The American Craftsman Style or the American Arts and Crafts Movement is an American domestic architectural and interior design style popular from the 1900s to the early 1930s.
British Origins
The American Craftsman style has its origins in the earlier British Arts and Crafts movement which dates back to the 1860's. The British movement, which spawned a wide variety of related but conceptually very distinct design movements throughout Europe , was a reaction to the degradation of the dignity of human labor resulting from the Industrial Revolution. Seeking to ennoble once again the common worker, the movement emphasized the hand-made over the mass produced. The British movement was thoroughly Victorian in its era and design taste. The lush ornamentation of the era required that the movement often serve the wealthiest clients.
American Developments
While the British movement was a Victorian Era phenomenon, its translation to the American setting took place precisely at the moment when that era was coming to a close.
It can be said that the American movement which also emphasized craftsmanship was also a design reform movement which encouraged originality, simplicity of form, local natural materials, the visibility of handicraft and was concerned with ennobling the more modest home of the rapidly expanding American middle class. |
Craftsman-style bungalow in San Diego, California
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