A brief overview of the evolution of furniture form and function

From the ancient Egyptian dynasties of more than 4,000 BC to the 19th century before the Industrial Revolution in Europe, the history of furniture is actually the history of wood. For centuries, Eastern and Western furniture has been constantly improving the shape and craftsmanship of furniture in the category of woodware, and gradually evolved into a kind of elaborate handicraft, which pursues excessive decoration and weakens the function of furniture as a necessary living utensil. It was not until the 19th century after the European Industrial Revolution that the development of furniture entered the track of industrialization, under the guidance of modern design ideas, according to the "people-oriented" design principle, abandoned the luxury carving, refined the abstract shape, ended the history of wood handicrafts, and entered the era of machine production.

On the basis of the industrial revolution, through the progress of science and technology and the invention of new materials and new processes, modern furniture has widely absorbed the ideas of anthropology, sociology, philosophy and aesthetics, closely followed the pace of social progress and cultural and artistic development, and has continuously expanded the connotation and extension space of furniture, with more diverse functions, ever-changing shapes, and more perfect, becoming a material appliance and cultural form that creates and leads a new way of life and work for human beings.

The earliest furniture was the stone that primitive people slept on in caves, that is, beds, and later stone tables, stools, etc., which were slowly added, and slowly became the current furniture.