Design in the Space Age

The Cold War year witnessed the Space Race between the US and the Soviet Union. Men discovered the moon, women discovered the mini skirt, and design became most glamor and futuristic in representing the space age.

David Bowie sang about Major Tom, the fictional astronaut who traveled into space and became lost during the journey. The film Diamonds Are Forever featured the chic Elrod House, the ultimate bachelor pad of James Bond, built in Palm Springs and designed by John Lautner, and Paul Rudolph designed his own homage to space.

 Googie was the architecture mode which was born in Southern California, and came to express the space age, and the Art of the Living Movement was formulated by a new generation of designers seeking to express the space age for upscale lifestyle. They experimented with new materials, invented sleek forms, and created furniture in small editions. They added dramatic sense to the contemporary interior décor, while turning away from the industrial aesthetics and mass-produced design of the postwar years.