The History of Furniture Construction

Classification of Furniture

Furniture belongs to the group of objects of applied arts, and many of them have similar structural, technological, functional, operational and aesthetic features. For these reasons, making a distinctive and obvious division of furniture is difficult and to a large extent depends on the experience and intuition of the author of such a division. The main difficulties which may arise in the future, when creating new divisions of furniture, result primarily from:

• the development of new technologies of production and use of new materials,

• the use of identical furniture in various places and in different conditions of exploitation,

• coincidence, i. e., that various furniture pieces have similar functions in similar places of use and

• blurring of boundaries of clear criteria for the division of furniture.

Taking into account the presented concerns associated with the division of furniture, as well as taking into account the need to systematise names for existing and new designs of furniture, it is necessary to build a more or less orderly and logical classification. Classification is the arrangement of objects, including furniture, depending on the classes, sorts, types, forms and general features. By building a useful classification of furniture, it can be divided according to the following criteria:

• purpose—according to the place of use,

• functionality—according to the nature of human activity associated with

• this or other type of furniture piece,

• form and construction—defining the form and technical solutions of the furni­ture piece, their mutual influence on each other and on the surrounding environment,

• technology—determining the type of materials used, type of treatment, the method of manufacture of the product and the methods of finishing the surface and

• quality—characterising the most important requirements in the processes of design, construction, manufacture and exploitation of the furniture.