In 2019, the Vitra Design Museum will publish the Atlas of Furniture Design, the definitive, encyclopedic overview of the history of modern furniture design. Featuring over 1700 objects by more than 500 designers and 121 manufacturers, it includes approximately 2800 images ranging from detailed object photographs to historical images documenting interiors, patents, brochures, and related works of art and architecture. The basis for the Atlas of Furniture Design is the collection held by the Vitra Design Museum, one of the largest of its kind with more than 7000 works. The book presents selected pieces by the most important designers of the last 230 years and documents key periods in design history, including early nineteenth-century industrial furniture in bentwood and metal, Art Nouveau and Secessionist pieces and works by protagonists of classical modernism and postwar design, as well as postmodern and contemporary pieces. The Atlas of Furniture Design employed a team of more than 70 experts and features over 550 detailed texts about key objects. In-depth essays provide sociocultural and design-historical context to four historical epochs of furniture design and the pieces highlighted here, enriched by a detailed annex containing designer biographies, glossaries, and elaborate information graphics. The Atlas of Furniture Design is an indispensable resource for collectors, scholars and experts, as well as a beautifully designed object that speaks to design enthusiasts.

For millions of years humans have led physically active lives. In recent centuries, however, industrialization has fostered passivity and the growing predominance of the sitting posture for more and more people. Increasingly, chairs and furniture for sitting have become standard pieces of equipment in the workplace, institutions, and private homes. These sitting devices were designed according to the established standard of the chair, based on the accepted western manner of sitting. In Rethinking Sitting, Scandinavian industrial designer Peter Opsvik addresses the issue of whether this is the only, and functionally best, design for the human body. When the various authorities on ergonomics promote their one and only "correct" sitting posture, he says all of them are right: Every recommended sitting posture is good. Opsvik sees it as his task to design chairs that allow as many different sitting postures as possible and make it easy to move and change frequently between positions. In this beautifully illustrated reference Opsvik offers insight into his thinking on the subject of sitting and explains the philosophy that informs his furniture designs. Rethinking Sitting contains important information for everyone who is interested, for professional, educational, or personal reasons, in sitting solutions.

For the past twenty years, New York-based design gallery R & Company has been a pioneer in discovering, curating, archiving, and presenting rare, exceptional, and iconic works to individuals and institutions. Through their groundbreaking exhibitions and publications, the gallery has been at the forefront of the collectible design movement. Published on the occasion of the R & Company's twentieth anniversary, this book offers four new critical perspectives on the designers, themes, and emerging trends R & Company has uncovered, re-discovered, and elevated, including: the emergence of a market for Brazilian design; the championing of un- heralded American midcentury masters; the fostering of a craft-forward contemporary design program; and the gallery's passion for so-called "difficult" design. Unfolding through essays from leading writers on art, design, and craft, and illustrated by hundreds of archival, new, and behind-the-scenes gallery images, interior photos of the collectors' homes, and designers' studios, it is a dynamic overview of the design market's explosive past two decades, and its vibrant future.

The five countries known collectively as Scandinavia were the source of some of the most important furniture designs of the twentieth century and the influential concept of "Scandinavian modern." Today, a new generation of designers continues the tradition, creating pieces that are functional, comfortable, and appealing to look at. This book-the first American summary of modern design in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden in more than two decades-updates the history of design in the Nordic nations and illustrates in full color more than five hundred of the best current furniture from over seventy producers. The Sourcebook also includes detailed product specifications and sources, biographies of important Nordic designers, and a helpful bibliography. It is an invaluable reference for everyone who loves modern furniture, and is an essential tool for interior designers, architects, collectors, and students with a special interest in Scandinavian design. CD-ROM included: easy-to-use screen resolution files of all the illustrations for use on Mac or PC.

Hubert Le Gall is an aesthete with eclectic and unclassifiable talent who refuses to be pigeonholed in a style or trapped by routine. Constantly coming up with new associations of quirky ideas, switching between set design, art, and decoration, Hubert Le Gall takes great delight in playing with traditions and derision, with forms, light and cast shadows, contents and containers, solids and things untied...Pic poissons Pedestal table, Taureau cabinet, Pot de fleurs armchair, Marguerites table, Spot Dog lamp, Dorian mirror, his playful and poetic pieces never fail to enchant or to surprise.

A master furniture maker, designer, sculptor, and educator, Wendell Castle is in his sixth decade of a fruitful and creative career that began in 1958 and that parallels the emergence and growth of the American studio craft movement. The solo exhibition at the Museum of Arts and Design that this book accompanies runs from October 20 2015 to February 28 2016.

The book explores the design boom in the Pacific Northwest, the fundamental principles to this creative field and over 40 remarkable makers and designers behind this extraordinary area of design. Set against striking photography, the book navigates the landscape and settings which inspires this area and talks with leading designers in the industry. The Pacific Northwest is paving a new path in the design world with a rich and varied set of designers producing outstanding pieces and trends. IDS Vancouver is the centre-point for all things design in the Pacific Northwest and we are pleased to present their first book. Including contributions from ANDlight, Base Modern, Niels Bendtsen, Bosque Design, Becki Chan, Pat Christie, Brent Comber, Electric Coffin, Dahlhaus Studio, Fieldwork, fruitsuper, The Granite, Phil Gray, Hinterland Design, John Hogan, Shawn Hunt, Jeff Martin Joinery, Knauf and Brown, Karen Konzuk, Merkled Studio, molo, Darin Montgomery, PHLOEM STUDIO, Pigeon Toe, Shawn Place, Charlotte Pommet and Elliot Kendall, Propellor, Selek, Sholto Design Studio, Studio Gorm, Cathy Terepocki and Annie Tung. About IDS Vancouver Founded in 2004 by Jason Heard, IDS Vancouver has grown in size and in ambition at equal pace with the city it is so proud to support. Taking place once a year in September the IDS Vancouver design fair has grown to include diverse programing and workshops for youth, for students and for the design trade as well as collaborative installations and experiences both off site and on. Drawing attention to the region as a heavy hitting design destination, IDS Vancouver actively engages with and participates at other international fairs all year long as a way to profile the talent of the region and to source and stay informed with design internationally.

Text in English & German. The way we sit simultaneously defines privileges, social status, power, and taboos. Parallel to the presentation of China as the guest of honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2009, the Museum fur Angewandte Kunst in Frankfurt presents a panorama of Chinese sitting culture through a period of five centuries. Exclusive, noble Ming chairs stand side by side with chairs of the 18th and 19th century used by the middle class of that time. Limited sitting sculptures by renowned artist designers such as Shao Fan, Freeman Lau, Kenneth Cobonpue, XYZ-Design and Ji Liwei, who is also in charge of the interior design of the Chinese pavilion at the book fair, are confronted with the bourgeois sofas and sitting of the Chinese middle class of today. The "Bastard Chairs" of migrant workers and the homeless, day-to-day seats improvised out of pure need and made of trash and leftover materials, are commented in the sitting contexts of celebrities: emperors and courtesans, politicians and pop stars, athletes and students of product design show how sitting was done formerly and is done today. It ranges from a man of letters from the Ming era to the Qianglong emperor on the throne to Mao and Nixon in characteristic armchairs in Mao's best room. The most famous contemporary Chinese artist, Ai Weiwei, will also be represented with an excerpt of his grandiose chair performance at the Dokumenta XII. Of course, product piracy, which -- as the typical Chinese dipping figure "Shanzhai" -- has mean-while adopted characteristics that define society, is also dealt with.

When the inscription "Made by Nathan Lumbard Apl 20th 1800" was found in the late 1980s on a chest of drawers, the identity of an unknown craftsman suddenly surfaced. Crafting Excellence introduces the striking achievements of cabinetmaker Nathan Lumbard (1777 1847) and a small group of craftsmen associated with him. Working initially in the village of Sturbridge, Massachusetts, these artisans fashioned an array of objects that rank among the most colorful and creative of Federal America. Recent scholarship has revealed Lumbard's connection with the cabinetmaker Oliver Wight, from whom he likely learned his trade and gained an understanding of neoclassicism. Careful study of objects linked to Lumbard, Wight, and nearby artisans has produced a framework for identifying their work. The discovery of Lumbard's name three decades ago led the authors on a pioneering journey, culminating in this handsome volume, an insightful contribution to American furniture history. Distributed for the Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library

The Chippendale cabinet-making firm, founded by Thomas Chippendale senior in about 1750, became famous partly through the successful publication of The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director (1754, re-published 1755 and 1762), but also through the fine furniture supplied to a number of illustrious clients. Chippendale senior ran the workshop for just over twenty years and his eldest son, Thomas Chippendale junior, continued the business for over forty years; the first two decades in partnership with Thomas Haig. Chippendale senior's work has been well documented but Chippendale junior's work has never, until now, been thoroughly researched. The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale Junior repairs the omission. His patrons included members of the Royal Family, aristocrats, landed gentry and antiquarians; he was adept at satisfying their demands, whether they required lavish gilt or simpler, often mahogany, pieces. Where family archives and original settings survive, as at Harewood House, Paxton House and Stourhead, they reveal the variety and quality of Chippendale's output. An analysis of client's invoices, even when the furniture can no longer be traced, for the first time provides a colourful view of what customers chose and what prices they paid.

Chinese furniture design had been improved through the centuries, maturing during the 14th century. The Qing furniture developed from Ming style furniture; it was attractive with ornate novel decorative elements. In the olden days of China, those who had resources could afford to live in a gracious residence such as the four-closed courtyard house (siheyuan). The four-closed courtyard house is the Chinese art of enclosing space to create an ideal environment for habitation. The multifunctional Chinese classical furniture facilitates the indoor and outdoor activities of its inhabitants. Siheyuan is divided into chambers such as the Hall, female chamber etc. This book provides details on which pieces of furniture should be displayed in each chamber, as well as full-colour illustrations and diagrams of how each piece was made and assembled. This includes three-dimensional drawings by Philip Mak and perspective views of the interior of various rooms. The author guides the readers through them, narrating the placement of furniture with inherent social implications. For easy reference, each piece is numbered and a more detailed description available in the catalogue section of this book. Text in English and Chinese.

The twentieth century offered up countless visions of domestic life, from the aspirational to the radical. Whether it was the dream of the fully mechanised home or the notion that technology might free us from home altogether, the domestic realm was a site of endless invention and speculation. But what happened to those visions? Are the smart homes of today the future that architects and designers once predicted, or has 'home' proved resistant to radical change? Home Futures: Living in Yesterday's Tomorrow -accompanying a major Design Museum exhibition of the same title-explores a number of different attitudes toward domestic life, tracing the social and technological developments that have driven change in the home. It proposes that we are already living in yesterday's tomorrow, just not in the way anyone predicted. This book begins with a lavishly illustrated catalogue portraying the 'home futures' of the twentieth century and beyond, from the work of Ettore Sottsass and Joe Colombo to Google's recent forays into the smart home. The catalogue is followed by a reader consisting of newly commissioned essays by writers such as Dan Hill and Justin McGuirk, which explore the changes in the domestic realm in relation to space, technology, society, economy and psychology.

"Abandoned, forgotten form is reborn in the arms of an all-embracing nature, an envelope within which the origin of the human being, of a society gives us a sensibility, a presence of a fertility." - Vincent Dubourg A graduate of the Ecole nationale superieure des Arts Decoratifs in Paris, Vincent Dubourg is a designer and a plastic artist. In 2004, he caught the eye of Julien Lombrail, founder of the Carpenters Workshop Gallery, where he has been exhibiting since 2006. Present at major salons and shows - the Pavillon des Arts et du Design, Paris; Design Miami Basel - he has received many public commissions from institutions such as Galeries Lafayette, Swarovski, Vienna, the musee de la chasse et de la nature, Paris, and the Sketch restaurant in London, among others. Vincent says that he feeds himself on the capitals like Paris and New York, which he regularly visits, and digests them in his isolated studio in the Creuse department in France. There, he questions contemporary furniture through the prism of nature and the five elements, like a perfect control of metal. With him, buffet, table and chairs become hallucinatory objects shifting between sculpture and functional furniture. A major exhibit will be devoted to him at the Carpenters Workshop Gallery in New York in late 2017. Solo Show, Carpenters Workshop Gallery, New York, November 2017.

Thos. Moser Cabinetmakers has set the standard for fine woodworking and meticulously hand-crafted furniture for more than forty years. In this modern age of inexpensive mass production, Moser furniture stands out because every piece is hand-made by a master craftsman (or woman). Generally minimalist in style, the pieces are highly sophisticated in their construction. And though Moser has been influenced by Shaker and Japanese furniture makers, the elegant and graceful lines give each piece an aesthetic all its own. In Legacy in Wood, Thomas Moser reflects on his long career and offers his thoughts on creativity, inspiration, and his design aesthetic. It gives an intimate look into the life and work of a pioneering craftsman, whose example shows that you can build a career working with your hands the old-fashioned way. Thos. Moser remains an iconic Maine company and holds to its traditional Yankee origins. The shop remains a family-run and oriented company. All of Moser's sons have worked in the shop, and all but one are still there as master craftsmen and designers. The other employees have been with the company an average of 20 years-a clear reflection of the value Moser puts on his workers and the respect and love for their work they give in return. Yet the timeless appeal of the furniture has given Moser nationwide recognition and allowed the company to open galleries and show rooms in Boston, Greenwich, New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco.

In Artists' Homes, writer and photographer Tom Harford Thompson presents some thirty individual, eccentric houses and workspaces, from a music producer's studio in Hackney to an eco-warrior's treehouse on the Sussex Downs. His evocative photographs show how our live/work spaces, whether a tumbledown cottage, a country farmhouse or a reclaimed factory, are beautiful because of the lives we live in them. With work no longer separate from home life, we see how these artists function in the homes that inspire them, pursuing the life creative. Among the artists and craftspeople featured are Billy Childish, co-founder of the Stuckist art movement; Penny Rimbaud and Gee Vaucher, creative partners who set up their home and studio as an `anarchist-pacifist open house' (Dial House, in Essex); music producer Liam Watson of the famed London studio Toe Rag; vintage motorcycle dealer Ian Hatton, of cult shop Verrall's; vintner Peter Hall of Breaky Bottom Vineyard, one of the first wineries in the UK; and many more.

Unique in style, Chinese furniture has long been celebrated for its elegant, artistic lines and strong, durable structure. Ranging from pieces designed simply to display the beauty and texture of natural woods, to magnificent pieces decorated with lavish carvings, lacquer or precious metals and stones, Chinese furniture is an outstanding representative of the oriental arts. This book provides an accessible, illustrated introduction to the history, production techniques and rich variety of Chinese furniture, revealing the important part that this furniture has played in the development of China's culture.

In Personalities, people open doors into their very personal immediate surroundings: their homes and spaces of creative work. As different as they are, what connects them is something very special: the USM modular furniture system.We set out on a journey into their lifeworlds and let them tell the stories behind the pieces of furniture-each one as individual as their owners. While the stories constitute the heart of Personalities, well-known specialist authors supplement the subject of "personality" with a psychological and sociological perspective.We take a trip into personality psychology, cast a glance in the direction of popular culture, and ultimately take a look at personality in the field of tension between having and being, between material culture and lifestyle.The diversity of those portrayed is reflected in the variety of the accompanying essays, which call attention to the facets around the concept of personality in an entertaining and unexpected way.