Sample Assignment Questions for Furnishings and Interiors 1850 to the Present
Day
Use the assignment to further some area of personal interest. For example, there
may be a particular period or style that interests you, or you may want to analyse
furnishings and interiors in historic photographs in your possession, or even the way
in which you have furnished your own home. E.g. To what extent does inheritance
determine how we furnish and inhabit our homes; to what extent are we really
innovative?
There are other themes such as the place of ideology, gender, nature or technology
in furnishings and interiors which could be explored. Or some of the questions laid
out below:

Can AWN Pugin really be claimed to be the ancestor of 20th century Modernism?

The spirit of the Arts and Crafts Movement was highly significant and entirely
beneficial to subsequent design movements. Is this a true statement?

Was Art Nouveau a stylistic cul-de-sac, or a stepping stone to Modernism?

Were the ideas of International Modernism entirely innovatory, or the
culmination of earlier developments?

Was Art Deco simply boudoir furnishing, or did it represent a serious furnishing
style?

Organic Modernism was based on uniquely American concepts of furniture
design. Discuss this statement.

To what extent were stylistic innovations in the 1960’s, and in particular Pop
Culture, truly led by the mass consumer as opposed to the designer?

How truly ‘post’ modern is Post Modernism?

What effects have changes in architectural design and domestic arrangements
had on furniture design from 1850 to the present day?

Given contemporary trends in furniture styling, social manners and domestic
arrangements, how do you see furnishings and interiors developing in the next
decade?