Harry Bertoia and Isamu Noguchi devised chairs and tables built of wire mesh and wire struts. George Nelson and his design team created Bubble lamp shades using a new translucent polymer skin. Charles and Ray Eames and Eero Saarinen, who had experimented extensively with molded plywood, eagerly embraced fiberglass for, respectively, pieces such as the La Chaise and the Womb chair. Materials developed for wartime use became available for domestic goods and were incorporated into mid-century modern furniture designs. New building techniques, such as “post-and-beam” construction, allowed the International-style schemes to be realized on a small scale, in open-plan houses with long walls of glass. The lean, functionalist “International Style” architecture of Le Corbusier and Bauhaus eminences such as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius had been promoted in the United States during the ’30s by Philip Johnson and others. Postwar American architects and designers were animated by new ideas and new technology. The style, which emerged primarily in the years following World War II, is characterized by pieces that were conceived and made in an energetic, optimistic spirit by creators who believed that good design was an essential part of good living. Organically shaped, clean-lined and elegantly simple are three terms that well describe mid-century modern American furniture.
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