I just finished reading my latest issue of Dwell and a thought occurred to me.
Modern designs from mid 20th Century look very light.
Contemporary modern designs look very heavy in comparison.
Clearly, the mid century moderns were designing around the notion of space; i.e., they were creating space, rather than creating surfaces, as we discussed in a thread about the architect who did the San Diego Convention Center and the Fresno Gov. office building (can't recall his name right now).
Why has contemporary modern become so oriented to surfaces and shapes, and less interested in space? Are contemporary designers aware of how heavy their work looks in relation to midcentury modernists' designs? What is good about heavy? It seems to run counter to the green trend that we need to consume less and more wisely. Is heaviness an unconscious expression of a heavy spirit, a leaden zeitgeist?
I can understand why surfaces and heaviness are so central to post modern work.
I cannot understand why something similar has happened in the rebirth of modern in the form of contemporary modern design.
The more I think about it, the more I think that an awful lot of what passes for contemporary modern is really just post-post modern, i.e., post-modernist form language shorn of its ornament and jokes, but retaining its emphasis on surfaces, shapes and resultant heaviness.
Compare Peter Blake's weekend houses pictured in Dwell with any contemporary modern houses (or even prefab modern houses, which are probably a more fitting comparison) and notice how much lighter Blake's houses appear.
Look at the contemporary interiors in Dwell. Ninety percent of any interior looks like it was carved out of a block of granite and white washed.
Compare a Wegner chair to many contemporary modern chairs. The Wegner chair looks like it could almost levitate even his ox chair defies gravity to some extent. A contemporary chair often looks weighted to the floor, no matter how lean the lines.
My favorite example in the current Dwell of the "heaviosity" phenomenon is the minimialist work of Inga Sempe. She can even take paper lamp shades and make them look heavy.
But if you really want to experience the new leaden modernism, look at any advertisment for kitchens in Dwell. Every kitchen looks like it weights 500 tons.
The Rolling Stones once sang Gimme Shelter.
Mick, Keith, I know you're both gettin' a little long in the teeth, but could you bang out one more tune? Call it: Gimme Space!
dwell
i am looking at my dwell right now... actually it is one of the better editions that
they have put out lately .
It seems that every month
they are all blending together and looking alike .
My area of expertise is Mid-centruy modern , and I guess they can not put that in there every month . I could learn somthing every day about this time period.
But The kichens look like that is where you want to be when the Hurricans and Toranados hit your area.
Solid Solid watch for the flying glass!!!!!!!
a few things contribute to th...
a few things contribute to this style...complacency, a dearth of craft skill, over-reliance on standard sized sheet goods and to be blunt, designers being lazy. You can create a dynamic form from industrial materials with much the same energy expenditure using just a little imagination.
Hp
I hear you ... these designers would say they want to be different, when in effect they are really being the same .. just introducing more hard goods . like heavy granite lots of stainless steel.. I think you would like it for a short time ... but i think after awhile it gets old . but if that is what the customer likes who am i to say that is wrong.
There is a
segment of the market (of which goods ? where ? when ? why ?) which equates weight with worth -- or so I have been told.
The same phenomenon has taken place in the modern automobile. Mid-century cars, both American and European, had light roof columns and thin steering wheels and bumpers; today's equivalents are heavy. This is no doubt intentional: it equates to strength and therefore safety. A car like the Honda Element looks like a bank safe up close, and from inside -- an asthetic loss, if you ask me. I doubt that it has to look that way to actually be safe and strong.
You can't call Konstantin Grcic's work heavy !
SDR,
First, I like Grcic a lot.
Second, I am not talking about literal weight, but a look of heavyness. Grcic is exactly what I am talking about. Look at this chair, one of his greatest pieces so far.
He makes an absolutely light seating structure, but then literally anchors it to the floor with a beautiful, but heavy looking form of concrete.
Grcic seems to combine lightness and heavy-ness in his designs.
But most contemporary modernists seem to produce very heavy looking designs.
Maybe I haven't seen enough yet, but that's my impression of what I have seen.
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