JAUE2022-068: Evolution of Furnishing Art of Residential Dwellings in the 20th Century

Abstract

In the 20th century, the public aesthetic concepts changed greatly, due to the collision and fusion of Eastern and Western cultures. As a result, the furnishing art has witnessed an evolution, whose path and ways play an important role in the protection and restoration of traditional residential furnishings. However, there are few studies that dedicated to this theme from the perspective of evolution related to the critical national events in that century, especially in northern Zhejiang, the pioneer province of Policy of Construction of Beautiful Chinese Village. It may lead to Formalism and Museumification in the theory and practice of furnishings in traditional dwelling during the implementation of the policy. Therefore, based on an empirical research on 15 case studies selected from three historical periods — the Republic of China, the establishment of the People’s Republic of China and the “opening of China”, the paper established a conceptual model of furnishing art, which includes the evaluation of several branches (furnishing elements), as a tool for comparative analysis among cases from different periods, and finally summarized the evolution path and ways of the furnishing art of residential dwellings in northern Zhejiang area in the 20th century.