All the objects that are disappearing from our domestic landscape

Outdated by technological innovation, or just no longer matching the evolution of lifestyles, certain objects are still probably living in our houses, unnoticed.

Landline phone

The first to disappear from domestic landscape in the last 20 years, the landline phone has been its undisputed inhabitant, as the most important ass communication device, thruogh an entire century. A presence in almost every single household since postwar years, through the decades this object has stimulated radical reflections in the realm of design per components such as the iconic Ericofon by Ericsson and the 1965 Grillo foldable phone by Richard Sapper and Marco Zanuso for  Siemens.

(Ericofon landline phone by Hugo Blomberg, Ralph Lysell, Hans Gösta Thames for Ericsson, designed since 1949, produced since 1954)

Radio alarm clock

Information, entertainment and the measure of time, integrated. This program has been  deconstructed since long by the appearance of smartphones and tablets, still it has been the perfect expression of an entire era of conception of daily life, interpreted by masters of the revolution of the everyday such as Dieter Rams in his years at Braun.

(ABR21 radio alarm clock by Dieter Rams and Dietrich Lubs for Braun, 1978)

Perpetual calendar

As our ways of communicating were dematerializing, the same happened to our representation and organization of time. Organizers, solar and perpetual calendars are now helping us only when batteries are low, or when our lust for good design demands attention and fulfillment.

(Enzo Mari for Danese. Formosa wall perpetual calendar, 1963; Timor table perpetual calendar, 1966)

Desk set

Written communication and its paper support gradually transitioned to the immaterial as well as other realms, thus forcing desk sets made of pencil holders, letter paper boxes, and hand rests to step back from the desktops to merge with different components of the office furniture. ( Enzo Mari for Danese. Ustica desk set, Benebecula paper-knife, Delos ashtray. In Domus 678, December 1986)

Address book

Along with the landline telephone and the first mobile phones – although equipped with minimum storage – the address book jealously guarding contacts also abandoned the central areas of homes, as well as the inside of bags and briefcases. The address books of certain outstanding figures from politics and sociability used to end up matching the personality of those who owned them, while on the telephone table – another illustrious missing one – of all homes, the often leather-bound address book, often the receptacle of long-call scribbles, used to end up becoming the sometimes sole witness of entire years of family affairs. (Photo Alexey Kopytko on Adobe Stock)

Table lighter

The statutes of the domestic landscape have changed, together with the level of priority we consequently give to objects. Of course, smoking time is always present in houses, but today it is hard to find a table lighter at the center of a room. Once a proper living room jewel, a subject of creation in Art Nouveau and Art Déco era, sparkling in precious metals, nacre, and lacquer, then a loyal ally of the new essential middle-class interiors; today they are more usually hidden in pockets or drawers, portable, constantly lost, possibly empty. (T2 table lighter by Dieter Rams for Braun, 1968, in an advertising picture on Domus 486, May 1970)

Ashtray

The migration of smoking time within our houses also brought ashtrays in a kind of oblivion; sometimes the most different kinds of objects serve as an ashtray, but there have been times when ashtrays were a proper piece of furniture, as they still are in public spaces. (Dondolino ashtray by Caimi Brevetti, 1958)

Home bar

“Coming over for a drink?” In past decades, these words might have evoked a precise image, the paramount expression of integrated furniture philosophy, of foldaway extra functions, of luxury home bars squeezed inside a piece of furniture, of drinking and smoking as the pillars of lounging. Drinking culture has not stopped evolving since then, but bottles nowadays will hardly pop up from the bottom of a coffee table, in response to the single touch of a hand. (Caori bar-table by Vico Magistretti for Gavina, 1962, in Domus 397, December 1962)

Magazine rack

Digital and immaterial communication have in some way overshadowed the magazine rack, the quintessential domestic hub for temporary content, gathering all transient papers together with status symbol magazines (Domus covers blinking from atop)  or working notes. (magazine rack by Giotto Stoppino for Kartell, 1972, in an advertising picture on Domus 508, March 1972)

All-in-one home stereo system 

The two great phenomena involving the evolution of domestic objects – integration and dematerialisation – have also involved the realm of sound. From Edison’s phonograph via the radio and cassette recorder, through postwar years the functions have been combined in high-fidelity reproduction systems often conceived as true components of domestic environment: integrated, as in the Brionvega radio-phonograph by the Castiglioni brothers; or modular, as in the mode that later became mainstream and was represented by historical projects such as the systems conceived by Dieter Rams for Braun. (Radiofonografo Brionvega rr226 fo-st by Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni, 1965. Photo Daderot on Wikimedia Commons)

TV as an object for interiors

When it appeared in the 1930s – a bit like the radio to which it is the enhanced heir – the television was conceived as a piece of domestic furniture in the same way as armchairs, chests of drawers and glass cabinets, consequently taking on their very language. It remained this way for just over two decades and then transitioned to the realm of objects, mobile and portable by definition, connecting us to the world, with the advent of projects such as Zanuso and Sapper’s Doney for Brionvega, going through hybrid declinations such as those by Rams for Braun, and living through phases such as the ‘all-integrated’ one of the 1960s-70s. Traditional TV is less and less watched, and today one might happen not to notice inside homes frames with more or less questionable images that are actually screens in low emission mode, connected to their owners' various online services.
(TV Brionvega Algol by Marco Zanuso and Richard Sapper, 1964. Photo J R on Flickr)

Trash bin

The relationship between household and environment has not evolved without victims: waste paper bins or undifferentiated trash bins have in fact left the word to recycling set, usually designed for the outdoor. (Chio waste paper bin by Enzo Mari for Danese, 1987, in Domus 695, June 1988)

Kitchen igniter

The kitchen is probably that domestic space where most new objects  have appeared, and least have been dismissed, despite a ceaseless process of technological innovation. Still, the kitchen igniter is less and less a presence, be it some sort of stretched gas lighter, or a piezoelectric device. This had nonetheless had the chance to become a stimulating subject for designers, as it happened with the Firebird and Pyros by Alessi. (Firebird electric igniter by Guido Venturini for Alessi, 1993, in Domus 787, November 1996)

Letterbox

The transition of relationships to the immaterial has resulted in, among other things, two intangible entities such as e-mail and e-commerce. One has an output that is always immaterial – woe betide you if you print it out – the other very material – the parcel delivered by the courier – but both are unsuitable for the object that for decades has had strategic positions and high attendance rates within the domestic ecosystem, be it individual or collective: the letterbox. A refinedly designed component within many masterpieces of modern architecture, the letterbox area is often still there to enrich them to this day, bearing witness to a different lifestyle. (Photo diesirae on Adobe Stock)

Recently, I had the chance to reconsider — well, to trip in — the orange plastic magazine rack that serves as a silent member of my family since the early 70s. The latest magazines inside dated back to 2008. For sure I haven’t quit reading newspapers or magazines since then; it had been it, instead, the one to take a step back. All the house had kept living its life, despite his little step back into the shadows.
There are some objects living inside our houses that, rather than being forgotten, have been sent into retirement. It clearly relates to technological innovation, to the appearance of smartphone and tablets. But more often, going deeper into the reasons, it has been a matter of changes in the way we see their role in the domestic environment, a matter of changes in the citizenship statute we bestowed to technology within our habitat. A habitat which is mad of  furniture, sofas, lives, presences, absences, cohabitations, of jobs that once used to make our houses some kind of a faraway storage space for ourselves, but now they’re turning them into some kind of a new oversized clothing of ours. 

Magazine rack by Giotto Stoppino for Kartell, 1972. Cover picture: the Grillo landline phone by Marco Zanuso and Richard Sapper, 1965.

All this is translated on one side in a change of needs: we no longer need to automatically reach out for organizers, calendars, pencils or handrests. But on the other side it might be also  about reconsidering, for instance, that urge we felt for a certain time, to turn technology into a piece of furniture, to ceaselessly make it compact and integrated, treating our design history with masterpieces such as the Minikitchen by Joe Colombo, but more often and more trivially storming our homes with the installation of table-bars, cupboard-bars and so on.

A small collection can be found here, made of objects that have been somehow put  on a shelf by the evolution of domestic life, leading us on a short journey across functions that sometimes still remain familiar, and legendary figures of design (MariMagistrettiRams, Sapper, Stoppino, Zanuso) that by no ways can be left on the shelf: au contraire, they have probably designed that shelf themselves.

The first to disappear from domestic landscape in the last 20 years, the landline phone has been its undisputed inhabitant, as the most important ass communication device, thruogh an entire century. A presence in almost every single household since postwar years, through the decades this object has stimulated radical reflections in the realm of design per components such as the iconic Ericofon by Ericsson and the 1965 Grillo foldable phone by Richard Sapper and Marco Zanuso for  Siemens.

(Ericofon landline phone by Hugo Blomberg, Ralph Lysell, Hans Gösta Thames for Ericsson, designed since 1949, produced since 1954)

Landline phone

Information, entertainment and the measure of time, integrated. This program has been  deconstructed since long by the appearance of smartphones and tablets, still it has been the perfect expression of an entire era of conception of daily life, interpreted by masters of the revolution of the everyday such as Dieter Rams in his years at Braun.

(ABR21 radio alarm clock by Dieter Rams and Dietrich Lubs for Braun, 1978)

Radio alarm clock

As our ways of communicating were dematerializing, the same happened to our representation and organization of time. Organizers, solar and perpetual calendars are now helping us only when batteries are low, or when our lust for good design demands attention and fulfillment.

(Enzo Mari for Danese. Formosa wall perpetual calendar, 1963; Timor table perpetual calendar, 1966)

Perpetual calendar

Written communication and its paper support gradually transitioned to the immaterial as well as other realms, thus forcing desk sets made of pencil holders, letter paper boxes, and hand rests to step back from the desktops to merge with different components of the office furniture. ( Enzo Mari for Danese. Ustica desk set, Benebecula paper-knife, Delos ashtray. In Domus 678, December 1986)

Desk set

Along with the landline telephone and the first mobile phones – although equipped with minimum storage – the address book jealously guarding contacts also abandoned the central areas of homes, as well as the inside of bags and briefcases. The address books of certain outstanding figures from politics and sociability used to end up matching the personality of those who owned them, while on the telephone table – another illustrious missing one – of all homes, the often leather-bound address book, often the receptacle of long-call scribbles, used to end up becoming the sometimes sole witness of entire years of family affairs. (Photo Alexey Kopytko on Adobe Stock)

Address book

The statutes of the domestic landscape have changed, together with the level of priority we consequently give to objects. Of course, smoking time is always present in houses, but today it is hard to find a table lighter at the center of a room. Once a proper living room jewel, a subject of creation in Art Nouveau and Art Déco era, sparkling in precious metals, nacre, and lacquer, then a loyal ally of the new essential middle-class interiors; today they are more usually hidden in pockets or drawers, portable, constantly lost, possibly empty. (T2 table lighter by Dieter Rams for Braun, 1968, in an advertising picture on Domus 486, May 1970)

Table lighter

The migration of smoking time within our houses also brought ashtrays in a kind of oblivion; sometimes the most different kinds of objects serve as an ashtray, but there have been times when ashtrays were a proper piece of furniture, as they still are in public spaces. (Dondolino ashtray by Caimi Brevetti, 1958)

Ashtray

“Coming over for a drink?” In past decades, these words might have evoked a precise image, the paramount expression of integrated furniture philosophy, of foldaway extra functions, of luxury home bars squeezed inside a piece of furniture, of drinking and smoking as the pillars of lounging. Drinking culture has not stopped evolving since then, but bottles nowadays will hardly pop up from the bottom of a coffee table, in response to the single touch of a hand. (Caori bar-table by Vico Magistretti for Gavina, 1962, in Domus 397, December 1962)

Home bar

Digital and immaterial communication have in some way overshadowed the magazine rack, the quintessential domestic hub for temporary content, gathering all transient papers together with status symbol magazines (Domus covers blinking from atop)  or working notes. (magazine rack by Giotto Stoppino for Kartell, 1972, in an advertising picture on Domus 508, March 1972)

Magazine rack

The two great phenomena involving the evolution of domestic objects – integration and dematerialisation – have also involved the realm of sound. From Edison’s phonograph via the radio and cassette recorder, through postwar years the functions have been combined in high-fidelity reproduction systems often conceived as true components of domestic environment: integrated, as in the Brionvega radio-phonograph by the Castiglioni brothers; or modular, as in the mode that later became mainstream and was represented by historical projects such as the systems conceived by Dieter Rams for Braun. (Radiofonografo Brionvega rr226 fo-st by Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni, 1965. Photo Daderot on Wikimedia Commons)

All-in-one home stereo system 

When it appeared in the 1930s – a bit like the radio to which it is the enhanced heir – the television was conceived as a piece of domestic furniture in the same way as armchairs, chests of drawers and glass cabinets, consequently taking on their very language. It remained this way for just over two decades and then transitioned to the realm of objects, mobile and portable by definition, connecting us to the world, with the advent of projects such as Zanuso and Sapper’s Doney for Brionvega, going through hybrid declinations such as those by Rams for Braun, and living through phases such as the ‘all-integrated’ one of the 1960s-70s. Traditional TV is less and less watched, and today one might happen not to notice inside homes frames with more or less questionable images that are actually screens in low emission mode, connected to their owners' various online services.
(TV Brionvega Algol by Marco Zanuso and Richard Sapper, 1964. Photo J R on Flickr)

TV as an object for interiors

The relationship between household and environment has not evolved without victims: waste paper bins or undifferentiated trash bins have in fact left the word to recycling set, usually designed for the outdoor. (Chio waste paper bin by Enzo Mari for Danese, 1987, in Domus 695, June 1988)

Trash bin

The kitchen is probably that domestic space where most new objects  have appeared, and least have been dismissed, despite a ceaseless process of technological innovation. Still, the kitchen igniter is less and less a presence, be it some sort of stretched gas lighter, or a piezoelectric device. This had nonetheless had the chance to become a stimulating subject for designers, as it happened with the Firebird and Pyros by Alessi. (Firebird electric igniter by Guido Venturini for Alessi, 1993, in Domus 787, November 1996)

Kitchen igniter

The transition of relationships to the immaterial has resulted in, among other things, two intangible entities such as e-mail and e-commerce. One has an output that is always immaterial – woe betide you if you print it out – the other very material – the parcel delivered by the courier – but both are unsuitable for the object that for decades has had strategic positions and high attendance rates within the domestic ecosystem, be it individual or collective: the letterbox. A refinedly designed component within many masterpieces of modern architecture, the letterbox area is often still there to enrich them to this day, bearing witness to a different lifestyle. (Photo diesirae on Adobe Stock)

Letterbox