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Louise Brigham and the Early History of Sustainable Furniture Design

  • Book
  • © 2019

Overview

Authors:
  1. Antoinette LaFarge

    1. University of California, Irvine, Irvine, USA

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  • Offers the first comprehensive history of the life of Louise Brigham, a forerunner of today’s green design movement
  • Analyzes Brigham’s approach to furniture design, highlighting her innovative use of recycled materials, the influence of Austrian designer Josef Hoffmann and the Arts and Crafts movement on her work, and her emphasis on modular, multifunctional pieces for small spaces
  • Appeals to scholars, students, and readers interested American design history, women’s history, the Progressive Era, do-it-yourself design, modular design, and sustainability

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Table of contents (9 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xviii
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction: Adventures of a Scrap Artist

    • Antoinette LaFarge
    Pages 1-11

  3. The Limits of Education

    • Antoinette LaFarge
    Pages 13-24

  4. Box Furniture

    • Antoinette LaFarge
    Pages 25-48

  5. The Social Program

    • Antoinette LaFarge
    Pages 49-65

  6. The Home Thrift Association

    • Antoinette LaFarge
    Pages 67-75

  7. Ready-to-Assemble Furniture

    • Antoinette LaFarge
    Pages 77-83

  8. Vanishing Act

    • Antoinette LaFarge
    Pages 85-90

  9. Caycean Disciple

    • Antoinette LaFarge
    Pages 91-98

  10. The Contemporary Context

    • Antoinette LaFarge
    Pages 99-112

  11. Back Matter

    Pages 113-131
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Keywords

About this book

During the Progressive Era, a time when the field of design was dominated almost entirely by men, a largely forgotten activist and teacher named Louise Brigham became a pioneer of sustainable furniture design. With her ingenious system for building inexpensive but sturdy “box furniture” out of recycled materials, she aimed to bring good design to the urban working class. As Antoinette LaFarge shows, Brigham forged a singular career for herself that embraced working in the American and European settlement movements, publishing a book of box furniture designs, running carpentry workshops in New York, and founding a company that offered some of the earliest ready-to-assemble furniture in the United States. Her work was a resounding critique of capitalism’s waste and an assertion of new values in design—values that stand at the heart of today’s open and green design movements.

Reviews

“A fascinating life, told with attention to historical contexts, an awareness of the ingenuity of Brigham’s design, and a great deal of narrative flair. Brigham’s modular, upcycled furniture made from cast-off boxes in the early twentieth century reflects the dynamism of this period in terms of progressive design, and the close connection between design and a social mission.” (Stephen Knott, Lecturer in Critical and Historical Studies, Kingston University, UK)

Authors and Affiliations

  • University of California, Irvine, Irvine, USA

    Antoinette LaFarge

About the author

Antoinette LaFarge is Professor of Art at the University of California, Irvine, USA.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Louise Brigham and the Early History of Sustainable Furniture Design

  • Authors: Antoinette LaFarge

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32341-7

  • Publisher: Palgrave Pivot Cham

  • eBook Packages: History, History (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-32340-0Published: 06 November 2019

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-32341-7Published: 24 October 2019

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XVIII, 131

  • Number of Illustrations: 31 b/w illustrations, 4 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: US History, Modern History, Women's Studies, Architectural History and Theory

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