Designer, writer and television presenter, Kevin McCloud leapt into our consciousness with the vastly successful Grand Designs UK. This month, the affable architectural business owner talks about his love of modernism in interior design.
I often get people asking why so many of the build projects on Grand Designs end up being decorated in a modernism style, with sharp lines, slick surfaces, uncomplicated decorative features and a view to celebrate space and light.
The answer comes not in the contents of a house, but its exterior. Simply, it follows that the architectural design of a building will often be mirrored by the interior design within it; and while developers may regularly seek to replicate Georgian or Victorian designs styles, most newbuilds still celebrate straight lines, clean shapes and hard edges. Aside from anything else, the build requirements are much easier!
Certainly, with people whose journeys we have followed on Grand Designs, this is very much the trend, although the advent of modernism in home furnishings was something that really took off towards the end of the 20th century. In essence, it was a rebellious response to the years of floral, ornate, elaborate, elegant and largely curved, flowery styles that had patterned so much of people’s lives.
In modernism the modus operandum became creating something much more straightforward. Within this, overuse of colour was discouraged, while the invitation was laid out to embrace textures and textiles not previously considered homely – consider steel, concrete, large expanses of glass and other materials once thought of as cold and unwelcoming.
Where colour did prevail, this was to be bold and statement-giving, so perhaps blocks and slabs of shades adjacent to blacks, greys and whites.
Where did this all come from? Well, the Industrial Revolution had a lot to do with a more measured and practical approach to living, and these modernist statements extended to literature, art, music and more – countless areas where people were expressing a desire to rebel.
Although no end date for modernism has ever been noted, it’s perceived that post-modernism came into being in the late 1970s, and from there society has largely embraced a mass of contrasting and conflicting styles in elegant harmony. Yet modernist architecture has never gone away, and speaking personally, I love the perfection of modernism in interior design – its flow, simplicity, practicality and function.
