Modern Building and Garden Elements
The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw sweeping social change and major scientific advances — both of which contributed to a new aesthetic: modernism. Rejecting the rigidity of Victorian artistic conventions, modernists sought a new means of expression. References to the natural world and ornate classical embellishments gave way to the sleek simplicity of the Machine Age. Architect Philip Johnson characterized the hallmarks of modernism as “machine-like simplicity, smoothness or surface [and] avoidance of ornament.”
Early practitioners of modernist design include the De Stijl (“The Style”) group, founded in the Netherlands in 1917, and the Bauhaus School, founded two years later in Germany.
Followers of both groups produced sleek, spare designs — many of which became icons of daily life in the 20th century. The modernists rejected both natural and historical references and relied primarily on industrial materials such as metal, glass, plywood, and, later, plastics. While Bauhaus principals Marcel Breuer and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe created furniture from mass-produced, chrome-plated steel, American visionaries like Charles and Ray Eames worked in materials as novel as molded plywood and fiberglass. Today, Breuer’s Wassily chair, Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona chair — crafted with his romantic partner, designer Lilly Reich — and the Eames lounge chair are emblems of progressive design and vintage originals are prized cornerstones of collections.
It’s difficult to overstate the influence that modernism continues to wield over designers and architects — and equally difficult to overstate how revolutionary it was when it first appeared a century ago. But because modernist furniture designs are so simple, they can blend in seamlessly with just about any type of décor. Don’t overlook them.
1950s French Vintage Modern Building and Garden Elements
Marble
1950s French Vintage Modern Building and Garden Elements
Concrete, Iron
1950s French Vintage Modern Building and Garden Elements
Concrete
1950s French Vintage Modern Building and Garden Elements
Concrete
1950s French Vintage Modern Building and Garden Elements
Concrete
1950s French Vintage Modern Building and Garden Elements
Steel
1950s American Vintage Modern Building and Garden Elements
Iron
1950s Swiss Vintage Modern Building and Garden Elements
Concrete
1950s Spanish Vintage Modern Building and Garden Elements
Plaster
1950s American Vintage Modern Building and Garden Elements
Brass, Wrought Iron
1950s French Vintage Modern Building and Garden Elements
Metal
1950s American Vintage Modern Building and Garden Elements
Cement
2010s Dutch Modern Building and Garden Elements
Aluminum
2010s American Modern Building and Garden Elements
Steel
21st Century and Contemporary American Modern Building and Garden Elements
Steel
1860s Welsh Antique Modern Building and Garden Elements
Sandstone
20th Century Italian Modern Building and Garden Elements
Terracotta
Mid-20th Century French Modern Building and Garden Elements
Stone, Wrought Iron
19th Century Unknown Antique Modern Building and Garden Elements
Granite
Mid-20th Century Modern Building and Garden Elements
Stone
2010s North American Modern Building and Garden Elements
Steel
18th Century Antique Modern Building and Garden Elements
Concrete
Late 20th Century Modern Building and Garden Elements
Resin
Mid-20th Century French Modern Building and Garden Elements
Concrete
1950s Mexican Vintage Modern Building and Garden Elements
Paint
1950s French Vintage Modern Building and Garden Elements
Cement
1950s French Vintage Modern Building and Garden Elements
Cast Stone
1950s Indonesian Vintage Modern Building and Garden Elements
Wood
1950s American Vintage Modern Building and Garden Elements
Iron, Brass
1950s Swiss Vintage Modern Building and Garden Elements
Concrete
1950s American Vintage Modern Building and Garden Elements
Iron
1950s American Vintage Modern Building and Garden Elements
Iron
1950s Swiss Vintage Modern Building and Garden Elements
Concrete
1950s Danish Vintage Modern Building and Garden Elements
Wicker
1950s Spanish Vintage Modern Building and Garden Elements
Terracotta
1950s French Vintage Modern Building and Garden Elements
Metal