Decoration and Durability: Ornaments and their ‘appropriateness’ from fashion and design to architecture

Abstract

Throughout the scales of design there has been an exploding interest in the ornament that seems to be fuelled by different kinds of digital technology and media from CAD to digital printing in both 2D and 3D. In architecture and industrial design it is discussed as a Return of ornament, because the aesthetics of Modernism banned ornamentation as ‘inappropriate’ to materiality, construction and function. In this article we wish to renegotiate this highly normative notion of appropriateness with special regard to sustainable design, where the ‘right’ kind of ornaments can mediate attention to more aesthetic and cultural dimensions and open for stronger individual attachments to consumer goods that might prolong their lifespan. Adolf Loos, who lead the fight against ornament in early 20 th century, based his critique on an assumption of relation between ornamentation and durability that makes ornaments appropriate or not. This leads us to suggest an array of parameters that points out different situations and meanings of ornamentation: Product categories, Durability of materials, Styles, Aesthetic experience, Emotional attachment and Historical references. We discuss these parameters in cases from fashion and tableware to architecture and links ornamentation to the aesthetics of durability.