During the Progressive Era, a time when the field of design was dominated almost entirely by men, a largely forgotten activist and teacher named Louise Brigham became a pioneer of sustainable furniture design. With her ingenious system for building inexpensive but sturdy box furniture out of recycled materials, she aimed to bring good design to the urban working class. As Antoinette LaFarge shows, Brigham forged a singular career for herself that embraced working in the American and European settlement movements, publishing a book of box furniture designs, running carpentry workshops in New York, and founding a company that offered some of the earliest ready-to-assemble furniture in the United States. Her work was a resounding critique of capitalism's waste and an assertion of new values in designvalues that stand at the heart of today's open and green design movements.

Offers the first comprehensive history of the life of Louise Brigham, a forerunner of today's green design movement Analyzes Brigham's approach to furniture design, highlighting her innovative use of recycled materials, the influence of Austrian designer Josef Hoffmann and the Arts and Crafts movement on her work, and her emphasis on modular, multifunctional pieces for small spaces Appeals to scholars, students, and readers interested American design history, women's history, the Progressive Era, do-it-yourself design, modular design, and sustainability

Autorentext
Antoinette LaFarge is Professor of Art at the University of California, Irvine, USA.

Inhalt

1. Introduction of a Scrap Artist.- 2. The Limits of Education.- 3. Box Furniture.- 4. The Social Program.- 5. The Home Thrift Association.- 6. Ready-to-Assemble Furniture.- 7. Vanishing Act.- 8. Caycean Disciple.- 9. The Contemporary Context.