The Atlas of Furniture Design

Product Information

In November 2019, the Vitra Design Museum publishes the »Atlas of Furniture Design«, a new comprehensive overview on the history of modern furniture design. By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions. This is an absolutely stunning book, beautifully produced and an incredible reference for all those interested in the evolution of furniture design.

The basis for the Atlas of Furniture Design is the furniture collection held by the Vitra Design Museum, one of the largest of its kind in the world, with more than 7,000 works. The richly illustrated book contains hundreds of detailed descriptions of key pieces as well as essays that provide a socio-cultural and historical context for four different epochs as well as the works themselves. In the beginning of November 2019, the Vitra Design Museum published a comprehensive overview on the history of modern furniture design.The Atlas of Furniture Design employed a team of more than 70 experts and features over 550 detailed texts about key objects. The Vitra Design Museum collection, which counts among the world’s largest of its kind with upwards of 20,000 objects, including over 7,000 pieces of furniture, serves as the basis for »Atlas of Furniture Design«. The great classics were a must, along with explanations about certain materials, structural forms and typologies. It documents 1,740 objects by over 540 designers, and features more than 2,800 illustrations, from object photographs to design sketches and interiors as well as patents, brochures, art, architecture, and portraits of the designers. The Atlas of Furniture Design is a treasure trove that offers not only definitive information about beloved staples of design history, but also new, fresh and often unexpected perspectives, all presented in a generous format that captures the breadth and depth of this important subject.

And we kept going back to the fundamental question of any collection: what is really important, what has staying power? Over the past few years we were able to close some gaps to get to a point where we have accumulated an exhaustive overview of furniture design of the past 200 years. Furthermore, the book includes a comprehensive annex with designer biographies, information graphics, and bibliographies, as well as a manufacturer and materials glossary.

A small number of our brands participate in a biannual seasonal shutdown, which in some cases, can affect lead times. The Vitra Design Museum’s »Atlas of Furniture Design« is a new and essential work on the history of modern furniture design. The collection is made up of pieces from key periods in design history and by the most significant designers and manufacturers of the past 200 years, including early industrial furniture in bentwood or metal, Art Nouveau and Secessionist objects, works by such protagonists of classical modernism as Le Corbusier, Gerrit Rietveld, Charlotte Perriand and Marcel Breuer, postwar figures such as Finn Juhl, Eero Saarinen and Achille Castiglioni, and postmodern and contemporary designers like Philippe Starck, Marcel Wanders and Konstantin Grcic, as well as the estates of design legends such as Charles and Ray Eames, Verner Panton, Alexander Girard, George Nelson and others.

Texts by Mateo Kries, Henrike Buscher, Jochen Eisenbrand, Fulvio Ferrari, Otakar Macel, Jane Pavitt, Ingeborg de Roode, Arthur Ruegg, Deyan Sudjic, Wolf Tegethoff, Carsten Thau and Kjeld Vindum, Gerald W. It features more than 2,800 illustrations, from object photographs to design sketches and interiors as well as patents, brochures, art, architecture, and portraits of the designers. The book documents 1,740 objects by 546 designers and 565 manufacturers, and features more than 2,500 images, from detailed object photographs to historical documentation such as interiors, patents, brochures and reference works in art and architecture. The book touches on a range of subjects spanning the beginnings of industrialization to digitalization, which is becoming increasingly influential in contemporary furniture design.The basis for the Atlas of Furniture Design is the collection held by the Vitra Design Museum, one of the largest of its kind with more than 7000 works. In 2019, the Vitra Design Museum will publish the Atlas of Furniture Design, the definitive, encyclopedic overview of the history of modern furniture design. But the »Atlas of Furniture Design« can also be enjoyed by readers who prefer to dispense with complex theories and just want to concentrate on each single object. It contains comprehensive essays on the socio-cultural and design-historical contexts of furniture design, over 550 detailed texts on pioneering objects, and numerous information graphics that provide new visual insights into the history of furniture design. That's correct, the primary source for the Atlas of Furniture Design was the collection of the Vitra Design Museum.

Whether as a selection of iconic designs or as a history of styles, a chronicle of evolution or of revolution, a history of objects or of images, or a narrative of domestic habits or of individual designers, this book can be read in a vast range of ways. The furniture collection of the Vitra Design Museum comprises more than 20,000 artefacts, around 7000 of which are pieces of furniture. This was intended as a gift but as a result of the labels I had to give the book minus its presentation case as could not remove the labels without damaging it. To date, no other book has analyzed and documented the history of furniture design with such a comprehensive and scientific approach.In-depth essays provide sociocultural and design-historical context to four historical epochs of furniture design and the pieces highlighted here, enriched by a detailed annex containing designer biographies, glossaries, and elaborate information graphics.