ART DECO FURNITURE
The Art Deco Home has many new designs of Art Deco furniture for sale, including works by the great masters of Art Deco design.
PIERRE CHAREAU
The Maison de Verre (French for House of Glass) was built from 1928 to 1931 in Paris, France. Constructed in the early modern style of architecture, the house’s design emphasized three primary traits: honesty of materials, variable transparency of forms, and juxtaposition of “industrial” materials and fixtures with a more traditional style of home décor. The primary materials used were steel, glass, and glass block. Some of the notable “industrial” elements included rubberized floor tiles, bare steel beams,perforated metal sheet,heavy industrial light fixtures and mechanical fixtures.
The design was a collaboration between Pierre Chareau (a furniture and interiors designer), Bernard Bijvoet (a Dutch architect working in Paris since 1927) and Louis Dalbet (craftsman metalworker). Much of the intricate moving scenery of the house was designed on site as the project developed. The external form is defined by translucent glass block walls, with select areas of clear glazing for tranparency. Internally, spatial division is variable by the use of sliding, folding or rotating screens in glass, sheet or perforated metal, or in combination. Other mechanical components included an overhead trolley from the kitchen to dining room, a retracting stair from the private sitting room to Mme Dalsace’s bedroom and complex bathroom cupboards and fittings.
The program of the home was somewhat unusual in that it included a ground-floor medical suite for Dr. Dalsace. This variable circulation pattern was provided for by a rotating screen which hid the private stairs from patients during the day, but framed the stairs at night.
The house is notable for its splendid architecture, but it may be more well-known for another reason. It was built on the site of a much older building which the patron had purchased and intended to demolish. Much to his or her chagrin, however, the elderly tenant on the top floor of the building absolutely refused to sell, and so the patron was obliged to completely demolish the bottom three floors of the building and construct the Maison de Verre underneath, all without disturbing the original top floor!
SERGE CHERMAYEFF
Serge Ivan Chermayeff (October 8, 1900 - May 8, 1996) was a British architect, writer, and co-founder of several architectural societies, including the American Society of Planners and Architects.
He was born in Grozny, Russian Empire (currently Chechen Republic), but moved to England at a young age where he received his education. He first started working as an interior designer for a firm in London. By 1930, he and the German architect Erich Mendelsohn briefly partnered to form their own architectural firm. They created some very important works in the British modernist movement, notably the De La Warr Pavilion and was a member of the MARS Group. In 1940, Chermayeff emigrated to the United States where he would continue his architectural career and would take up teaching at several universities. In 1946, he was recommended by Walter Gropius to become the president of the Institute of Design in Chicago. He stepped down in 1951 when the institute merged with the Illinois Institute of Technology. Between 1952 and 1970 he would continue to teach at several universities including Harvard, Yale, and MIT. He retired in 1970. He wrote several books, including Community and Privacy with Christopher Alexander in 1964 and The Shape of Community with Alexander Tzonis in 1971. He died in 1996 in Wellfleet, Massachusetts.
DEMETRE H. CHIPARUS
Demetre H. Chiparus (1886-1947) was an Art Deco era sculptor who lived and worked in Paris. He was born in Romania and attended school in Italy. Before World War I, he traveled to Paris to attend the Ecole des Beaux Arts and pursue his art. In 1914 he exhibited at the Salon. He employed the combination of bronze and ivory, called chryselephantine, to great effect. Most of his renowned works were made between 1914 and 1933. In the 1920’s, his work was influenced by an interest in Egypt, after Pharaoh Tutankhamen’s tomb was excavated. Dancers of the Russian Ballet, French theatre, and early motion pictures were among his more notable subjects and were typified by a long, slender, stylized appearance. He worked primarily with the Etling Foundry in Paris.
