COLLECTION NAME:
Graduate Thesis Collection
Record
Title:
Culturally driven design: how art and design create, enhance and reinforce a sense of space
Creator:
Matos-Montaner, Suzette C.
Subject:
Thesis (M.F.A.) -- Furniture Design
Subject:
Savannah College of Art and Design -- Department of Furniture Design
Rights:
Copyright is retained by the authors or artists of items in this collection, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Abstract:
This thesis argues the importance and impact of cultural behavior in the use of furniture. On the one hand, furniture is a response to how people interact in a space, and on the other; furniture reflects the behavior of a family in a home. During the early part of the 20th century, Puerto Rico was fundamentally an agricultural economy with a vast Spanish heritage. Certainly, labor was very cheap and local furniture manufacturing thrived with a rather classical design based on the Spanish influence. Towards the middle of the 20th century, Puerto Rico elected its own government, and it launched an unprecedented effort to transform the local economy from agricultural to an industrial economy. In time, salaries began improving, and at the same time, furniture imports from the US began to appear. US manufacturing was highly automated, while manufacturing in Puerto Rico was hand-made, local furniture manufacturers were unable to effectively compete and hence slowly disappeared: giving way to a flood of imports, many of which were of very cheap construction. This paper advocates the current need for producing local furniture with coherent pieces that facilitate the lives of people in their homes. In other words, furniture that responds to the context and behavior of the Puerto Rican people.
Abstract:
Keywords: Caribbean, Puerto Rico, regional design, tropical, culture, outdoor furniture
Publisher:
Savannah, Georgia : Savannah College of Art and Design
Date:
2014-11
Format:
PDF ; 46 p. : ill. (chiefly col.)