VCR uses the term "contemporary furniture" to reflect its common usage by North American furniture manufacturers and retailers rather than for strictly etymological reasons. The Canadian Oxford Dictionary defines "contemporary" rather vaguely as . . . following the latest ideas . . . Most furniture designers would probably agree with the Merriam Webster Dictionary definition for "modern," as involving recent techniques, methods or ideas.

With VCR's design-focused approach, both definitions can apply. Surprisingly, the contemporary furniture retailer IKEA, likely most identified with contemporary/modern furniture, refers to its products with the term "good design," which is another story.

The Museum of Modern Art in New York - an institution synonymous with good/modern design for decades - addressed the issue in their 1950 booklet, What is modern design? by Edgar Kaufmann Jr. He wrote that "modern design" should reflect the following 12 precepts:

1. Fulfill the practical needs of modern life
2. Express the spirit of our times
3. Benefit by contemporary advances in the fine arts and pure sciences
4. Take advantage of new materials and techniques and develop familiar ones
5. Develop the forms, textures and colours that spring from the direct fulfilment of requirements in appropriate materials and techniques
6. Express the purpose of an object, never making it seem to be what it is not
7. Express the qualities and beauties of the materials used, never making the materials seem to be what they are not
8. Express the methods used to make an object, not disguising mass production as handicraft or simulating a technique not used
9. Blend the expression of utility, materials and process into a visually satisfactory whole
10. It should be simple - its structure evident in its appearance, avoiding extraneous enrichment
11. Master the machine for the service of people
12. Serve as wide a public as possible, considering modest needs and limited costs no less challenging than the requirements of pomp and luxury

Over half a century later, most of Kaufmann's precepts serve to guide the content of VCR, with number 12 being a particular favourite. The only updating required to Kaufmann's list is to include references to sustainability and the environment and maybe allow for some humour and/or whimsy to occasionally creep into precepts 6 and 7 (really, a minor adjustment).

Contemporary Furniture in Canada

Canada's office furniture industry produces well-designed, environmentally appropriate products on par with the world's best. Our household/residential furniture industry includes many smaller firms with design and technical innovations of similar standards, many of them listed in VCR's companion venture Furniture Link Canada.

However, many of our larger and medium-size manufacturers are resisting the changes required to manufacture and promote design-led product lines - they seem to be clinging to attitudes more aligned with nostalgia than innovation.

Design in Canada: Fifty Years from Teakettles to Task Chairs serves as an excellent reference on the subject. Key Porter Books has recently reprinted this publication in soft cover to replace the out-of-print Knopf Canada hardback edition.

Historical listings of Canadian residential and office furniture designers. Please contact VCR about errors or additions.
[*] Practising Canadian contemporary office furniture designers.

Contemporary Canadian Manufacturers

Canadian producers can be accessed through Furniture Link Canada (FLC), a companion website of VCR. Currently FLC lists 38 selected contemporary manufacturers.

Contemporary Furniture in America

The situation in America parallels that of Canada. In recent years many smaller producers of contemporary household furniture have sprung up, mostly in large cities such as New York and San Francisco. VCR recommends American Contemporary Furniture, edited by Paul Cabra and Dung Ngo, with text by Misa Bartolucci and Cathy Lang Ho, as the best reference source on this sector.

Three excellent USA websites/forums: Chicago Furniture Designers Association, Furniture New York and San Francisco Furniture Design Forum.

Contemporary Furniture Worldwide

Check the links in the sidebar for information on this topic.