Go back to the Space Age of the last century,

At that time, everything was symphonic.

compared with the center of the earth and the seabed, people always have a deeper and lasting yearning for the sky.

After World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union began a long "cold war". In the next decade, "space" became an important stage for the two countries to show their hegemony and military strength. With the launch of the first intercontinental missile, the first artificial satellite and the first Mars lander by the Soviet Union, the United States realized the Apollo moon landing plan and printed human footprints on the moon for the first time. While constantly challenging itself, human beings also created a series of legendary stories.

But high technology and innovation are not the only achievements of this space race. In the exploration of climax after climax, the gloom of the gray post-war era was washed away, and the society seemed to be thriving and ready to start new changes.

In the early 196s, the cartoon "The Jason Family" depicted a high-tech society with flying cars, domestic robots and meals ready at the press of a button, or an idealistic future depicted in Star Trek. Scientific and technological progress and economic recovery have aroused people's desire for the future and prosperity, and looking at the fields of design, art, music and fashion, human creativity has also flourished from this moment.

The design of the space age focuses on the "future", which combines the guesses, surprises and fears about the role of technology, space and human beings in all this. What is born from this is a visual creative movement.

For example, in the field of architecture, the representative Googie architecture draws inspiration from the rocket dream of the space age, and constructs an optimistic prospect for the future-a large number of unconventional shapes, striking colors and modern materials (including glass, chromium and a large number of plastics).

At that time, this style was common in American restaurants, car wash shops and bowling alleys. For people at that time, as long as they walked into a local small restaurant at will, they could feel the surreal and futuristic feeling of this era, which was bold, playful and full of vitality.

In the field of interior design, you can feel the infiltration of this style. Designers combine the elements of modern design in the middle of the 2th century with the elements of decorative arts in the late 19th century, and collide with new possibilities under the new influence of the space age.

On the one hand, people abandon white or silver blindly in their homes, and begin to embrace colors and blend in brighter colors such as orange and purple, which is like walking into a futuristic fantasy about spacesuits, spaceships and laboratories.

On the other hand, during this period, designers began to take "space elements" such as atomic explosions, UFOs, satellites and capsules as inspiration sources for furniture products. Chairs and tables with bases, domes and lamps with starburst elements can be seen everywhere. In addition, the new materials brought by scientific and technological progress have also replaced wood. Different types of polymers have not only lifted the shape restrictions of furniture, but also made it extremely amazing, weird and unusual.

The furniture in this period was a combination of futurism and organic design. With its unconstrained form and bright and rich colors, it became a striking turning point in the history of furniture design in the 195s when rationalism prevailed.

It can be said that the products in the space age are no longer fettered by the industrial aesthetics of mass-produced furniture in the past few decades. On the contrary, the furniture at this time has begun to turn to the characteristics of "small but beautiful", which may not be durable or unpretentious, but must be attractive enough. This has also subverted people's consumption concept to some extent. "Durability" is no longer a necessary indicator, but it is pleasant and happy at home.

The impact of the space age on furniture is most obviously reflected in two key categories, namely, seats and lamps. From polypropylene plastics to foam molding and elastic fabrics, every ambitious designer in the 196s tried to make unique and futuristic products with cutting-edge materials and technologies to change people's perception of seats.

in addition, there are many creative ideas about lamps. Rockets, UFOs, metal bases ... Where there is inspiration, there are unexpected and wonderful designs.

Ball chair

The ball chair designed by Eero Agneau is considered as a symbol of modern aesthetics in 196s, and was exhibited at the Cologne International Furniture Fair in 1966. Its space capsule-like shape, regular geometry and brand-new synthetic materials all announce a foreseeable future.

This chair is made of fiberglass frame with rotating base, with detachable seat and cushion. The round shell is simple and ingenious, and the shape similar to the "space capsule" is often laughed at as "the room in the room".

When you sit inside, you will have a sense of security and a certain degree of privacy, which can "semi-isolate" the seated person from the outside world. Aarnio even added some interesting functions to some ball chairs, including telephone, MP3 player and so on, and turned it into a small room.

because of its high recognition and typical "space age style", people can now find its "figure" in design museums and many movies all over the world, including The Prisoner TV series (1967-1968), Tommy (1975) and Mars Attacks! (1996) and so on.

This kind of "pod-shaped" furniture design appeared repeatedly throughout the 196s, and most of them originated from people's fantasies about space capsules and cities filled with "pod-shaped" houses in the future, which was full of surrealism.

Garden Egg Chair

Garden egg chair is a furniture work designed by Hungarian designer Peter Ghyczy in 1968. Its exterior is painted with bright plastic paint, which is full of design sense, eye-catching and practical.

The exterior of the chair is hard enough to adapt to all kinds of weather, while the upholstered part inside improves the comfort. The seat body can be opened and closed freely, which can be used as a seat for people to lean on, and can also be placed in the garden to stand silently like a sculpture. The overall shape presents a UFO-like appearance and is an outstanding example of futuristic post-war design.

At the same time, this chair is also interesting because it is called one of the earliest chairs made of polyurethane. In 196s, polyurethane (plastic), as a new design material, was widely discussed and sought after, and people imagined its infinite possibilities.

Peter Ghyczy really realized his use in the field of furniture production, and the Garden Egg chair, which was born in 1968, became his most iconic work. The ductility of polyurethane material echoes the free closing form of Garden Egg chair, which is very futuristic and sci-fi.

Contour Chair

In 1926, the modernist designer Marcel Breuer predicted that in the future, people could sit in the air-this expectation seemed to be realized by Contour Chair, a transparent plastic chair designed by David Colwell in the late 196s.

as a consultant in the plastic department of ICI (the largest chemical company in Britain), Colwell designed Contour Chair by using the characteristics of acrylic. The bubble seat is a veritable "plastic chair" made by shooting a pneumatic piston into a heated acrylic sheet and cooling it.

The use of plastics in the field of design has created furniture with a sense of fashion and futuristic style, which people have never imagined before.

However, transparent plastics have been used in inflatable furniture before, and the most famous example is the Blow Chair from Italy, which is similar to a "trampoline". It is supported by air pressure, so it will not collapse when sitting on it, but it is very comfortable and stable.

Contour chair is not mass-produced, but as an important milestone of popular design in the late 196s, its significance lies in affirming the use and exploration of new or unusual materials by designers. At the same time, it also shapes people's brand-new cognition: furniture should be interesting, portable, and even "disposable" in some cases.

Panton Chair

There is really no need to go into details about this chair. Panton Chair is indispensable in both the home of fashion bloggers and the stylish space.

as a classic in the history of furniture design, it was conceived by Verner Panton, the most influential furniture designer in Denmark in the 2th century, in 196, and started mass production in cooperation with Vitra in 1967. Before that, 15 to 2 manufacturers tried it, but all rejected the project for different reasons.

This is the world's first plastic chair with integrated injection molding. At that time, it looked forward-looking and scientific.

in terms of modeling, it is shaped like the letter s, with only a single curve and no extra skeleton. It looks smooth and fluent, which is not only full of sculpture, but also conforms to the curve beauty of ergonomics. Panton Chair has won numerous international design awards and has been collected by many famous museums. Its expressive form is a model of the "space age" design in the 196s.

Alta Lounge Chairman

Oscar Niemeyer is one of the greatest architects in Brazilian history. After his death in 212, more than 5 of his works were scattered in America, Africa and Europe.

in 1971, he and his daughter Anna Maria Niemeyer designed the first piece of furniture Alta Lounge Chair. Like his architectural works, this reclining chair shows his preference for "organic curves" and combines the rigor of classical modernism with the free aesthetic feeling and exquisite style of post-war Latin American architecture.

The curve of stainless steel or painted wood not only supports the backrest, but also serves as the structure of chair legs and seat bottom, maintaining the overall balance and stability. Alta Lounge Chair subverts the shape of the four legs of the chair, and the proper bending has both aesthetics and strangeness, which not only satisfies people's fantasy of "future seats", but also projects people's reverie of space creatures.

President Lounge Chair 265

this chair named "president lounge chair 265" was designed in 1968 by Danish furniture designer Steen Ostergaard, the "king of space age design".

What really made this chair famous was its guest appearance in the movie Star Trek. I believe that people who have seen movies will envy Captain Kirk's residence in that skyscraper in San Francisco, enjoying the city, the bay, Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge and those panoramic views. But the most unforgettable thing is the classic old-fashioned furniture he collected at home-including this presidential chair that looks extremely comfortable.

Atollo Lamp

This atoll lamp was designed by Vico Magistretti in 1977 and is often regarded as "the prototype of a desk lamp". Since winning the Italian "Golden Compass" award in 1979, it has completely changed people's imagination of bedside lamps and has become a part of the permanent collections of many museums around the world.

This lamp is made up of geometric elements-cylinder, cone and hemisphere-which creates a decorative and unique work. The top of this "statue" of light seems to be floating on the light source. From top to bottom, it looks like a UFO that just took off from the land, which is very special in space.

according to preferences, people can freely choose several different sizes and finishes, including white, black, satin bronze or satin metal.

whether turning on the lamp as a lighting tool or just as a decorative ornament, this lamp can add sci-fi and elegant elements to the room.

Pierre Cardin's work

Perhaps the most remarkable achievement of French designer Pierre Cardin is his fashion design about the space age. He has been searching for the face of the "future" all his life, bringing avant-garde fashion design to people and changing the fashion industry forever.

The space race had a great influence on Kadan's design, and he even visited NASA for inspiration. In his works, whether it is a chest of drawers as smooth and shiny as Japanese paint or a stack of free-form drawers hanging in a chrome-plated ring, it is full of futuristic colors.