furniture Archives

Villa Weil: A French Modern Masterpiece

Posted on March 29, 2023 by Hunter

We’re always moved by stories of lost-and-found in the world of great modernist architecture, and that’s just what we discovered in a recent article by Joseph Giovannini in The New York Times about a French Modern Masterpiece brought back to life by Dominique Perrault and Gaëlle Lauriot-Prévost, the architects leading the charge for master planning the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

Giovannini observes that for many architects, time is measured in the projects they undertake, and that every new project is an opportunity to create something meaningful and lasting. And when Dominique Perrault and Gaëlle Lauriot-Prévost — partners in life and in the firm of Dominique Perrault Architecture went in search of a weekend country house outside of Paris, they were looking to feed their desire to enjoy both the city and nature. As it turns out, they were also looking for a project that would leave a lasting mark on the world.

For years, Perrault Architecture honed their appetite for monumental projects, including the design of the National Library of France in Paris in 1989 when Perrault was only 36. In looking for a country home, on the other hand, Perrault and Lauriot-Prévost were motivated by the desire for something personal, something that would reflect their own tastes and sensibilities rather than building for others.

They considered a host of options in their search for the right property, including repurposing a former factory. Nothing seemed quite right until a real-estate agent specializing in architect-built homes introduced the couple to a Modern masterpiece that had been largely forgotten — the Villa Weil, designed and built by Jean Dubuisson, a third-generation Parisian architect who came out of the École des Beaux-Arts to design Modernist housing blocks that helped build the infrastructure of France as it emerged from the wreckage of World War II. Villa Weil, situated in a protected forest near the medieval town of Senlis, north of Paris, was commissioned by the real estate developer André Weil and completed in 1968.

Mar Vista Residence in Los Angeles, CA. Photo: Andy Wang

Perrault and Lauriot-Prévost saw something special in the house, described by Giovanni as “a straight line of a building streaking across the landscape.” He writes, “Inside and out, the clean white planes, crisp machined corners and squared geometries are derived from International Style Modernism and recast into a new synthesis….The abstract lines and planes, like picture frames, bracket outdoor terraces that are landscaped like the Zen gardens Dubuisson had seen in Japan. Huge sliding glass doors recall the indoor-outdoor relationship of mid century Modernist California houses, by then well known in Europe.”

But the home wasn’t without its issues, since it had languished for years without proper attention. They restored the house with exquisite attention to its original design and materials. Today, Perrault and Lauriot-Prévost enjoy the long-forgotten estate with their two dogs, furnished with original mid-century Modernist furniture sourced online. As Giovanni relates, the couple remains dedicated to “expanding the property to its fullest potential — the basement and barn are being turned into exhibition spaces for a variety of shows and a home for their collection of models and drawings.” At the same time, the vision of the owners is to design and build flats that will host resident artists, architects, and researchers as part of a study center that will expand the life of the semi-private villa into a campus for a larger architecture and design community.

The Softline Opera Chair: A Symphony of Possibilities

Posted on March 20, 2023 by Hunter

As we continue to tour the public spaces at Optima® communities to highlight the curated collection of Modernist furnishings, such as the Eames chair, or tulip table, etc. We find it just as important to highlight recent advances of Modernist furniture design, propelled forward by the likes of Eero Saarinen, Charles and Ray Eames, Florence Knoll, and so many other masters of design. Today we introduce you to the OPERA chair at Optima Lakeview®, by SOFTLINE.

Brief History

SOFTLINE has been creating and producing innovatively designed furniture for a global market since 1979. The enterprise was founded as a division of K. Balling-Engelsen A/S, a Danish producer of technical polyurethane foam. For decades, this high-quality, flexible foam has been the material of choice for furniture production due to its unique properties.

In 2003, they became an independent, privately-owned enterprise with a factory in Denmark, where the upholstery is performed by hand, based on Scandinavian traditions and utilizing eco-friendly materials.

OPERA

The OPERA chair designed by Busk+Herzog serves a symphony of possibilities at Optima Lakeview® in its ability to elegantly blend modern and contemporary styles. From its high armrests, to provide privacy for all matters of which you may want to hide, to its backrest and cushion that completely envelopes your body.

The OPERA can also be used as a versatile lounge chair in larger configurations, much like PLANET, or in smaller configurations like PIERCE. Both of these elegant iterations can be found together just steps away at Optima Kierland® in Scottsdale. The OPERA chair provides a human-scale sense of privacy, as well as a space for contemplation or conversation in our business center. This striking piece is the perfect place for our residents to relax in solitude without being completely separated from friends, and we’re delighted to include this iconic design to Optima’s® Modernist collection!

The Cranbrook Connection: Right Place, Right Time

Posted on March 2, 2023March 2, 2023 by Hunter

Connections often happen in the places where we least expect to find them. At Optima®, a connection sprang from a love of modernization, to an idea, backed by an ever-lasting willingness to adapt through experimentation in the right place, at the right time. Imagine our surprise when a number of world renown architects and designers such as Florence Knoll, Charles and Ray Eames, Eero Saarinen, and Harry Bertoia met at Cranbrook Academy of Art at the right place, at the right time, becoming colleagues, collaborators, and lifelong friends.

The Cranbrook Campus was designed by Eliel Saarinen in the years 1925-1942. He also had help from his wife and artist, Loja, and his kids, Eero and Pipsan at the request of founders — George and Ellen Booth. Everything on campus was highly considered — from the masonry, to the walls, the chairs, textiles, and colors through the use of what they called — total design. When Eero Saarinen, Florence Knoll, Charles and Ray Eames, and Harry Bertoia were on campus, Cranbrook was essentially a crucible for the beginnings of modernism in which many of these luminary architects and designers practiced and perfected their craft.

In late 2022, the design studio at Herman Miller released a short film entitled, The Cranbrook Connection. The film traces the history of Cranbrook as one of America’s greatest examples of modernist architecture and design, weaving in a thoughtful examination of furniture designed and produced by mid-century visionaries for Herman Miller and Knoll. This sweeping survey brings into sharp focus the staying power of total design, while inspiring us with the power of bringing structure and interior space into harmonic alignment.

During these seminal years, Cranbrook encouraged its students to practice experimentation in design, alongside the use of new materials. Eero and Charles had an interesting obsession with plywood. How it bent, how it felt, and sat in space. They later entered into a number of competitions with and sometimes against one another using this material. At one point, they entered the Organic Design for Home Furnishings competition with a suite of modular furniture using molded plywood chairs, and tables that would come to be the seeds of some of the most successful lines of furniture such as the Eames chair, and Womb chair.

Cranbrook Academy of Art (1940) Eliel Saarienen, Michigan State Historic Preservation Office, Flickr

Today, the Cranbrook Academy of Art remains one of the country’s top-ranked, graduate-only programs in architecture, design, and fine art. Just 75 students are invited to study and live on the Saarinen-designed campus, which features a suite of private studios, state-of-the-art workshops, a renowned Art Museum, and 300 acres of forests, lakes, and streams, all a short drive from Detroit. The focus at Cranbrook is on studio practice in one of 11 disciplines: Architecture, 2D, 3D, and 4D Design, Ceramics, Fiber, Metalsmithing, Painting, Photography, Print Media, and Sculpture.

A Look at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Unsold Designs

Posted on December 27, 2022December 27, 2022 by Hunter

On December 9, 2022, Christie’s auction house held a special auction to release a collection of rare drawings, glasswork and furniture produced by legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The collection was put up for sale by Grand Rapids-based Steelcase Corporation, the iconic American furniture manufacturer that enjoyed a unique relationship with the famed architect. Today, we’re taking a look at the treasured work:

In the mid-1930s, Wright was working on his seminal corporate design for the Johnson Wax Headquarters, commissioned by S.C. Johnson & Son in Racine, Wisconsin. He approached Steelcase with the hopes of working with them to manufacture furniture for the building. Decades later, in 1985, Steelcase bought the Meyer House — a home designed by Wright in 1909 in Grand Rapids, Michigan — to celebrate the spirit of innovation and collaboration between Wright and Steelcase that began during the Johnson Wax Headquarters project. Steelcase set out to uncover the original designs of the home, and after several years of extensive research, they accumulated a number of Wright’s original drawings that documented the architect’s vision. After a two-year restoration that included demolition of a 1922 addition to the home and fanatical attention to hundreds of interior and exterior details, the Meyer House stands as the most complete and authentic restorations of all of Wright’s designs.

An executive desk and armchair designed by Wright for SC Johnson’s headquarters

Taken together, the projects represent unique and different moments in Wright’s career. The Meyer House is a prime example of his Prairie School era, a period of roughly 15 years in the early 1900s when commissions most often came from affluent families before he shifted focus to more. These designs typically feature hip roofs with long eaves, art glass ribbon windows and strong horizontal lines.

Wright designed multiple residential structures in this style for about 15 years in the early 1900s before shifting focus to more democratic architecture. The S.C. Johnson building, on the other hand, is considered Wright’s corporate masterpiece; today it remains one of the most important examples of the American corporate office building.

The unique glasswork designed by Wright for the Meyer House

The pieces included in Christie’s auction come from these two projects and include the executive desk master and executive arm chair master from the S.C. Johnson project and windows from the Meyer house. Wright’s original drawings for the furniture he designed for both the Johnson Wax Headquarters and the Meyer House were also sold, including schematics for an officer’s chair from the S.C. Johnson building and the sofa and living room table from the Meyer House.

It’s not often that fans of Frank Lloyd Wright fans have the opportunity to acquire processual works — in this case, drawings, windows and furniture that reveal the process that Wright and his clients used to produce masterpieces.

Conceptualizing the Future of Furniture

Posted on December 21, 2022 by Hunter

During the spring semester of 2022, the Department of Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology conducted Course 4.041 — Advanced Product Design. The focus of the course was to “develop concepts of sustainability for a more ecologically-responsible and digitally-enabled future.” According to the course syllabus, students would be asked to “reinterpret and conceive of new typologies, redefining what ‘furniture’ means from the ground-up.” Today, we’re spotlighting just a handful of their future facing designs.

To make the course even more interesting, MIT teamed up with Emeco, an iconic American furniture company to provide students with access to Emeco’s manufacturing technology as they conceptualized sustainable furniture. The students’ design solutions have been dubbed The Next 150-year Chair, based on Emeco’s 1006 Navy chair developed in 1944, which, according to the manufacturer, has a “150-year lifespan.”

Associate Professor Skylar Tibbits explained that “Today, a 150-year chair means making something that lasts a long time, which is a great thing to do. But the question is whether that will be the same for the next 150 years – should the goal still be to make things that last forever? That’s one approach, but maybe there’s something that could be infinitely recyclable instead or something that’s modular and reconfigurable.”

La Junta designed by María Risueño Dominguez

Over the spring term, five students explored their unique approaches to answering the question. Their results featured a number of complete furniture pieces and components that were exhibited at Emeco House, the company’s converted 1940s sewing shop, in Venice, CA in late November.

María Risueño Dominguez developed a furniture component based on longevity. Her research on furniture consumption and interviews with people involved in the furniture industry resulted in a concept called La Junta – a cast-aluminum joint with multiple different inserts shaped to fit a variety of components.

Amelia Lee developed a product designed to last through different stages of childhood. It is made from a single sheet of recycled HDPE. Modeled on a rocking chair, the piece can be turned on its side to function as a table.

Zain Karsan set out to improve metal 3D printing technology for the frames of his chairs, focusing on a technique for dispensing molten material at high-speed to explore new ways to think about form and joining parts.

Faith Jones designed the ReWoven Chair, with an aluminum frame and a recycled (and replaceable) cotton sling, as an exploration into how to maintain comfort and sustainability.

Jo Pierre’s interest in maintaining comfort within dense physical settings resulted in a chair called Enhanced Privacy — a plastic partition designed for domestic spaces that includes a hanging sheet of plastic that can be filled with water to block sound and diffuse light.

As both a design process and a collaboration between academia and industry, The Next 150-year Chair Project established a refreshing model for how we might conceptualize the future of furniture while pushing the boundaries of sustainable design and novel materials.

Modern Interpretations of Le Corbusier’s Celebrated Designs

Posted on October 24, 2022October 24, 2022 by Hunter

Celebrated as the pioneer of modernist architecture, Le Corbusier’s contributions to architecture and design remain as significant as ever. And although much of his work is nearly a century old, designers continue to draw inspiration from his inventive principles. Take a look at how designers are still responding to Le Corbusier’s theories of modernism today.

This year, the international contemporary art gallery, Galerie Philia, displayed Héritages. Found at Cité Radieuse, a Le Corbusier housing complex built in 1952, the exhibit featured works by eight international designs referencing the functionality and minimalist design elements Le Corbusier famously employed through his work.

And although the exhibition featured work from multiple designers, each piece united through a visual response or reinterpretation of Le Corbusier’s theories. While some artists showcased work heavily influenced by Le Corbusier in the exhibition’s “resonance” area, others provided pieces opposing his theories in the “dissonance” area.

Arno Declerq’s steel daybed in the “resonance” room, Photo by Maison Mounton Noir

Belgian designer Arno Declercq contributed a sculptural daybed for the “resonance” room, inspired by both Le Corbusier’s famous furniture designs and his architectural contributions. The minimalist design features a structure of steel, a material Le Corbusier often used throughout his architecture. Paired with the daybed, architect and designer Pietro Franceschini contributed a chunky brutalist chair upholstered with vibrant yellow velvet, deeply inspired by Le Corbusier’s bold yet functional armchair designs.

In the exhibit’s “dissancane” room, American visual artist Jojo Corväiá explores imbalance with his standout ceramic table. Using volcanic clay, Corväiá designed the table with the intent of displaying its cracks and irregularities, a practice from which Le Corbusier strayed. Designer Roxane Lahidji also contributed to the room, adding a sculpted chair of marbled salts. The stretched seat and arched base make reference to the fragility of organic designs.

Jojo Corväiá’s volcanic clay table in the “dissonance” room, Photo by Maison Mounton Noir

In addition to the furniture, artist Flora Temnouche created three oil paintings for the space. The paintings touch on the inertia of nature, partially inspired by the sparse relationship to nature Le Corbusier’s approach to design and architecture employed.

Considered one of the most influential figures in contemporary design, Le Corbusier’s work continues to create inspiration across the world today. And, thanks to Galerie Philia’s Héritages exhibition, artists and designers continue to honor and reflect the transformative work, bringing it new meaning and life. Explore the rest of the exhibition’s bold work here!

Furniture Spotlight: Tulip Tables

Posted on August 8, 2022 by Hunter

As we continue to tour the public spaces at Optima communities to highlight the impeccably-curated collection of Modernist furnishings, it is always a delight to set our sights on Tulip tables, designed by the luminary architect, Eero Saarinen.

Eero Saarinen (1910-1961), the Finnish architect who conceived the St. Louis Gateway Arch, along with many other well-known structures including the Washington Dulles International Airport, also received enormous recognition for his modernist furniture designs produced by Knoll, including the Womb™ Chair.

Legend has it that Saarinen approached Florence Knoll in 1955 with his desire to explore new approaches to furniture design, evolving from his background in sculpture and a desire to create a table with a single leg.

A drawing of the Tulip Table by Eero Saarinen

So in the late 1957, Saarinen proved true to his word and broke tradition by introducing a collection of tables, initially referred to as Saarinen Tables. They feature a single central base, made from single pieces of cast aluminum and finished in black, white or platinum, that appeared to “grow like a flower” with a stem-like base, as opposed to having the more traditional standing legs. With this simple, organic shape that included a slender neck and elegant, organic proportions, the base became the focus of a large series of tables that came to be known as Tulip Tables.

With options for circular and oval tops with tapered edges in a variety of sizes and heights, Tulip Tables were conceived from an integrated design framework that supports a cohesive human experience. They were an immediate hit once they became commercially available, in part because the single base provides visual lightness while inviting people to gather around a table unencumbered by legs. Tulip Tables delighted both residential and commercial furniture buyers with an array of color choices as well, with tops constructed of laminate or wood veneers, or made from natural materials like granite or coated Arabescato marble.

The Tulip Table found in an Optima Lakeview residence

While design trends come and go, a precious few furniture pieces remain timeless and iconic. Saarinen’s Tulip Tables are among those — ever-elegant, minimal and sophisticated.

Furniture Spotlight: Eames Lounge Chair

Posted on July 25, 2022 by Hunter

What can we possibly say about the Eames Lounge Chair that hasn’t already been said before?

There’s not a collection of modernist furniture design anywhere that doesn’t feature the Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman — and this is certainly the case with the curated furnishings in every Optima community. It’s always a pleasure to spotlight this timelessly beautiful expression of art, architecture, materiality and technology that sprang from the creative genius of Charles and Ray Eames.

Enter the Kazam! Machine

To appreciate the evolution of the Eames Lounge Chair, it’s helpful to understand the design process that Charles and Ray employed. It began when the couple turned their Los Angeles apartment into a workshop in 1941 and began building a device for molding plywood. Their goal at the time was to develop the capacity to apply pressure to plywood without breaking it, which would give them the opportunity to produce a host of objects that interested them at the time — chairs, sculptures, aircraft parts, leg splints and children’s furniture and toys. After many attempts and failures, the Eameses mastered the three-dimensional molding process with an apparatus for bending wood — a kind of curing oven made from wood scraps and spare bicycle parts. They called it the Kazam! machine. With its hinged and bolted curving plaster mold, the Kazam! machine allowed them to create a glued sandwich consisting of several layers of veneer, which was then pushed against the plaster mold by a membrane which, in its turn, was manually inflated by a bicycle pump.

The Kazam! Machine

Putting the Kazam! to Work
First produced in 1956, the iconic Eames Lounge Chair draws inspiration from a classic English Club Chair. It consists of a bent-wood frame atop a six-legged base, constructed using the Kazam! machine, and tilted at an optimal angle for comfort and ergonomics. It’s topped with supple leather, which the Eameses described as providing “the warm redemptive look of a well-used first baseman’s mitt,” in their vision to make the chair “a special refuge from the strains of modern living.”

A Standout from the Start

In an unprecedented marketing move, the Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman debuted on national television in 1956. Charles and Ray Eames appeared on Home, the NBC daytime television show hosted by Arlene Francis. Aided by the warmth, charisma and humor of the Eames’, the American television viewing audience immediately fell in love with the Eames Chair. Today, nearly 70 years later, it remains one of the most significant furniture designs of the twentieth century.

Part of the permanent collections at New York’s MoMA and the Art Institute of Chicago, the Chair and Ottoman have been the subject of numerous documentary films and books, and continue to be featured prominently in contemporary design curation.

Iconic and Forever Fresh

Authentic Eames Chairs are still manufactured by Herman Miller today, much as they were in 1956. And while the Kazam! process has been streamlined and updated, it remains much the same as it was when the Eames first conceived it in their LA living room — ensuring that these uniquely timeless objects of desire remain a special refuge from the strains of modern living.

Furniture Spotlight: Table E-1027

Posted on June 27, 2022June 27, 2022 by Hunter

One of the ways we honor the Forever Modern promise and keep it relevant at Optima is by curating both public and residential spaces in our communities with timeless furniture. Take a stroll through any of our Optima communities and you will find the Table E-1027 in beautiful settings of pristine Modernist furniture. Let’s take a closer look.

Table E-1027 is an adjustable steel and glass table designed by Irish designer Eileen Gray in 1927. Originally created for her home in the south of France by the same name, the table has since become one of Gray’s most famous designs.

The table’s design celebrates the simplicity of Modernist ideals of form and function. The table consists of two concentric forms of tubular stainless steel that are joined by two vertical tubes to adjust the height — with one of the forms serving as an adjustable arm and tempered glass functioning as the table’s surface. The story behind the design is that Gray originally conceived it for her sister, who routinely ate breakfast in bed. With a traylike surface that could be positioned comfortably over the bed, her sister could enjoy her morning routine while avoiding dropping crumbs on the linens.

Without question, Table E-1027 is one of Gray’s most famous pieces, even though she was a prolific designer. In the decades since it became available commercially, Table E-1027 has come to represent the epitome of Modernist design. It is multipurpose, adjustable and portable. It works just as well in a bedroom as in a living room or sitting area. And finally, it brings refinement and tastefulness to any interior setting.

At Optima, we’re proud to include Table E-1027 in a host of spaces and arrangements for our residents and their visitors to enjoy.

A Brief History of Constructivism

Posted on June 15, 2022 by Hunter

As Modernism and its influence spread across the world in the early 1900s, new art and design factions emerged throughout cultures. Today, we’re exploring Constructivism, a Russian art and architecture movement that brought abstraction to the country. Learn more about the short-lived, industrial-heavy movement below:

The History of Constructivism

Constructivism popularized in the 1910s Soviet Union, the same period that the Bauhaus and De Stijl movements emerged across Eastern Europe. Constructivism was largely inspired by other modern, innovative developments of the time, specifically Bauhaus and Russian Futurism.

Constructivist artists strived to reflect the industrialization of urban society in their work. The movement’s art and architectural works combined characteristics from existing modern principles such as geometric and minimal design, with a more experimental approach.

Often staying away from ornate decorative elements, Constructivist architecture instead favored mechanical and industrial materials. This design direction also focused on space and rhythm, frequently resulting in futuristic and abstract-presenting structures.

Notable Works

Arguably the most well-known and famous Constructivist architectural work was the 1919 proposal of Tatlin’s Tower by Vladimir Tatlin. The project, which was never completed, intended to use iron, glass and steel in its design. As a towering symbol of modernity, its main feature included a twin helix — reaching taller than the Eiffel Tower — paired with four other suspended geometric structures that planned to rotate around the helix.

A model of Vladimir Tatlin’s Tatlin Tower

One of the main philosophies of Constructivism was to instill new aesthetics of the avant-garde into everyday life, which led architects to design some of the country’s most visited buildings in their unique style. The Zuev Workers’ Club in Moscow was one of many workers’ clubs to adopt the Constructivist style when completed in 1929. The composition of the building’s facade features a mix of circular staircases, stacked rectangular floors, bright pink paint and an exterior glazed treatment which was innovative for the time.

Another famous work of Constructivism is Ogonyok Magazine’s printing plant which was commissioned in 1932 in Moscow. Russian artist El Lissitzky designed the building, and it remained his only architectural creation. The dynamic building features a mansard roof and circular windows that contrast the long rectangular exterior. Although damaged in a 2008 fire, the building remains a heritage site, and in 2012 it was named a regional landmark of the country.

The printing plant for Ogonyok Magazine, 1932

Although Constructivism lost steam only a decade after emerging, its influence is found in other movements like Brutalism, and works of graphic design, industrial design, fashion, and ultimately the Deconstructivism Movement. Stay tuned for more blogs spotlighting the many subsects of Modernist architecture!

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Tag: furniture