Page 71 of 117
Previous Page     Next Page        Smaller fonts | Larger fonts     Go back to the flash version
Frank never tried to rely fully on chance, as Cage did when he composed music using the I Ching. He merely attempted to impart the impression of disorder; in the end, his designs remain as rigorously controlled as any other modernist’s work.

Nonetheless, during the late 1940s and early 1950s, Frank produced a number of designs for houses and other buildings based on his “Accidentist” principles. At their most extreme, they rejected all conventional notions of architectural ordering: Frank banished straight lines, opting instead for sensuous curves and free-form spaces, often superimposed upon each other in complex ways. The resultant designs, with their strident irregularities and oddly colored facades, flew in the face of modernist orthodoxy, offering a glimpse at a way of making architecture that has been adopted only in recent years by Frank Gehry and others. Few observers at the time had any sympathy or understanding for Frank’s works and he failed to find any willing clients.

Frank’s Accidental architecture, for all its odd mannerisms and insistent peculiarities, was a clear and consistent extension of his earlier design ideas for Svenskt Tenn: the belief in fostering an aesthetic that could appeal to both the mind and the senses. Frank’s own version of Swedish Modern suggested a very different course for mid 20th-century design — away from regularity and the dictates of functionalism; away from a rejection of the historical past and the celebration of novelty for its own sake; away from machine forms and simple geometries. In his celebration of vitality and freedom in design and his conviction that design must serve those who use it, Frank helped to foster a new course for modernism, one that was affective and appealing; Swedish Modern continues to enjoy remarkable popularity around the world. At the same time, Frank charted a course for design that is coming more and more to the fore: an aesthetic of complexity and difficulty that is capable of expressing our own unsettled age.

Christopher Long teaches architecture and design history at the University of Texas at Austin. He has written widely on modernism, including Josef Frank: Life and Work and Paul T. Frankl and Modern American Design.

The author thanks Svenkst Tenn and Bukowskis, both of Stockholm, for graciously permitting the publication of photographs from their collections.
Previous arrowPrevious Page     Next PageNext arrow        Smaller fonts | Larger fonts     Go back to the flash version
1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  |  6  |  7  |  8  |  9  |  10  |  11  |  12  |  13  |  14  |  15  |  16  |  17  |  18  |  19  |  20  |  21  |  22  |  23  |  24  |  25  |  26  |  27  |  28  |  29  |  30  |  31  |  32  |  33  |  34  |  35  |  36  |  37  |  38  |  39  |  40  |  41  |  42  |  43  |  44  |  45  |  46  |  47  |  48  |  49  |  50  |  51  |  52  |  53  |  54  |  55  |  56  |  57  |  58  |  59  |  60  |  61  |  62  |  63  |  64  |  65  |  66  |  67  |  68  |  69  |  70  |  71  |  72  |  73  |  74  |  75  |  76  |  77  |  78  |  79  |  80  |  81  |  82  |  83  |  84  |  85  |  86  |  87  |  88  |  89  |  90  |  91  |  92  |  93  |  94  |  95  |  96  |  97  |  98  |  99  |  100  |  101  |  102  |  103  |  104  |  105  |  106  |  107  |  108  |  109  |  110  |  111  |  112  |  113  |  114  |  115  |  116  |  117