Constructivists despised any decorations. No ornament, inlays or carvings - only pure form, clear lines and strict intersecting planes. The main task of the designer is to build the structural elements into a dynamic composition.

Passing the gallery

Materials prepared: Julia Sakharova

Magazine: N (87) 2004

Constructivism set out to completely change the world and man. He decided to part with all traditions in order to open a completely new page in the history of art. Constructivists, categorically rejecting any patterns of the past, wanted to model the future, which was presented to them as a harmony of clear geometric shapes. Le Corbusier's famous aphorism "Home is a machine for housing" ideally defines the essence of constructivist aesthetics. Furniture should be comfortable not only for the consumer, but also for the machines that will make it. Technologies of mass factory production became the engine of artistic thought. The uniqueness of the subject did not matter. Now the main criterion is universality. Constructivists despised any decorations. No ornament, inlays or carvings - only pure form, clear lines and strict intersecting planes. The main task of the designer is to build the design elements into a dynamic composition. Preference was given to simple and bright colors. One of the favorite materials in furniture design are metal tubes. The role model was a deck chair made of them by the same Corbusier. But perhaps the best tubes turned into chairs and chairs by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. This architect and designer applied to furniture as mathematical objects, each time solving the form of the next chair as an equation. Nevertheless, hard rational calculation glitched. In an effort to expose the constructive essence of things, the designers ultimately made it unsuitable from a practical point of view. For example, a frame with a fabric stretched over it was theoretically ideal for placing a body in it, but it was absolutely not suitable, even to just lie in it. Constructivism, especially its Soviet version, tried to reorganize the living space and adapt the person to it. The man did not adapt, but constructivist ideas became valuable laboratory experience for the development of furniture design throughout the 20th century. And if to be completely honest, then the XXI century, too.Return to the Library of Styles