Drawing

This presentation drawing for a drawing room in Ealing is by the upmarket firm of Harvey Nichols ltd, in Knightsbridge, London. It demonstrates the respectable, accepted influence of Modernism in the middle-class British domestic interior. It is obviously a recently constructed building, fitted with the new wider, metal-framed windows and witht eh French window feature. The new concrete construction methods of building in the 1930s meant that walls were no longer load-bearing and so windows could be larger than before. The fashion for plain walls gave prominence to the window forms, which became a decorative feature of the room. This resulted in the stylistic play on the horizontal lines, emphasised by the arrangement of the glazing bars, which was continued in the internal furnishings through the neatly fitted shelving. The ceiling light fitting is a radical addition, with its cluster of cylinders made in shiny chrome and glass, and is a token to the machine-age aesthetic in an otherwise restrained Modern living room.