Selling China: Class, Gender and Orientalism
In the late nineteenth century, while China was being subjected to various forms of Western imperial expansion, luxury Chinese items such as embroidered robes and carved wood furniture were widely available to British shoppers through the Oriental section of department stores. This article explores how such Chinese things were sold in London department stores between 1890 and 1940, in a survey of the catalogues of Liberty, Whiteley's and Debenham and Freebody. In a re-examination of the way in which theories of Orientalism have been applied to department store histories, the specificity of Sino-British relations during the early twentieth century, and the socially exclusive nature of some of the Chinese goods being marketed, reveals the multivalent role of Chinese products in the generation of a range of British identities. The femininity of the department store context is mapped against notions of the Orient, and notions of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ design, where London's West End shopping space was also imperial space. In particular, the notion of a colonial nostalgia for ‘old China’ becomes especially relevant in the articulation of a dynamic set of British class identities, constructed through the ownership of culturally elite Chinese products.
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Invisibility: Memory, Masks and Masculinities
This paper examines the technological, medical and cultural circumstances that prompted the creation of tin facial prosthetics during the First World War. It argues that advancing industrial munitions technology far outpaced the contemporary, craft-based attempts at human recovery in the fields of plastic surgery and prosthetic design during the war. This exposed design ‘lag’ was materialized in the inadequacy of the instantly obsolete and largely unwearable tin masks. In their ultimate futility as lasting prosthetic devices, these artefacts have themselves become uncanny material mementos of war, inadvertently reproducing and projecting the loss fundamental to the violent conflict that they sought to conceal.
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The Architect and the 'Arch-Pedant': Sadie Sp
In 1943, The Architectural Review decided to formalize its approach to contemporary design by introducing a regular ‘Design Review’ section, which ran from 1944 until 1946. As one of the principal editors, Nikolaus Pevsner asked the architect and industrial designer Sadie Speight to compile these features, thereby initiating a working relationship that was difficult as well as fruitful. Drawing upon a hitherto overlooked collection of letters between them, this article offers a significant case study for understanding in detail the process of design journalism in post-war Britain. The Speight/Pevsner correspondence provides the opportunity for an examination of a gender-inflected professional relationship between two important commentators on post-war design and illuminates their positions as advocates of modernism in Britain in relation to the stance of The Architectural Review. It demonstrates the potential of this material as a contribution to contemporary design historical debates concerning gender, consumption and the dissemination of modernism.
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How an Excavator Got Aesthetic Pretensions--N
The highly mythical phenomenon, or even mythological construction, generally known as ‘Scandinavian Design’ reached its zenith in the mid to late 1950s. These so-called golden years have been the subject of massive interest, both popular and scholarly. The inner dynamics of their subsequent demise, on the other hand, have received far less attention. Within the established applied art communities in the Nordic countries, the international visibility and acknowledgement brought about by this concept were largely considered desirable and well worth fighting for—perhaps especially so by the Norwegian community, who arguably had the most to benefit from this construction. This article sets out to investigate how and why the Norwegian applied art establishment constructed and negotiated strategies for maintaining the holistic/universalistic approach to design so characteristic of Scandinavian Design and the applied art movement when in the late 1950s and 1960s the concept was severely criticized and challenged from within. I will argue that artistic intention and quality were chosen as the defining principles in the heated negotiations on internal unification and external demarcation of the design field, and discuss some of the more problematic consequences of this strategy.
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'I Am Not a Decorator': Florence Knoll, the K
The Knoll Planning Unit (1943–71), the interior design service of Knoll Associates, was responsible for some of the most innovative corporate interior design of the post-war period. The Planning Unit was directed by Florence Knoll (born 1917), who trained as an architect and designed buildings, interiors, furniture and textiles over the course of her career. Florence Knoll was part of a movement to professionalize interior design in America and played a key role in defining the new field of interior design. The offices she designed for the Planning Unit were distinguished by a humanized modernism which combined spare form with rich textures and vivid colour. They showcased the Knoll look, a recognizable combination of furniture, colours and fabrics that became the trademark of Knoll design. Through a combination of prestigious clients, astute promotion and skilled staff, Florence Knoll and the Knoll Planning Unit turned this corporate humanized modernism into a ubiquitous reality.
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Simplify The Home Buying Process with This Si

If you've never bought a house before, you may be intimidated by the idea. Do you know what you should look for in a home? How to find the right real estate agent? How to get financing for the home? Many first-time home buyers have no clue where to start, so here's a step-by-step breakdown.
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Discover The Healing Power of Flowers

Colors have strong psychological and physiological effects on people, including the power to stimulate, depress and even help heal. Careful color selection can help make gifts of flowers more than just ornamentation. Read on for more about Chromotherapy and the Healing Power of Colors and Flowers.
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Tips and Suggestions for Greenhouse Growing

Greenhouses can be designed to accommodate virtually any situation and provide the perfect options to compliment any level of expertise. For anyone interested in installing a greenhouse, this list of tips and suggestions are important items to consider prior to starting construction.
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Custom Spiderman Mural Featured on 'Extreme M

Several custom digital wall murals were donated to the primetime show, ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. The designers created a customized mural for one young boy who idolizes Spiderman. The panoramic wall mural centers around a New York City skyline, which is Spiderman's main stomping ground.
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What Secrets Lurk Inside a Real 'Pirates of t

In conjunction with the release of 'Pirates of the Caribbean III: At World's End' on May 25, 2007, Home-and-Bedroom.com is sponsoring a pirate-themed essay contest. Entrants will be eligible to win a Disney 'Pirates of The Caribbean: At The World's End' Twin Bed Comforter Set.
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YMCA Calls Police to Arrest Anti-Obesity Advo

If your school or hospital cafeterias push junk food, or if your church uses junk food to draw a crowd, or if the YMCA uses junk food as a means to pander to unhealthy members... dump it, but be aware that their misguided devotion to overeaters may result in a struggle and even a call to the police.
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Vegetables in Containers Often Surpass Result

Many people are recognizing the benefits of fresh, home-grown organic produce, but many of us are running short on space, time and the know-how to tend a successful vegetable garden. In the controlled micro-climate of a container, plants will thrive quickly catching up to plants grown in the ground.
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Renewable Energy Options Are Cost Effective F

The bulk of the cost to retrofit an existing home for renewable energy is related to the installation of the wiring and electrical components. By pre-wiring a new home to accommodate renewable energy sources, the future homeowner can save thousands of dollars as compared to retrofit costs.
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Design Room Makeovers Online in 3D, Before Li

A big stumbling block to designing any room makeover or re-design is the fear associated with not knowing how well any new room design idea will work. How can anyone know whether they'll love or hate a new room layout, before doing any work? A new online 3D room design service provides the solution.
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Send Your Cell Phone Pictures To An Emotion D

New advances in Digital Picture Frame technology allows for Bluetooth transfer of photos for immediate viewing and sharing. Send Pictures wirelessly to a large 7-inch eMotion Digital Picture Frame for an instant slideshow that adds a whole new dimension to the digital picture taking phenomenon.
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'Green' Celebrities Join In New Season Of Hgt

We can all look forward to having a lot of fun during the next season of 'Living With Ed', which spreads a very 'green' environmental message. Daryl Hannah, Bradley Whitford, Jane Kaczmarek, Sharon Lawrence, and Jackson Browne are among the celebrities who will open up their homes to HGTV viewers.
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Cool Summer Nights are Perfect for a Hot Tub

One of today's hottest design trends is the 'outdoor room', a relaxed environment for private enjoyment or casual summer entertaining. As both a private and a social extension of the home, a hot tub-centered 'living room' brings the indoors outside for personal relaxation and intimate family time.
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Selecting The Best Long Blooming Shrubs For Y

Shrubs that flower over a long period can make the time you spend outdoors a lot more enjoyable, especially for Americans who are wanting to develop a low-maintenance landscape for their garden and outdoor living space. Let's take a look at selecting the best flowering shrubs for your home garden.
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HGTV's New Series Helps Homeowners Design The

Are you a homeowners whose ugly, dysfunctional kitchen is as stale as two-week old bread? HGTV's new series,'Spice Up My Kitchen', helps homeowners discover how to Spice Up their Kitchens and transform it into a deliciously flavorful new space using accessories from our favorite home decor retailer.
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Easy Pool Maintenance Tips

Maintaining your pool can be a breeze by following a few easy steps. When performed regularly, these routine steps go a very long way towards preserving your pool and ensuring your enjoyment. When you follow these daily, weekly, and other maintenance tips, you'll keep your pool looking great.
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Create Custom Murals Online, for Home or Offi

Create a custom mural online that is sized perfectly for any room in your home. A new user-friendly online tool helps you to effortlessly choose artwork from an impressive archive and set the dimensions for your room. Then the tool instantly creates a real-time image of the finished room design.
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iPhone Premieres at Apple Retail Stores

Apple iPhone ushers in an era of software power and sophistication never before seen in a mobile device, which completely redefines what users can do on their mobile phones. It's like having the Internet in your pocket with best-ever applications on a mobile phone for email, web browsing and maps.
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Inspiration to Help Make Your Home Dreams Com

Achieving the home of one's dreams might be easier than previously thought. Just peek inside a recent issue of Northern Home & Cottage. This inspirational magazine reveals stories and style advice with topics on 'moving', 'growing luxurious lilacs' and 'kicking up your home's curb appeal'.
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You Can Create a Safe, Functional and Attract

This collection of do-it-yourself affordable, life size furniture templates allow expecting parents to create their own safe, functional and attractive nursery with the accuracy of a professional interior designer and is the perfect first gift for the expecting couple, even before the baby shower.
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Tips for Utilizing Trellises and Arbors in Yo

Garden design expert offers advice on planting trellises and arbors to help you make sure that the trellises, arbors and gazebos you buy now, not only fit your landscape design, but that they also fulfill the future needs of your plantings while also enhancing the style and value of your home.
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Foreword: Design and Polity in Comparative Pe

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A Ship Sailing East with Its Voyagers Travell

During the nineteenth century, the Ottoman Empire was trying to locate itself culturally within the frame of the post-Enlightenment European policies. Ethnocultural factors led to political changes in the territorial structure of the Empire. In this era, the Ottoman Empire created a promising milieu for the introduction of grandiose design projects, and such buildings formed part of a modernization process, which defined a new relationship to Europe. This article investigates the bipolarity of the architectural design discourse between the existing traditions and the new approaches introduced by this modernization process, including its consequences into the post-Empire period.

Perspective and Istanbul, the Capital of the

The ideal town plans of the Renaissance had a radial scheme with a centre like the single viewpoint of the perspective, the ‘owner-controller-ruler’s’ place.2 Until the eighteenth century, however, this scheme was seldom applied. Its popularity reached a climax in the second half of the nineteenth century in Haussmann's reorganization of Paris, which became a model of urban modernization for other countries. In nineteenth-century Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, a radial scheme was first applied in Pera where large number of Europeans lived and later within the city walls of the ancient peninsula, the traditional centre of Istanbul. In neither part of the city did it function as in Paris. The aim of this article is to discuss why the radial plan scheme did not become a more important element in the modernization process of Istanbul, and to discuss whether it worked there as it did in Paris. This discussion will involve comparing the Ottoman and Western European understandings of the world as given visual expression in painting and reflected in the design of cities.

Designing Identities: Reshaping the Balkans i

It is not an easy task to imagine one's nation in the Balkans. The elusive and complex interrelation of ethnicities and shared traditions in this region are the result of centuries of mixing and blending in complex social and cultural processes. Nationalism imposed ethnic and religious denominators upon these vague cultural entities, writing ethnic and national histories, appropriating and inventing traditions to impart ethnic exclusivity. Imaginaries of cultural uniqueness have been developed by each of these groups and shaped according to a visual code believed to be innate or to echo ancient traditions. This article focuses on the Serbian situation. It looks at some representative examples of the visual arts, architecture and material culture to examine how national uniqueness has been visualized in the past two centuries and to understand how changing perceptions of ‘national’ or ‘ethnic’ designs have accompanied and accompany identity changes in this volatile region.

Metamorphoses of Formalism: National Identity

The tension between tradition and modernity occupies a fundamental position in the history of the modern Greek state. The discourse on national identity and the concept of ‘Greekness’ has been central to this tension. Within this discourse, the design of locally produced objects has been endowed with a special national aura and products have been viewed as exemplars of idealized qualities. Throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first, examples of local design production reflect the continuing presence of national identity concerns in the production of three-dimensional artefacts. Such examples illustrate the controversial influence that the issue of national identity has had on the development of design in Greece. I argue that the long-term obsession with Greekness has limited many design endeavours within the realm of formalism. This is further elaborated by suggesting a critical rethinking of design classifications along national lines. The concept of national identity is questioned and it is suggested that it obscures the depth and complexity of design historical processes.

Between Myth and Reality: the 'Tuscan Influen

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Historicizing Lifestyle: Mediating Taste, Con

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The Modern Period Room, The Construction of t

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Sleeping Around: The Bed from Antiquity to No

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The Furniture Machine, Furniture since 1990

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Notes on Contributors

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