Furniture can be said to be inseparable from us with the beginning of human civilization. From ancient times to the present, regardless of the region, there will be traces of furniture culture as long as there is a place where human beings live and develop. The design of furniture can objectively show the aesthetic tendency of an era, but I personally think that the most beautiful and attractive furniture I have ever seen is Ming style furniture and modernist style furniture. They all have one thing in common, that is, simple style and reasonable function. This simplicity will not lose the sense of design because of the changes of the times, and this beauty is really touching. Comparing the furniture in the modernist era with the furniture in the golden age of China, the time is 16,17th century and 19, 20th century respectively, so it is also modern to put the furniture in two different periods together. This makes us think, can simple design last forever? Is the design of structural functionalism more durable?

Let's take a look at the characteristics of Ming dynasty furniture. China classical Ming-style furniture has an eternal and universal aesthetic feeling. China in Ming Dynasty was a mobile society for literati, and this social form was also reflected in furniture. For the needs of moving and traveling, furniture needs to be practical and easy to disassemble and fold, so they will not be made by paste, nails or any permanent bonding method. This kind of furniture needs people of this nation and era to have strong rational thinking, and at the same time strive for perfection in technology, which makes the furniture of Ming Dynasty stand out among the furniture of other times in China. Ming-style furniture: simple modeling, line-oriented: strict proportional relationship is the basis of furniture modeling. Meet the functional requirements, no burden, and the overall feeling is the combination of lines. The lines of its components are both rigid and flexible, rigid but not rigid, soft but not weak, showing the beauty of simplicity, simplicity, elegance and generosity; Rigorous structure and fine workmanship: tenon-mortise structure is the perfect combination of science and art, and today, furniture is still as strong as ever; Moderate decoration, suitable for complex and simple: various decorative techniques, such as carving, engraving, embedding, painting and so on. Decorative materials are also widely used, such as enamel, Luodian, bamboo, teeth, jade, stone and so on. But it will never be greedy and piled up, nor will it be carved, but it will be properly decorated locally according to the overall requirements; The wood is hard and the texture is beautiful: natural and beautiful. Making full use of wood grain's advantages and giving full play to the natural beauty of hardwood materials is another prominent feature of hardwood furniture in Ming Dynasty. Hardwood furniture materials in Ming Dynasty are mostly high-grade hardwoods with beautiful colors and wood grains, such as Huang Huali, rosewood and rosewood. Wood, etc.

Compared with the furniture designed by modernism, when it comes to modernism, we have to mention that the furniture with functional style originated from Bauhaus College, the father of German modernism. Bauhaus advocated "function determines form", which was related to the popularity of Protestantism in Europe at that time. This concept is similar to the simple economy advocated by ancient Confucian culture in China, and they all pursue unpretentious beauty. Modernist design works under the leadership of Bauhaus Movement distance themselves from traditional schools, discard the complicated surface decoration in traditional European furniture, and convey the beauty of modernist style with the concept of "less is more". The feeling of the works designed by the concept of "less is more" here is in tune with the simplicity and lineation of Ming furniture. The decoration in modernist furniture design works, through the use of its own modeling and materials, produces its own decorative beauty in one go, rejecting any decorative techniques added later, that is, the so-called "embellishment". Modernist furniture design uses all kinds of exciting materials as much as possible, just as Ming furniture uses the texture advantage of wood itself. Various materials used in modernist furniture also try to reflect their own aesthetic feeling, such as colored plastic, fiber, glass ... and some cheap materials such as steel pipes and glued wood, unlike European traditions, expensive wood is carved with various patterns or inlaid with gold and silver. Bauhaus designers firmly believe that they can produce a large number of beautiful and economical furniture by using new materials such as metal, plywood, plastic and glass. With the further development of industrial technology, Bauhaus's design style is more related to the research of ergonomics and the development of new materials. Whether it is a chair with a unique shape or a sofa that emphasizes comfort, its functionality and decoration are just right. The design of modernist furniture, like Ming furniture, needs to be mobile and portable, so this similarity conforms to the modern slogan "Form obeys function", that is, functionalism. This principle has derived its own aesthetic system-minimalism, minimalism ... and produced many excellent rationalist designs with perfect and unified functional forms.

The design styles of Ming-style furniture and modernist furniture actually provide us with the beauty of a life form. This design provides people with a good spiritual lifestyle, so that people are not trapped by the secular world, they can pay more attention to the primitive instinctive lifestyle and satisfy people's desire for the spiritual world.