EnglishDiscover design history with HART Design Selection: from classical styles to modern innovations, explore the movements, ideas and creators that shaped our visual culture and continue to inspire contemporary design.
Ulm, Germany, 1953. On a hill overlooking the city, Max Bill launches the Hochschule für Gestaltung (HfG Ulm), a design school that aims to reconnect with the legacy of the Bauhaus, closed under Nazi pressure in 1933. But Ulm will not be a simple resurrection: it will radicalize the rationalist approach, develop a scientific methodology…
Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, 1932. While the Great Depression paralyzes America and Streamline Moderne begins transforming the American industrial landscape, Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen founds an institution that will revolutionize American design: the Cranbrook Academy of Art. Far from the New York or California metropolises, in the affluent suburbs of Detroit, this school invents a unique…
Amsterdam, 1917. While Art Deco triumphed in Paris with its geometric ornaments and refined luxury, a group of Dutch artists and architects chose a radically opposite path. In a Europe torn apart by World War I, they founded a magazine that would give its name to one of the most radical movements of the 20th…
New York, 1933. The “Century of Progress” World’s Fair in Chicago celebrated American technological progress at the heart of the Great Depression. While Europe sank into political tensions and Russian Constructivism faded under Stalin, America invented a radically new visual language: Streamline Moderne. This style, which would transform everything – from toasters to locomotives, from…
The Chippendale style emerged in England around 1750, at a time when the rococo refinement of French Louis XV still dominated Europe, while the Anglo-Saxon world was already beginning its transition toward neoclassicism. Introduction Chippendale style embodies the golden age of eighteenth-century English furniture. Between 1750 and 1780, Thomas Chippendale and his cabinetmaking workshop created…
Introduction Gothic style emerges in the mid twelfth century as an architectural and decorative revolution unlike anything Europe had seen before. Around 1140, Abbot Suger rebuilds the choir of the Basilica of Saint Denis near Paris. For the first time, stone seems to defy gravity. Walls grow thinner, vaults rise higher, and light floods the…
The Louis XIII style (1610–1643) marks a pivotal moment when France moves beyond the decorative legacy of the Renaissance to lay the foundations of 17th-century classicism. More structural than ornamental, it favors rigor, geometry, and interior architecture directly foreshadowing the Louis XIV style. Do you know the Louis XIII style? What is Louis XIII style?…
The Louis XIII style is a French decorative, furniture, and architectural style developed between 1610 and 1643. It marks the transition from late Renaissance forms to a more architectural, rational, and structurally driven aesthetic, laying the foundations of French classical furniture. The Louis XIII style refers to the furniture, interiors, and architectural language produced in…
Between the constructive rigor of Louis XIII style and the decorative softening of Regency style, Louis XIV style (1643–1715) imposes a monumental classicism in service of power. Louis XIV style (1643–1715) marks the spectacular affirmation of a decorative art conceived as an instrument of power. Under the reign of the Sun King, decoration ceases to…
The Louis XV style (1723–1774) stands between the Régence style, from which it inherits a progressive softening of forms, and the Transition style, which gradually restrains its curves to announce the return to symmetry characteristic of the Louis XVI style. Louis XV Style: When France Invented the Art of Living The Louis XV style revolutionizes…
Post-Revolutionary style, the Directoire marks a break with the aristocratic elegance of Louis XVI and lays the severe foundations for the future Empire style. Do You Know the Directoire Style? Do you know the Directoire style? This period of stylistic transition is historically situated between the French Revolution and the Consulate. It marks the renaissance…
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