Tag: review

The First Alvar Aalto House and Studio

Looking for better job opportunities, Alvar Aalto and his family moved from the small town of Turku to Helsinki in 1933. Besides job opportunities, Aalto also was also looking for the perfect location where he could build his future home. After living in two different apartments in Helsinki, the Aaltos bought a piece of land just outside the city.

The Alvar Aalto Villa Skeppet (Villa Schildt).

The increasing industrialization of north European countries such as Finland during the sixties caused the decline of the small scale agriculture and a depopulation of rural areas while urban communities grew exponentially.
Finland’s improving welfare structure and a better standard of living pushed the request for new houses and in turn created a boom in the construction industry.

Richard Neutra

Richard Neutra was born in Vienna in 1892 and attended the Technische Hochschule (Vienna University of Technology) from 1911 to 1917.His career crossed five decades and he can certainly be defined as one of the most important architects of the mid-century as of the whole twentieth century.

The Richard Neutra Kronish House Is Safe!

I couldn’t start my day and weekend in a better way.
As you probably remember, some time ago I wrote a post about the possible demolition of the iconic Richard Neutra Kronish House in Beverly Hills; check the post for the Richard Neutra masterpiece history.
The Richard Neutra Kronish House Demolition Plan.

The Isamu Noguchi Akari Lamp.

The Isamu Noguchi Akari lamp -inspired by the traditional Japanese paper lanterns- is one of the design icons of the last century.
To be completely honest with you, before starting Mid Century Home I never heard of Isamu Noguchi and his works…but from the first moment I saw his objects and sculptures, I started to love them 🙂

The Achille Castiglioni Arco Floor Lamp

The Achille Castiglioni Arco floor lamp has been one of my favorite lamps ever and -after the Achille Castiglioni Biography and the post about the Toio lamp- today I decided to finally write about it.
The Achille Castiglioni Arco floor lamp has been inspired by a common object: a street lamp.

The Isamu Noguchi IN50 Coffee Table

The Isamu Noguchi coffee table is the today’s iconic mid century object. I’m lucky to see it every day from real -it’s in the hall of my office- and I can say to know it quite well 🙂
Who Isamu Noguchi was? A Short Biography.

Mid Century Icons: The Saarinen Womb Chair

Since its launch in 1948, the Womb Chair designed by Eero Saarinen has been always in production and definitely is one of the most known pieces of mid century furniture ever.
The shape of the Womb chair is the result of Saarinen’s experiments with organic shell-type seats for furniture design. Saarinen started his experiment with Charles Eames during the ‘Organic Design in Home Furnishings’ competition in 1941 during which they presented the ‘Conversation, Relaxation and Lounging’ trio.

The Achille Castiglioni Toio Lamp.

Within the many famous Italian mid-century modern designs, the Achille Castiglioni Toio Lamp has undoubtedly a primary role.
Even though Achille was the most known of the Castiglioni brothers, he worked closely with his older brother Pier Giacomo to many projects until his premature death in 1968; both concentrating on the same task, rather than dividing up the work.

Charles and Ray Eames: The Wire Chair

The Charles Eames Wire Chair is an iconic seat with sculptural qualities difficult to find in those years. Even though its design recalls previous fibreglass chairs, the Wire Chair was manufactured using a very different technology.
The rim of the chair is a double light-gauge wire without cross-weaving on the external borders, this ‘tricks’ made…

The Poul Henningsen PH Lamps

One of my favorite series of lamps ever are the Poul Henningsen PH Lamps; the PS Artichoke in particular.
Poul Henningsen was one of the most famous mid-century modern Danish designers and it comes with no surprise that almost all his designs are still manufactured by the Danish company Louis Poulsen.