Josef Frank: Against Design, at the Swedish Centre for Architecture and Design (at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm) until 27 August and before that at the MAK in Vienna, could be read as the story of the man who brought idiosyncrasy and brightness to Functionalism. But against design? Hard to see in someone who claimed that:
‘I build on a cultivated tradition, I have saved Swedish interior design and created the Scandinavian style. Before me the only traditon was Bauhaus.’
(quoted in Hedwig Hedqvist, 2015, Josek Frank, Swedish Architects and Designers, Orosdi-Back, p. 34)
Hard to say whether it was the Scandinavian style but what he made had great flair. Nearly a century later, the fabrics (if maybe not all of the furniture) look tremendous.
Josef Frank, Tang 1925-30 for Haus & Garten, Vienna and later Aristidia, for Svenskt Tenn, Stockholm
And though this might have been sold on Strandvagen, it was actually designed earlier in Vienna. Neither design nor geography seem entirely helpful notions here; but the work is great.
Looking, Thinking, Falling Over 