International Style - Organic Design.

Organic designs consisted of design which related to their surrounding environment, consisted of soft flowing forms and natural materials as well as plastics moulded into organic forms. The international style brought with it new materials which helped designers like Ray and Charles Eames, Alvar Aalto and Frank Lloyd Wright produce their organic designs using new materials and new techniques.

                Frank Lloyd Wright brought a Humanizing approach to design, believed that the total effect matters more than the sum of all the parts and tried to capture the spirit of nature in his design and tried to connect his designs with their surroundings.  Frank Lloyd Wright is mainly known for his “falling water” house 1934-1937. As we can see in the picture below, Frank Lloyd Wright manages to connect his design (Falling Water) with nature by building the house on top of a waterfall. The water passes under the house making it feel like it is part of the waterfall. He also used the rocks found as the base of the house and used the same colours for the walls that are found in the environment surrounding the house. This was done to help the house connect and blend in with its surroundings. The organic shapes that Frank Lloyd Wright used helped this magnificent house blend in with the organic shapes of the waterfall and its surroundings.

Falling Water by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Alvar Aalto studied in Helsinki and experimented with bending wood. This led to his revolutionary chair designs in the 1930’s. His designs pioneered a humanizing vocabulary of form and he believed that natural materials fulfilled the functional and psychological needs of the users. However Alto’s main concern was the functional and emotional impact that his products had on the consumer rather than the possibility of universal supremacy. The way the glass folds gives Alvar Aaltos Savoy vase a unique sculptural quality and creates a pattern of light and dark. The three large loops found on the vase form swelling curves and the fluid shapes reflect Aalto’s passion for organic and natural forms.

 

 

Ray and Charles Eames were a couple who were both in the design industry. Ray cam e form a painting and weaving background and was an abstract artist. Charles trained as an architect and was exposed to the work of great designers like Gropius Le Corbusier and Van Der Rohe. Charles and Ray Eames were famous for their organic designs and their experiment in bending plywood. After winning a competition in 1940 Ray and Charles got married and started to experiment with moulding techniques for plywood and developed the Kazam machine.  Charles used to bend wood to create splints for the wounded soldiers in the world war. Ray and Charles Eames’ Lounge Chair 670 and ottoman is a great example of the technique that they specialised in. the chair consists of three separate plywood shells which are joined together with a rear support. The plywood shells are curved and angled back creates comfort and the shape of the cushion follows the outline of the wooden chair. The chair also has five metal supports to make it stable.

References:

Western Pennsylvania Conservancy. 2013. Falling Water. [ONLINE] Available at: http://waterlandlife.org/43/fallingwater. [Accessed 24 November 14].

Really Well Made. 2014. 95 mm Alvar Aalto Vase. [ONLINE] Available at: https://reallywellmade.co.uk/shop/alvar-aalto-95-mm-vase/. [Accessed 24 November 14].

Wilkinson, PW, 2013. Great Designs. 1st ed. Great Britain: DK (Book)

Designography. 2001. Charles Eames. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.designophy.com/designpedia/design-designer-1000000009-charles-eames.htm. [Accessed 24 November 14].