Evidence from Ancient Times

History of Inferior Design

The formalized design process described above is a recent development. Until modern times, most interiors were of the kind now called vernacular: that is unplanned groupings of the normal everyday objects of the time. Throughout history, however, important buildings, both public and private, such as palaces, churches, temples, and civic monuments, have displayed more carefully thought-out interiors, although prevailing currents in architectural styles and craft techniques have always dominated interior design.

Evidence from Ancient Times

The complex civilizations of the ancient world each developed a distinctive approach to architecture and interior design. Because furnishings and decorative elements are perishable, however, it is difficult to reconstruct the building interiors of antiquity. A partial exception is ancient Egypt, whose funerary customs included filling tombs with domestic and decorative objects along with descriptive paintings and carvings. The details of ancient Egyptian interiors thus preserved include beds, chairs, and chests of highly refined design and rich decoration. Mural paintings and painted relief enlivened these interiors, which also were adorned with such accessories as alabaster containers, glassware, pottery, and fine gold and silverwork.

Modern knowledge of ancient Aegean and Greek domestic design is based chiefly on vase paintings, although remnants of brightly colored wall paintings survive from the elaborate palace at Knossos (c. 1700-1400) in Crete and from other centers of Aegean civilization. Greek vases dating from the Classical period (5^th-4^th century) depict refined and elegant furniture that is almost modern in character. During the Hellenistic period (late 4^th-2d century) the Greeks perfected the art of mosaic, which was used to decorate the floors and walls of homes and public buildings.

Ancient Rome imitated and elaborated on Greek interior design. The famous Pantheon (2-d century) in Rome has retained its rich marble-inlay interior decoration, and carved stone benches in theaters and forums provide clues about Roman furniture design. Most fortunate of all for modern students of interior design was the preservation under layers of volcanic ash from Mount Vesuvius of nearly complete villas at Pompeii and Herculaneum. The elaborate wall paintings and floor and wall mosaics used to decorate these luxurious homes, which date from the 1^st century, demonstrate the Roman adoption of Greek models.

The Far Eastern civilizations of China and Japan developed design traditions that had little in common with ancient Western practice. Traditional Chinese buildings, executed almost exclusively in wood, featured roofs supported on columns, with walls independent of the main structure. Decorative details were concentrated on the richly carved and painted brackets between columns and roof beams: formally arranged furniture, although restricted to a few simple types (principally tables and chairs), was often elaborately carved. Japanese interior design, although influenced by Chinese tradition, diverged in the direction of austerity and simplicity. The traditional Japanese interior is based on the modular arrangement of floor mats (tatami); sliding screens (shogi) are used as walls, making possible a highly flexible interior. Furniture is minimal and portable. The simple, geometrically elegant Japanese interior influenced modern Western design in part because of the affinity between its graceful functionalism and the predominant bias of 20^th-century modernism.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16