The Design Brief® | Volume XVI | Design Elements: Shape and Form
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WRITTEN BY DR. GLORIA for DAKOTA DESIGN COMPANY
I always say that the Design Elements (which every interior design student learns about early on) are like the ingredients that go into a recipe. Add more sugar, and you’ll have a sweeter dish; add more spice, and you’ll have a more savory one.
Likewise, interior designers are adept at incorporating line, shape, pattern, texture, and color— the design elements —in thoughtful amounts to achieve a desired design outcome and aesthetic result.
We’ve covered some of the other design elements in previous editions of The Design Brief®️:
In today’s edition of The Design Brief®, we’ll delve into using SHAPE and FORM to manipulate a final aesthetic. I consider shape and form to be synonymous terms. They both relate to the unique outline and silhouette of an object.
Various shapes can powerfully affect our reactions. Both simple shapes below evoke very strong emotional responses. What emotional responses do you have to these simple shapes?
The SHAPE of a piece of furniture can make it seem appropriate in one stylistic space compared to another. A clean-lined, simple sofa would not be suitable in a very traditional room, and a tufted Chesterfield sofa would not be appropriate in an ultra contemporary space. Each one of the sofas below—differing not at all in function, but varying greatly in shape and form—would be suitable for a distinctly different design aesthetic.
Interior designers make decisions all the time regarding the choice of shape of furniture or art pieces, depending on what they want to achieve. If a gentleness is desired, soft sinuous shapes might be chosen. If a masculine vibe is the goal, strong, straight lines and bolder shapes may be appropriate.
And the choice of shape can also have space planning implications, in addition to aesthetic ones. In a tight space, an oval-shaped coffee table, rather than a rectangular one with square corners, can work well to facilitate circulation. And the choice of shape in furniture may be dictated by shapes found within the architectural confines of a space. A designer may choose rounded shapes in a room with arched doorways to create an architectural rhythm. There are many considerations that lend to choices in shapes and form.
Like many other interior designers, I currently love the mid-century modern (or Modern) style that was prevalent from about 1930 to 1970. Even though this style echoes my growing-up years, I find I’m drawn to it far more than I was back then as a child.
The thing that makes mid-century modern furniture styles SO interesting is that furniture designers at the time delved into a vast exploration of shape and form in furniture design, particularly for chair shapes.
Throughout history and across stylistic periods spanning many centuries, chairs almost always maintained a similar form, and had several things in common:
They were made of wood
The seat was parallel to the floor
The back was perpendicular to the floor
They had four legs
Consider these historic chair forms:
Although stylistically very different, these chairs have similar shapes.
Beginning in the early 20th century, furniture designers had new materials to work with:
Tubular steel
Polyurethane foam
Fiberglass
Molded plastic
Plywood
These materials were inherently strong, so allowed furniture designers to experiment. No longer needing four wooden legs for support, and now having ample opportunity for experimentation of shape and form, these are some of the best-known chair designs to emerge from the middle of the 20th century.
In looking at these Modernist furniture classics, one can almost imagine furniture designers of the time scratching their heads and pondering, “Hmmmm, what other shape could we make a chair into????”
Modernist design (or mid-century modern, roughly 1930 - 1970) was a period of great exploration of shape and form in furniture design. But we continue to see interesting evolutions of shape in furniture design today. In current design trends, the shapes of table bases have evolved away from four legs at the corners, in favor of interestingly shaped center bases in natural materials.
A discussion of shape and form in design wouldn’t be complete without exploring the work of California architect Frank Gehry. Although now in his late 90s, Gehry has been a leading force in innovative architecture for decades. He broke through the paradigm that a building should have straight exterior walls that are perpendicular to the ground, a standard that had been maintained throughout millennia.
These buildings enhance the human experience and fulfill our desire for novelty and amusement within the built environments we inhabit. Who wouldn’t relish exploring art all day long at the Bilbao Museum? And who, while facing healing hardships, wouldn’t feel a certain relief and respite when spending time in treatment at the Lou Ruvo Center?
Though not everyone reacts positively to Gehry’s revolutionary architectural style, most can agree that his groundbreaking inventive exploration of shape and form in building form has greatly impacted architectural design today.
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