Memphis Interior vs Postmodern Interior

Postmodern Interior was influenced by Memphis Interior — borrows Memphis's playful geometry and clashing colour.

Memphis-Milano furniture and objects in a room setting

Memphis Interior

The riotous Milan interior of squiggle-printed laminates, primary colors, and toy-like asymmetric furniture — Sottsass and the Memphis Group turning the room into a defiantly playful collage.

  • Plastic laminates printed with squiggles, grids, and terrazzo
  • Clashing primary and pastel colors used at full volume
  • Asymmetric, toy-like furniture on stubby geometric legs
  • Flattened hierarchy mixing cheap laminate with marble
  • Totemic lamps and shelving as room-defining sculpture
Full Memphis Interior guide →
Postmodern home decor, 1993

Postmodern Interior

The witty, color-clashing interior that revolted against minimalism — historical quotation, exaggerated columns, pastel-and-bold palettes, and ironic ornament reveling in 'less is a bore.'

  • Ironic historical quotation — columns, pediments, keystones
  • Clashing pastel and bold palettes (salmon, teal, mint, black)
  • Playful geometry: zigzags, grids, oversized circles
  • High-low material mixes — terrazzo, laminate, glass block, chrome
  • Exaggerated scale and deliberate visual wit
Full Postmodern Interior guide →

At a glance

Memphis InteriorPostmodern Interior
Era1981–19881975–1995
DisciplineInterior DesignInterior Design
RegionItalyUnited States, Italy, United Kingdom
FamilyPostmodernism, PopPostmodernism, Pop
Formal traitscolor-clashing, patterned, asymmetric, playfulironic, color-clashing, historicist, playful

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