Modern vs. Midcentury Modern: What's the difference? Architecture & Design 101

What's the difference between modern and mid-century modern? Both are design movements that shaped the 20th century. Both are minimalist, which means they use few design elements, as opposed to maximalist, which uses many. And they're named almost the exact same thing. Is there any difference at all? My research on Bauhaus design got me curious about what other design movements shaped the 20th century. What does it truly mean to be modern? And is the changing? I did an art history deep dive to try and get to the bottom of modern design's main themes and historical contexts. As always, this is my researched opinion. I am sure this analysis has some blind spots, but this is what I learned. In a nutshell, mid-century modern is just one type of modern design. But modern and mid-century modern do have some key differences. Modern typically refers to sleek, minimalist designs from the 1920s through the 1980s. It uses straight lines, neutral colors, and raw materials. It started in Europe, specifically Germany and Switzerland, but it spread all around the world. Mid-century modern is like modern's hip little sister. Mid-century modern ruled the 1950s and 1960s. Mid-century modern uses curved shapes and pops of color. Plastic is a key material in mid-century modern design. Some of the most exciting examples of mid-century modern are in North America and Brazil. Let's take a closer look at modern design. What makes something modern? Is everything modern obsolete someday? Art Deco was once considered modern. And is the definition of modern design different today than it was in the 20th century? The word modern can mean relating to a recently developed or advanced style, technique, or technology. Technology advanced rapidly after World War II. So in the design world, the word modern still refers to design from that era. We use the word contemporary to describe design that is happening in the now. Interior designer Natalie Myers says, modernism was the future in the early mid-century. It harnessed the capability of machinery to offer affordable housing and furniture solutions to the masses. The birthplace of modern design is the Bauhaus school. This German school opened as a result of Germany's economic depression after World War I. The Bauhaus school wanted to design affordable and materials-efficient housing and furniture for everyone to enjoy. It did this with straight lines, raw materials, and minimal decorations. This revolutionary trend influenced movements like the international style, Scandinavian design, which is basically what you find at Ikea, brutalism, the concrete style of architecture, and eventually mid-century modern. In America, technology and the baby boom led Americans to spread out into the American southwest, which became sort of the suburbs of modern America. The flat roofs and natural light of modern housing design are perfect for the desert. Let's look at some examples of modern design. Every time I see this house, I am awestruck. Frank Lloyd Wright's stunning falling water house in Pennsylvania combines modern design with a deep reverence for nature. Frank Lloyd Wright is probably America's most famous architect. Although he's been dead for over 60 years, many of his buildings are still considered modern masterpieces. Frank Lloyd Wright designed this house in the late 1930s for the Coughlins, wealthy department store owners. The house is suspended over a waterfall by a cantilever. This design is rectilinear, or made of straight lines. It has three stories, outdoor terraces, and some built-in furniture, which Wright also designed. The house is made of reinforced concrete, glass, and local rocks. Falling water has an unmistakable integration with nature. However, this integration with nature is not exactly so good for the house. The roof leaks a lot, and the terraces sag over time under the weight of snow and rain. The structure flooded in 1956, which makes sense because it's literally in a river. It seems like every 30 years or so, falling water falls apart. The modern house is better suited to a drier climate, like for example, Palm Springs. This photo is called Poolside Gossip. It was taken by slim errands at the Coffman Desert House in Palm Springs, California. This house was commissioned by the same bloke who commissioned Falling Water, Edgar J. Coffman Sr. It was built by Richard Neutra. This modern house is much happier in the dry deserts of Palm Springs than in the wet forests of Pennsylvania. The house spreads out like a compound, demonstrating the luxury of sprawl, of taking up space. This was easy to do in Palm Springs because land was cheap, and not so many people wanted to live there before air conditioning was invented. Two-story buildings were actually banned in Palm Springs at the time, so the second story of the Coffman Desert House is technically something called a gloriette. A gloriette is a sleeping porch. Before air conditioning, people would sleep up there. The vertical slats create shade without cutting out the great outdoors. The home was retrofitted for air conditioning in 1962. The design is open, rectangular, and breathtaking. It's regularly named one of the best modern houses of all time, and was recently used as a set in the film Don't Worry Darling. The Coffman Desert House is still going strong. Brazilian architect Lino Bo Bardi was born in Italy and became one of Brazil's most daring modern designers. This is her house. She built it for herself and actually lived there for 40 years. Casa de vidro means house of glass in Portuguese, and the structure is predominantly glass, with metal and concrete supports. Transparency is a theme both inside and outside the house. Inside the house, we see open bookshelves, floating staircases, and lots of open space. This house is built around an inner garden with an old growth ficus tree poking through the middle. The casa overlooks the Atlantic Rainforest in the Morumbi neighborhood of Sao Paulo. Lino Bo Bardi and her husband Pietro considered themselves socialists, and they hosted many Brazilian scholars, thinkers, and artists at their home. As a result, this house has many guest rooms and workspaces. I think there is something so bold and lovely about discussing politics and big ideas in a glass house. Today the house is the headquarters of the Bardi Institute, and you can visit it in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Modern architecture is an ode to trying new things, better design through straight lines. But by the early 1960s, the modern home was filled with technology and the space race was on. Modern design didn't just have to be modern, it had to be futuristic. Technology and futurism were both big influences on mid-century modern design. The space race dramatically changed the 20th century, and the United States' money poured into education to make American students smart enough to build a rocket. And what would we find once we got to space? Designers went about creating some of the wackiest things they could think of. The modern era also gave us a material that would change our lives, plastic. Plastics had technically been around since 1907, when a Belgian chemist wanted a replacement for ivory. But after the United States won World War II, an unprecedented access to oil made plastic in the U.S. explode. Plastic is lightweight and highly moldable, which makes it perfect for mass production and mass distribution. Everything was made out of plastics in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. Polyester, formica, vinyl, and plastic made wonky shapes like these possible. Diners are a really great place to see examples of mid-century modern design. But in Brazil, there was a mid-century modern revolution happening completely without plastics. The never-before-seen shapes of mid-century modern truly transcended their materials. You might also hear mid-century modern design referred to as Googie, Kitsch, Mod, or Basanova. Let's watch as mid-century modern quite literally takes over the planet. Have you seen this chair? You probably have. Why give a chair four legs when it could only have one? The Finnish-American designer Eero Saarinen hated furniture legs. Eero was quoted saying, the undercarriage of chairs and tables in a typical interior makes an ugly, confusing, unrestful world. I wanted to clear up the slum of legs. I wanted to make the chair all one thing again. Eero's one-piece, one-material philosophy, however, proved more difficult in practice. That's because the materials available, like fiberglass, weren't strong enough to support his design. The chair would usually fall over or break once somebody sat in it. But Saarinen eventually figured it out by using plastic. And when Saarinen designed the iconic TWA Hotel and Terminal, he filled the space with tulip chairs. The TWA Hotel and Terminal is itself a glorious example of mid-century modern design. The swooping shapes, abundant light, and pops of orange make me think I've landed in the future already. The tulip chair actually did make it out of this world. The crew of Star Trek, the original series, sits in swivel tulip chairs. Today, the tulip chair is one of the most ubiquitous chairs in homes and offices around the world. But sometimes it has four legs. Speaking of Star Trek, my favorite example of mid-century modern design is technically a fantasy world. It's Tomorrowland at Disneyland. Tomorrowland always fancied itself a window into the future, and nothing said progress quite like mid-century modern design. Why, just look at all those tulip chairs. The Tomorrowland Expo Center or Hall of Invention has a 360-degree circular design like the Space Needle or the Encounter Restaurant at LAX. One cannot deny the fascination of a building that looks like a UFO. This is Space Mountain. Notice the asymmetrical blend of curves and straight lines. It is designed to look like a built version of a real mountain with the spikes suggesting trees. When Walt Disney dedicated Tomorrowland in 1955, he made a plaque that said Tomorrowland, a vista into a world of wondrous ideas, signifying man's achievements, a step into the future with predictions of constructive things to come. Tomorrow offers new frontiers in science, adventure, and ideals, and the hope of a peaceful and unified world. Tomorrowland was once the land of the future. It now feels more like a land of the past, but a past that was relentlessly optimistic about the future. I like to think we can still be hopeful for a peaceful world full of wonderful, constructive achievements. But mid-century modern design didn't just stop at a theme park, oh no. Why have a theme park when you could build a whole city? That's exactly the idea behind Brasilia, the current capital of Brazil. In 1956, the Brazilian government planned a brand new city that they hoped would bring Brazil into the future. One of the main architects, Oscar Niemeyer, fully embraced curves. He said, I am not attracted to straight angles or to the straight line, hard and inflexible, created by man. I am attracted to free-flowing, sensual curves, the curves that I find in the mountains of my country, in the sinuousness of its rivers, in the waves of the ocean, and on the body of the beloved woman. Curves make up the entire universe, the curved universe of Einstein. In other words, to this architect, curves represent harmony. This is the Alvarado Palace, which is like the Brazilian White House. The water feature and these stone swoops make the building look like it's floating. The Catedral Metropolitana de Brasil looks a lot like Space Mountain, with its white spires and conical shape. Could this cathedral have inspired Disney? I think it's very likely. In 1987, Brasilia was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of its modern architecture and artistic urban planning. Modern design and mid-century modern design both experimented with shapes and materials. Modern design is sleek, straight, and simple. Mid-century modern design is playful, splashy, and innovative. Both are experimental design movements that dare to dream of a brighter future. What do you think? Do you prefer modern or mid-century modern design? Let me know some of your favorite pieces in the comments. I hope this look at a hopeful past inspires us to look at the future with hope too. I hope you learned a little something and had a little bit of a good time here today. Take care everybody, cheers!