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  Week 2: Japan and Japanisme Japanese design clearly portrays plainness, naturalness, and minimalism with an attention for minute details. Japanese thought and design have reference to religion. Japanese geography also influenced design. Wood is the main material in Japanese architecture. The common structure of buildings includes rows of columns with thin movable panels, which were made of woodwork, plaster, or rice paper. The framing was orthogonal, and graceful curves are incorporated into column outlines, rafters, and roof brackets. Japanese buildings are made-up of an odd number of bays with fixed relationships of elements and proportional dimensions. The interior areas are divided out freely made by fusumas or moveable screens/panels on tracks made of decoratively painted paper or silk. The size and shape of the rooms are based on tatami floor mats, traditionally made of rice straw or now vinyl flooring.  Decorative elements are subordinate to the building construction....

Week 1: The Arts and Crafts Movement The Arts and Crafts Movement took place in 1860-1910, just after the Victorian era of Interior design where cluttered interiors were somewhat “in style”. The Victorian era was an “excess era”, where everyone had a lot of everything. Whether it be from other times, movements, or even other places around the world, it was common that you saw many different pieces inside the homes of people who adopted the Victorian style movement of Interior Design. It was even customary to have furniture in your home that used different styles and details seen in pieces of furniture from multiple periods. This was especially common if you were quite wealthy or had high class status. Even though this was “all the range” back then, we can understand now that this caused poorly manufactured furniture and materials used. The clutter that filled the spaces also seemed to be impractical and illogical.     Victorian Period Arts and Crafts When the...