Art Deco is one of the easiest recognizable architectural styles. The style is known for its elegant symmetry and geometric motifs and decorates skyscrapers, shop fronts and residential buildings across the country. And this year the fan favorite style becomes a hundred.
The style was created by France Before they spread worldwide in the second half of the 1920s. The Art -deco Architecture was seen as a celebration of progress, with geometric forms, wasteful materials and bold decorations being used to embody the optimism of its time: the roaring twenties. Art Deco is officially a hundred -year -old hundred years old and has combined the design world longer than modern and Memphis and is a popular choice for designers and architects alike.
Art Deco, like every big trend for interior design in its widespread popularity, has woken and waned, but the classic elements that define its style have overcrowded many fads and for a good reason. According to a 2025 designer survey by Vintage Dealer 1st DIBS, Art Deco is the top -tend -design -ära this year with 32 percent of American interior designers looking in the 1920s and 1930s to be inspired.
“Art Deco is a sophisticated, modern Design style This combines elements of luxury, geometric precision and technological innovation, ”says Glen Hardwick-Bruce, founder of The Art World Advisory Group. “It was influenced by a mixture of modernism, avant -garde movements, exotic cultural pictures and the optimistic, wasteful spirit of the 1920s and 1930s.”
The roaring twenties were not just a time of opulence and glamor; The decade also saw a large technological boom that influenced the architectural style. Motorized vehicles, oceanliners and a prospective aviation industry contributed to the atmosphere of unlimited possibilities.
There is so much that includes the Art -deco style, especially after 100 years. In the following we emphasize the key elements of the architecture jug. Read for everything you need to know about the influence of Art Deco and the permanent effect.
Additional copy of Kate McGregor.
What is Art Deco?
Elevator lobby in the Four Fifty Sutter building in San Francisco, California. The building was completed in 1929.
Art Deco is a decorative arts, architecture and design movement that started in the mid-1920s and continued until 1940. Known for its elegant, symmetrical lines and rich materials, which is characterized by a focus on industrial innovations, opulent decoration and fine craftsmanship.
When it comes to architecture, Art Deco is mainly about verticality, since new technology and materials led to the increase in steel cloud scratches. The Art -deco Architecture also moved from the other parts of the design movement and also contained geometric patterns and extravagant decorations.
“Art-Deco may best be described as a popular form of modernity. When we think of modern architecture in its strictest form, pulled away the ornament and replaced by glass and steel economy, Art Deco reacts with glamor and demanding urbanity of the jazz age” Tom McDonoughProfessor of Art History from Binghamton University at State University of New York. “Think of streamlined silhouettes, curved corners and rhythmic compositions, not strict geometry and cubic form. Think of the Chrysler building, not the leverage.”
The term Art Deco comes from the international exhibition of modern decorative and industrial arts from 1925 in Paris, where Decorative artsHe was shortened to Art Deco with “decorative arts” in French. In this exhibition, Art -Deco architects, designers and artists showed a new, modern style, which is supposed to break away from the flowing, natural forms of artificial disorders. Art Deco has been introduced to international importance worldwide in the next 15 years.
“His attraction was easy to photograph, which meant that it quickly found a global reach that extended from Paris and New York to Mumbai, Shanghai and beyond,” says McDonough. “Wherever it spread, the designs offered people a means to identify with the new, modern, cosmopolitan case.”
The influences of Art Deco
Union station in Los Angeles, built in 1939.
Art -Deco is inextricably linked to the social atmosphere of the 1920s. “Art Deco reacted to the atmosphere of the roaring twenties, the publication and relief at the end of the First World War,” says McDonough. “It did not replace ascetic intellectualism – not to say, puritanism – with a lot of modern architecture with a picture of hedonistic desirability.”
Art Deco was also directly associated with industrial progress. The rise of mass production and the emergence of new materials such as stainless steel, chrome coating and plastic, including Bakelite, made it possible to create designers to create slim, streamlined shapes.
“The designers were fascinated by machines, speed and efficiency of industrial production that can be seen in the slim and optimized forms,” says Hardwick-Bruce.
Art Deco was certainly not the only art and design movement that was based on these influences. Before there was cubism, futurism and Bauhaus, which promoted the technology with an aesthetic vision – these styles directly influenced the development of Art -deco.
And finally there is the question of global discoveries. Although Art Deco is a future -oriented style that celebrates the machine age, its followers also included elements from old cultures such as Egyptian and Mayan art. “The discovery of King Tutankhamun's grave in 1922 triggered a fascination for Egyptian art and symbolism and brought elements such as scarabs, sphinxe and pyramids into the art deco style,” says Hardwick-Bruce.
Finally, the global economic crisis and the Second World War changed the cultural and economic landscape, and Art Deco began to fade in popularity. While new, stricter architectural styles have the head of international style, modernity in the middle of the century and brutalism – the influence of Deco is still visible in many buildings and design objects around the world.
The defining properties of Art -deco architecture and style
Geometric shapes and symmetry
The trademark of Art -deco architecture lies in its geometric precision. Buildings are structured with sharp, clean lines, which are often level or ciggurat forms – an allusion to old cultures.
Decoration and decorative elements
While geometric forms set structure, the ornamentation adds a visual wealth.
“Common motifs include zigzag, chevrons, sun burst and trapezoidal forms,” says Hardwick-Bruce. “An example of this includes the Chrysler building in New York City, which contains sharp geometric details, with a Sunburst pattern that crowns its tower.”
Verticality and size
Art -Deco building, especially skyscrapers, are characterized by their vertical emphasis, which are often accentuated by narrow, extended windows. Such large, slim forms should reflect the progress, ambition and upward mobility of society.
Use of color
Art Deco designer was not afraid to use color.
“Art Deco color pallets were often living, saturated colors, including deep greens, gold, silver, light red and metallic surfaces,” says Hardwick-Bruce. This was not only presented in the outdoor area of structures, but also in the interior.
Extensive materials
“The designers used opulent materials such as lacquer, polished wood, chrome, glass and exotic materials such as ivory or scarf pulses to generate luxury,” says Hardwick-Bruce. “Pieces of furniture from Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann often used rich veneers and inlays from ivory, which gives it a refined and expensive appearance.”
Famous Art -deco building around the world
Chrysler building, New York
No building embodies Art -deco like New York's Chrysler building. The Chrysler building, designed by architect William van Alen and completed in 1930, has a graded crown made of stainless steel arches, which are embedded with triangular windows. A large part of the ornament here comes from automotive elements such as hood jewelry and grille.
Empire State Building, New York
The only kind of deco building that is more famous than the Chrysler building is the Empire State Building. The Empire State Building, which was completed in 1931, remains a highly towering symbol for Art -deco -Ehrgeiiz. The building, designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, has geometric thanks to its graded setbacks, which are a typical Art -Deco style.
Art Deco Historic District, Miami Beach
South Beach in Miami Beach, Florida, is a hotspot of the Art -deco architecture -It is impossible to select a single building to illustrate this entire district of Art -Deco structures. Here the Art -deco architecture was largely inspired by the Ocean linern, which have just been seen off the coast. In a regional grade, there are many more tropical colors that differ from the jewel tones that are contained in Art -deco design elsewhere.
Hoover Building, London
This factory complex building, which was completed by Wallis, Gilbert & Partners in 1933, is a masterpiece of the British Art Deco. It has a white cement (also as a snow) facade and colorful geometric details that were unknown in the factory design of the era.
Eastern Columbia Building, Los Angeles
An outstanding example of Art Deco on the west coast, this department store from the 1930s (today also a residential building) is known for its striking turquoise terracotta facade with deep blue and golden ornamentation. The use of color and shape of architect Claud Beelman makes it one of the most photographed landmarks by LA.
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