student work about Art Deco

1. Assignment 4
Art Deco
Name: Fatma Mohamed
ID: 201210448

2. Art Deco
A style developed between the wars which seemed to reflect the mood of the
times: a new beginning, simplicity, brightness and confidence in the future.
The name derives from the 1925 “Exposition International des Arts Decorates
Industrials et Moderns” in Paris. Here was a new coherence of sleek design
encompassing not just architecture but fittings such as lighting and handrails, fabrics
and furnishings.
The look was characterized on the one hand by geometrical shapes, inspired
by cubism, where features were reduced to minimal shapes such as the stepped
ziggurat which lends itself to stepped rooflines and decorative features. Often a
vertical strip of glass will be used in place of separate windows, especially in
stairwells, to simplify the appearance.
Examples:-
Carreras Cigarette Factory
Hampstead Rd, Camden Town, London NW1
Architects: M.E and O.H Collins with A.G Porri, 1928
Now Greater London House.
Completely Egyptian inspired with two magnificent
black cats flanking the entrance, though possibly
only one of these is original. Carreras used to
produce the Black Cat brand of cigarettes.
There are several features which serve to simplify
the look of this large building: tall, colourful, closed
papyrus columns extending over several floors,
vertical slashes in the windowed stairwells,
architectural framing around the stairwells and
several floors of windows. These all help to simplify
the architecture by disguising the multiple floors and
focussing on the white and coloured fabric of the
building.

3. Hoover Building
Western Avenue, Greenford, UB6 8BW
Architects: Wallis Gilbert & Partners, 1931
A hugely coherent design with stepped
columns almost the height of the building
enclosed within a geometric framework.
Decorative ironwork gates and fencing,
alongside,drop windows,vertical
stunning building and my favorite.anotheramboyantly decorated entrance,flstairwells and a
Everything in this building is created with great attention
to detail to fit into the overall design; the entrance, as the
area which would be most closely scrutinized, is
particularly detailed, the light fittings set into the wall on
either side are set in specially made mounts and perfectly
set geometrically within the whole, the gates proudly bear
the H for Hoover surmounting classic symmetric art deco
ironwork.
Everything in this building is created with great attention to detail to fit into the overall
design; the entrance, as the area which would be most closely scrutinized, is
particularly detailed, the light fittings set into the wall on either side are set in
specially made mounts and perfectly set geometrically within the whole, the gates
proudly bear the H for Hoover surmounting classic symmetric art deco ironwork.
Entrance light

4. Norman Bel Geddes (art deco, designer, 1893-1958)
After studying briefly at the Art Institute of Chicago, Bel Geddes worked in a Chicago
advertising agency designing posters for General Motors and Packard.
In 1918 he began a successful career as a stage set designer before
turning to industrial design in 1927. Despite commissions for the
Toledo Scale Co. (1929), and the Standard Gas Equipment Corp.
(1932). it was as polemicist of Modernity that Bel Geddes gained
greatest recognition.
His book Horizons (1932) was a manifesto for Modern streamlining
which promoted a series of futuristic designs for buildings and
transport systems.
Bel Geddes’ positivist vision of a streamlined future reached its apogee with his’ futurama ”
Metropolis of Tomorrow’ for the General Motors Highways and Horizons Pavilion at the 1939
New York World’s Fair.
In 1958 Norman Bel Geddes died on 8th of May. In 1960 his autobiography, Miracle in the
Evening, was published.
He is the father of actress Barbara Bel Geddes
Le Corbusier – Charles-Eduard Jeanneret (art deco, designer, 1887-
1965)
Born in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Le Corbusier worked under his real name,
Charles-Eduard Jeanneret until the early 1920s.
In 1907 he travelled in Europe, meeting Josef Hoffmann in Vienna.
From 1908 until 1909 he worked for the Paris architect Auguste Perret,
and in 1910 and 1911 in the Berlin office of Peter Behrens.
In 1911, the publication in France of his Etude sur le Mouvement
d’art decoratif en Allemagne, associated Jeanneret’s name with
the debate on the role of national identity and decorative arts in
France.
Indeed it was as a decorator that Jeanneret became known in

5. the Parisian art world, working with such designers as Andre Groult and Paul Poiret.
However, through his involvement with the Purist painter Amedee Ozenfant, Jeanneret by
now known as Le Corbusier, developed the anti-decorative theory for which he became
famous.
http://www.antique-marks.com/art-deco-artists.html
http://www.the-silk-route.co.uk/engartdecolondon.htm