The style that emerged from the Bauhaus, called the International Style, was felt by many to be lacking in human warmth. Its boxlike forms, its hard and glassy surfaces, its use of metal tubing and plywood, and its lack of colour and of ornament were received with mixed feelings. The French architect Le Corbusier adhered to similar principles. His famous dictum that the house is a machine brought the retort that most people do not like living in machines. Functionalist thinking, however, led to an increasing use of the materials the machine is capable of producing, such as plastics, synthetic fibres, acrylic paints, and so forth, but these materials were still too often used to simulate other materials.
German Functionalism was slow to establish itself in Europe and hardly affected American design until its leaders found refuge in the United States from Nazi oppression. There the movement was brought to public attention in the mid-1930s by the need for new stimuli in the trough of economic depression, by the educational campaigns of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and by the reestablishment of the Bauhaus teachings in the Institute of Design of the Armour Institute (now part of the Illinois Institute of Technology) in Chicago.
In the decade following the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, held at Paris in 1925, progressive Western design was influenced principally by the less radical productions of the French luxury crafts, based on a modified Art Nouveau, and by the Swedish success in combining and developing craft traditions in cooperation with industry. These influences, which developed the Art Deco style, were, however, confined to relatively small and semiprofessional coteries, while the market as a whole continued to concentrate on traditional forms, producing and adapting them at various levels of quality and taste. By 1935 the Functionalist movement, led by the disciples of the Bauhaus program, had gained a substantial following among the younger architects and designers. During World War II, development virtually ceased in most European countries, and subsequently attention turned again to the Scandinavian countries, particularly Sweden, where strict consideration of function led to simple furnishing schemes which relied on natural wood grains, clear colouring, and texture for their effect. Pattern was subdued and, where used, uncomplicated in outline.
Meanwhile, in the United States, during and after World War II, the Functionalists, still with the help of the museums and the more progressive schools and periodicals, had gained the interest of a considerable proportion of both the wealthier members of society and the manufacturers who catered to them.
The most obvious changes resulting from the Functionalist movement were mechanization, redistribution of interior space, and elimination of formal barriers between indoors and outdoors. These developments, most prevalent in the United States but disseminated throughout much of the world, were accompanied by radical changes in decoration and the design and use of furniture and fittings. Equipment for heating and lighting, sanitation, and food preparation, all derived from inventions of the 19th century, were brought to a high degree of mechanized efficiency, taking full advantage of advanced production methods. Since convenience and economy became principal considerations, utility units were fitted into living space instead of being hidden in otherwise unused areas, as in the traditional room arrangement. By insisting on simplicity of form, colour, and texture, they were made to obtrude as little as possible. In particular, the appearance of the kitchen was studied carefully, especially in smaller houses.
Under the influence of electric power, liquid fuels, flexible controls of temperature, ventilation, and lighting, and countless labour-saving devices, the mid-20th-century house began to fulfill Le Corbusier’s dream of an efficient “machine for living.”
Reconsideration and correlation of the space needed in living areas broke down traditional room divisions. The new interior, with its invitation to movement, both actual and implied, was in harmony with the times. Decoration became concerned with function, and, because a living area served more than one purpose, it was frequently irregular in plan and impossible to treat as a unit in the traditional formal manner. Changes of colour, texture, and materials consequently became the chief resources of decorative design, taking the place of ornament. Earlier attempts at the functional mode suffered from too much anxiety over simplicity and unity and thus became monotonous and cold.
The demands of space made it necessary to keep movable pieces of furniture to a minimum and encouraged the use of built-in units. An earlier overemphasis on straight lines and angles was countered by greater use of curved and molded forms in furniture design. As the average house became smaller and more efficient in its use of enclosed space and as the desire for outdoor living grew, there was a tendency to replace at least one of the enclosing walls of both livingroom and bedroom with glass. With a well-arranged plan, this gave each room an everchanging mural and better light, and it also extended the apparent size of the interior. The illusion of bringing the outside indoors gave a feeling of freedom, but it also created practical and psychological problems (see photograph).
Despite the reaction that developed against it, the functional modern movement had served an important purpose. Although it produced no recognizable themes of ornament, it did eliminate the horror vacui that afflicted the Victorians and Elizabethans alike. It cleared the way for a fresh look at the art of interior decoration as a whole, and for the fresh inspiration that came in the 1950s from Scandinavia and Denmark, which retained the human qualities that much of the work of the Bauhaus was felt to lack. At the same time there was a revival of interest in true Japanese art in interior decoration, which has a certain affinity with Scandinavian. In the 1960s patterns began to return—abstract patterns such as those to be found in Op art. Elegant materials, easily washable, became available for upholstery, and easy cleaning made it practical for them to be produced in pastel shades and light colours.
That large numbers of people had found it difficult to live with modern austerity became apparent with the immense growth after World War II of the trade in old furnishings of all kinds, with ever-increasing prices. A parallel vogue resulted in an increase in the manufacture of reproductions of all kinds, especially furniture, made partly by machine and partly by hand, leading to the revival of some of the old handcrafts. Interior design in the East
East Asian motifs of decoration bear no relationship to those of the West, although many of them are familiar from objets d’art and decoration exported during the last five centuries. No such conflict of styles as those to be observed in the West has existed.
The motifs of Eastern art are many and varied, such as the dragon (a ubiquitous and beneficent creature), the so-called Chinese phoenix, or fenghuang, and creatures of all kinds, actual and legendary. Flowers and foliage are part of an elaborate flower-symbolism, and there are many abstract motifs, all of which are part of a complex and rich symbolism, which can usually be interpreted if the key is known. The Chinese language contains many identical words, which have completely different meanings that are identified in speech by intonation; the word fu, for example, can mean either a bat or happiness. Therefore, a decoration of bats symbolizes happiness. This is not true in the Japanese language, but the Japanese have taken over many Chinese motifs, such as the bat (kōmori). The purpose for which a Chinese object decorated with a dragon was originally intended may often be deduced from the number of claws to the foot—five for the emperor, four for princes of the blood, and three for officials. The pine, willow, and bamboo in conjunction are termed the “three friends,” and represent Buddha, Confucius, and Laozi.