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REVOLUTION OF INTERIOR DESIGN - AVANT GUARD DWELLINGS IN INTERWAR PERIOD

J.Urbanik

Abstract

Homes by avant-garde architects, created in the interwar period, featured empty, uncluttered rooms, strictly functional objects, lightweight machine-made furniture which would not take up too much space, everything not serving a practical purpose was removed. There was no place for purely decorative objects in small interiors. The prospective residents not always liked the idea as demonstrated by the spectacular failure of Le Corbusier’s Pessac project reflecting its resident’s lack of understanding of modern architectural ideas. Likewise in Germany, commentators were critical of the new tendencies in interior arrangement and design and predicted problems with their social acceptance. The area where the revolutionary changes affecting the average household were made most clearly visible was the rapid evolution of traditional kitchen. The so-called Frankfurt kitchen, designed by Margarete Schutte-Lichotzky in accordance with the science of ergonomics and presented in Frankfurt, was the first in the series of innovative solutions. The new living space required a new and innovative approach. The compact and functional modern apartment of the “Existenzminimum” type, promoted by architects and public authorities, could not accommodate the traditional heavy and cumbersome furniture, which just did not fit (literally and metaphorically) into the restrained modern interior. The problem was that the architects designed for an anonymous person, projecting his supposed needs and preferences.

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