Futuro House
Vintage 1970s French Space Age Architectural Elements
Polyester
Early 2000s Finnish Space Age Books
Paper
Recent Sales
2010s Dutch Space Age Figurative Sculptures
Blown Glass
Vintage 1970s Belgian Space Age Chandeliers and Pendants
Plastic
Vintage 1970s Belgian Space Age Chandeliers and Pendants
Plastic
2010s Dutch Futurist Figurative Sculptures
Blown Glass
People Also Browsed
1990s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
Brass
Vintage 1970s Italian Space Age Architectural Elements
Fiberglass
Antique Late 19th Century European Moorish Architectural Elements
Wrought Iron
21st Century and Contemporary French Chandeliers and Pendants
Crystal, Iron
Vintage 1970s Italian Space Age Architectural Elements
Fiberglass
Antique Mid-19th Century English High Victorian Taxidermy
Other
Antique Early 1900s French Art Nouveau Bird Cages
Iron
Antique Late 19th Century French Louis XV Musical Instruments
Wood, Giltwood
Antique 19th Century French Empire Beds and Bed Frames
Bronze, Gold Leaf
Antique Early 19th Century French Charles X Architectural Elements
Stone, Copper
Vintage 1960s Lounge Chairs
Metal
21st Century and Contemporary Portuguese Beds and Bed Frames
Fiberglass
21st Century and Contemporary Portuguese Beds and Bed Frames
Fur, Wood
Antique 19th Century Chinese Beds and Bed Frames
Gold Leaf
Antique Late 19th Century French Napoleon III Jewelry Boxes
Bronze, Enamel, Ormolu
20th Century French Art Deco Panelling
Alpaca, Mirror, Beech, Plywood, Paper
A Close Look at Space-age Furniture
Vintage Space Age furniture captured post–World War II optimism with swooping shapes, bowed lines and experimentation with new materials including plastic and fiberglass.
From the launch of the Sputnik 1 satellite in 1957 to the landing of Apollo 11 astronauts on the moon in 1969, the space race between the Soviet Union and the United States propelled advancements in technology that transformed culture. Space Age design encompassed fashion, architecture, cars, furniture and objects for the home, bringing wonder and hope for the future into everyday life.
Coinciding with Pop art, Space Age style featured bold colors and forms. Eero Aarnio’s Ball chair, which debuted in 1966, used molded fiberglass for a capsule-like space while Verner Panton’s 1959 Panton chair was a single piece of molded plastic for a gravity-defying S shape. Red versions of Olivier Mourgue’s 1964 Djinn chair were futuristic enough to appear on the space station in Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Today, Joe Colombo is revered as a master of modern Italian design thanks to the provocative modular furniture pieces he created, such as the Tube chair and the Elda armchair, both of which embody the future-forward spirit of the Space Age.
The Space Age spirit extended to home building too. The futuristic Case Study Houses, which were designed by the likes of Pierre Koenig, Charles and Ray Eames, Richard Neutra and Whitney R. Smith, are considered a high point of modernism and the Southern California lifestyle.
Sometimes the nods to space exploration were more literal, like moon and star motifs or the 1965 Eclisse lamp by Vico Magistretti that saw the mid-century Italian designer integrating a movable inner shade to “eclipse” the light source. Alongside the pioneering moon missions, JVC manufactured the Videosphere portable television reminiscent of the Apollo 11 space helmets.
Although the style faded in the 1970s — with the 1975 joining of the Apollo and Soyuz spacecrafts signaling a new era of cooperation and the global oil crisis impacting the availability of plastics — the era’s innovations influenced designers into the 21st century such as Zaha Hadid and Djivan Schapira.
Find a collection of vintage Space Age seating, tables, lighting and other furniture on 1stDibs.