Over in the About.com section of the Web, Jackie Craven offers up a fun little piece entitled Architecture You Can Sit On. In it, Craven talks about the challenges faced by master architects who have attempted to design utilitarian objects like beds, chairs, and other common items.
She writes,
Forget the skyscrapers. Forget the cathedrals, museums and airports. The greatest architects of the twentieth century did not stop at buildings. They designed lamps, tables, sofas, beds and chairs. And whether designing a high-rise or a footstool, they expressed the same lofty ideals.
For Arts and Crafts and Prairie School architects working in the early twentieth century, harmony was the key. Modernist designers, on the other hand, reached for universality. The two concepts may seem similar, but they produced a very different kind of furniture.
After brief descriptions of each designer and style, Craven asks readers to cast their votes for their favorite–both in terms of beauty and comfort.
My favorite of the four she describes is the Barcelona Chair by Mies van der Rohe.
