new levels, and he ended up naming it the Untitled Chair. From a distance, it looks like a 10 by 10 horizontal grid of tall blocks placed on gas-based shock absorbers, but when someone sits on it, the pressurized blocks become depressed until it smoothly shapes itself precisely to accommodate your posterior.
5. Kenchikukagu: Compared to their Western counterparts, Japanese households are somewhat smaller, and putting extra kitchens, studies or guestrooms into them is usually out of the question -until the Kenchikukagu made its appearance. Designer Toshihiko Suzuki came up with the revolutionary concept of “collapsible” furniture, which can be packed into compact forms and stowed away when not in use, yet can be opened up to expose a fully usable, if somewhat small, fully furnished room.
By: Timothy Shaker
Accentuate Your Living Room With Contemporary Furniture
October 11th, 2009Your home will exude a distinctive and very individual feel when furnished appropriately to take advantage of the unique interior architecture and colours of the walls. You should pay particular attention to your lounge, which is the most important room of your home because it serves both as a focal point for family activity and for receiving guests. Hence your living room furniture should be selected with an eye to aesthetic, comfort and utility considerations.
Best bet for Family and Pets
The living room serves as a hive of activity for your family where you can spend quality time together. A young family should be surrounded with sturdy furniture that can withstand the boisterous treatment of small children. Pets, especially dogs, require furniture that is both functional and easy to maintain. This rules out ornamental pieces that are delicate or expensive. Similarly, there should be limited use of accessories such as rugs and decorative lighting. These may be quickly damaged and are essentially difficult and expensive to replace.
Enhancing the Décor
Common furniture pieces that will improve your living area are couches, coffee tables and recliners. Your preferred furniture should complement your drapes and your wall hangings. If you mix and match modern items with classic designs be sure to consider whether they go together in terms of the overall appearance of your living room. You don’t want a room that seems disjointed and cluttered with no apparent theme and lack of attention to how different items are structured. Poorly chosen furniture will result in a room that looks decidedly unappealing, lacking in homeliness or comfort.
Contemporary themes for the living room
As designers resort to innovative creations that are imaginative and artistic, the appeal of classic furniture has given way to contemporary fashion. You can now elegantly and stylishly decorate your living room with modular sofas, abstract light sources and pedestal tables. You can experiment with curvilinear shapes and new synthetic materials like vinyl. Tubular metals and a monochromatic understated colour scheme give modern living rooms a very 21st century edge that is in tandem with the technological advances of this millennium. Instead of the square or rectangular configurations that are a staple of classic designs, contemporary furniture make use of kidney shapes, oblongs, ellipses and S’s that distort the sharp corners of walls and offer an illusion of fluidity. Usually coloured grey or black, contemporary items flaunt style but remain attractive to the new generation of homes and families.
Items to accentuate the room
Often, accent chairs are excellent to furnish bare spots in your living room. They come in all sorts of shapes and can be dainty or daring depending on your preference. When appropriately chosen, accent chairs can add a lovely ambience to your living space. Wicker chairs are no longer a tropical domain and a well-placed chair beautifully complements the rest of your furnishing.
When you tastefully choose your living room furniture, your surroundings will be captivating and interesting. And you’ll be enamoured by your own sense of style!
By: Sam Loyal