Explore 100 pivotal moments when creativity and culture intersected to shape modern life.
Design is not just about objects—it’s about ideas that have changed the world. From William Morris’s Red House and the Great Exhibition of 1851 to the Bauhaus, the iPhone, and 3D-printed bridges, 100 Milestones in Modern Design traces the decisive events that transformed the way we live, work, and see the world. Drawing on decades of scholarship, curator and educator Daniella Ohad presents a panoramic and provocative view of design’s evolution as a social, technological, conceptual, and aesthetic force.
Through 100 concise, visually rich entries, Ohad connects the dots between invention and ideology, showing how design has responded to—and influenced—industrialization, urbanization, war, feminism, consumerism, globalization, climate change, and sustainability. Each milestone represents a point of transformation:
- The birth of the modern home with William Morris’s Red House
- The advent of industrial furniture through Thonet’s bentwood chairs
- The modernist ideals of the Bauhaus
- The cultural impact of Levi’s blue jeans
- The utopian visions of glass architecture
- Steve Jobs’s first visit to Japan
- The role of the sale of Yves Saint Laurent in shaping the design market
Ohad reveals design as an ongoing dialogue between progress and purpose—a mirror of the societies that create it and shape our lives. Her selection, deeply informed yet accessible, reframes modern design history as a story of courage, experimentation, and the pursuit of better living.
Beautifully illustrated and globally inclusive, 100 Milestones in Modern Design invites you to see design not as decoration, but as an instrument of change—from the materials that define eras to the movements that define meaning.
For designers, educators, students, and anyone fascinated by creativity’s role in shaping civilization, this book offers a vital perspective: The history of design is the history of us all.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Introduction
001 Thonet Bentwood Furniture (1849)
002 The Crystal Palace Exhibition (1851)
003 Haussmann’s Renewal of Paris (1853)
004 The South Kensington Museum (1857)
005 The Red House (1859)
006 Blue Jeans (1873)
007 Exposition Universelle (1889)
008 World’s Columbian Exposition (1893)
009 The Maison de l’Art Nouveau (1895)
010 The Vienna Secession (1897)
011 Wiener Werkstätte (1903)
012 Invention of Bakelite (1907)
013 Ford Model T (1908)
014 AEG Turbine Factory (1909)
015 Glass Architecture (1914)
016 Cologne Werkbund Exhibition (1914)
017 The Manifesto of Futurist Architecture (1914)
018 De Stijl Manifesto (1918)
019 The Bauhaus (1919)
020 Friedrichstrasse Skyscraper Competition (1921)
021 Mendelsohn’s Streamlined Architecture (1921)
022 Discovery of King Tutankhamun’s Tomb (1922)
023 Towards a New Architecture (1923)
024 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative Arts (1925)
025 The Bauhaus Moves to Dessau (1925)
026 The Chanel Suit (1925)
027 The Mingei Movement (1926)
028 Invention of the Sweatshirt (1926)
029 The Little Black Dress (1926)
030 The Frankfurt Kitchen (1926)
031 The Weissenhof Estate (1927)
032 The Barcelona Pavilion (1929)
033 Union des Artistes Modernes (1929)
034 SS Normandie (1932)
035 MoMA International Style Exhibition (1932)
036 Contemporary American Industrial Art (1934)
037 Pioneers of Modern Design (1936)
038 Gropius Moves to Harvard (1937)
039 Volkswagen Beetle (1939)
040 New York World’s Fair (1939)
041 MoMA Organic Design Exhibition (1941)
042 Tupperware (1942)
043 IKEA (1943)
044 Madame Grès’s Draped Garments (1944)
045 Case Study House Program (1945)
046 Creation of the Atomic Bomb (1945)
047 The Bikini (1946)
048 Dior’s New Look (1947)
049 Levittown (1947)
050 Copenhagen Cabinetmakers’ Guild Exhibition (1949)
051 Italy at Work (1950)
052 Unité d’Habitation (1952)
053 iF Product Design Awards (1954)
054 “The New Brutalism” (1955)
055 Free-Edged Furniture (1955)
056 Helvetica (1957)
057 American National Exhibition, Moscow (1959)
058 Metabolism (1960)
059 The Miniskirt (1960)
060 Brasília Inaugurated (1960)
061 Katsura: Tradition and Creation in Japanese Architecture (1960)
062 Visionary Architecture at MoMA (1960)
063 Salone del Mobile (1961)
064 Jacqueline Kennedy at the White House (1961)
065 Yves Saint Laurent Le Smoking (1967)
066 Habitat Expo (1967)
067 Expo ’70 Osaka (1970)
068 Design for the Real World (1971)
069 The Shingle Style and the Stick Style (1971)
070 Italy: The New Domestic Landscape (1972)
071 Learning from Las Vegas (1972)
072 The Oil Crisis (1973)
073 SEX Boutique (1974)
074 Treasures of Tutankhamun Exhibition (1978)
075 Sony Walkman (1979)
076 Pritzker Architecture Prize (1979)
077 Memphis Group (1981)
078 Steve Jobs’s First Trip to Japan (1983)
079 Galerie Néotù (1984)
080 MoMA’s Deconstructivist Architecture (1988)
081 Design Museum London (1989)
082 Church of the Light (1989)
083 The Louvre Pyramid (1989)
084 Paramount Hotel, New York (1990)
085 Minimalism of the 1990s
086 Droog (1993)
087 Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (1997)
088 iMac (1998)
089 Lidewij Edelkoort at Design Academy Eindhoven (1999)
090 Sponge Cities (2000)
091 iPod (2001)
092 Cradle to Cradle (2002)
093 Hedonistic Sustainability (2003)
094 Design and the Elastic Mind (2008)
095 Sale of the Yves Saint Laurent Collection (2009)
096 Instagram (2010)
097 Vegan Design (2018)
098 Iridescence Digital Dress (2019)
099 3D-Printed Steel Bridge (2020)
100 Broken Nature Exhibition (2020)
Category Index
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Index
