sofa
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The sofa (including a couch , sofa or divan ) is a multi-seat, upholstered piece of furniture that is also suitable for a short nap. Because of their higher seat comfort , the bed of the now rare today chaise preferred which strongly of the ancient triclinium or the modern Récamière recalls.
Designations
The word sofa (plural sofas ) goes back to Arabic صفة, DMG ṣuffa , an upholstered bench, also: wide clay elevation prepared with blankets or carpets as a place to sit or lie down (originally also: cushions on the camel saddle). It only came into German usage at the end of the 17th century , when the sofas of that time corresponded to today's upholstered frames. Couch comes from English , from French coucher ' to lie', originally in Latin collocare ' to put together'. Sofa comes from French canapé , from Latin conopeum 'canopy bed', from ancient Greek κωνωπεῖον .
Divan is from Persian دیوان, DMG dīwān , 'court of justice' actually 'chancellery', 'office', 'office', associated Arabic verb dawwana ' to record', 'register', 'register', derived. In the German-speaking world, it has been referring to upholstered bench (originally referring to the comfortable seat of an official) since 1806 to seating furniture as found in oriental offices, and was mainly used in the 19th and 20th centuries. Regional and the names come sofa bed or sofa bed in front.
history
Even in ancient Greece there was a piece of furniture for sitting and resting, the so-called kline . It played an important role not only in private everyday life, but also when dining with guests and in large company. In the 6-7 Century BC In BC, Klinen were made of marble, ivory, wood or metal.
From the 17th century onwards, sofas were first produced in England and Germany and were reserved exclusively for the aristocracy as they were expensive luxury furniture. In the beginning the wooden furniture was very solid, later much more elaborately decorated and covered with fine upholstery fabrics, for example the opulent furniture at the court of Louis XIV. In the Rococo, the style of the sofas became more and more filigree, floral design elements were decisive here.
In the 17th century, the function of the sofa was limited to lying and resting during the day. Gradually, different types of sofa developed, such as the chaise longue and especially the fainting couch . In the 19th century, this was used by women to recover after a fit of weakness. Sofas with springs and backrests to lean against while sitting did not appear until the 19th century and became mass products in the course of the industrial revolution . In the 20th century, the sofa developed into everyday furniture for everyone and became more and more affordable. Sets of several pieces of upholstered furniture could be found in most households. Numerous designers and artists have created famous sofas such as the simple "Swan Couch" by the Dane Arne Jacobsen or the IKEA Klippan sofa, which has sold millions of times .
Today sofas exist in numerous variants. The so-called East Frisian sofa is a table or kitchen sofa with armrests that can be folded down to the side. Other designs are still today the ottoman , the chaise longue , the Récamière and the pull-out or fold-out sofa, the lying area of which can be enlarged to a sleeping place by a simple mechanism. This design is called a sofa bed after its function and has the advantage that it saves space.
A sofa is in private living rooms , in the airport lounge , in pubs and also with psychologists and psychotherapists to find. With the latter, it should create a relaxed atmosphere in the consulting room and thus create good conditions for psychoanalysis . “Ready for the couch” or “a case for the couch” is literally used as a synonym for “needs psychotherapy ”. “Sofasport” is an ironic phrase that is used for (passive) television (not just sports programs) on the sofa. The green Biedermeier sofa on which the humorist and artist Loriot presented his skits has become famous . Loriot translated his preference for this piece of furniture into the animated films Wum and Wendelin . Other colorfully conspicuous sofas then made a "career" on television. In the opening credits of the long-running US animated series The Simpsons , the family sofa plays a varying and pointed role.
Depiction of a sofa in ancient Greece in the Nordisk familjebok
Carved walnut sofa. Rocailles and flourishes on the frames, the six curved legs and the armrests with volutes. Theresian, 1750-1760.
When the four-poster bed was not yet a "sofa": "Canopée" with its canopy in the Château de Bazoches
Loriot's green sofa in the Deutsche Kinemathek , 2012
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Sofa set
A sofa set (also: upholstered or couch set ) is a combination of individual upholstered seating furniture. The word set describes how the individual pieces of furniture belong together, i. This means that the individual components have the same design and the same reference. It usually consists of a couch and two armchairs.
Types
As a rule, the name refers to a combination of sofas with a different number of seats. They are therefore also referred to as sofa sets or 3, 2, 1 sofa. Upholstered / sofa sets are intended as furniture for living rooms . They are available in many different colors, shapes, functions and materials. In contrast to a round corner or a corner sofa, which can only stand in one position due to their design, the upholstered suite can be combined variably in the room. According to a study from 1980, the upholstered suite was "part of the standard equipment of the vast majority of all German living rooms" and 83% of households had one. Sofas with a raised seat, which are adapted to the need of older people to get up more easily, are colloquially called “senior sofas”.
design
Over the past 60 years, upholstered and sofa sets have been more and less popular. The design has also varied greatly over the past few decades. During the 1950s and 1960s, materials such as wood in combination with fabric still dominated. The colors were rather muted and the design functional. In the 1950s, the German-speaking population preferred to sit on "round corners". There were also armchairs , e.g. B. Club / cocktail and TV armchairs, popular furnishings. At the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s, the furnishing style changed significantly, because the materials also changed. Leather or plastic dominated. Instead of muted tones - as they were still used in the 1950s and 1960s - they preferred bright colors and large patterns ( flower power time).
The sets today are mostly characterized by clear shapes and colors. The single seat is partially replaced by a stool that can be used variably - also as a table. The trend is towards the minimalist - without large patterns or ornate decorations.
Upholstered suite in the classic 3-2-1 combination
A sofa set with a stool instead of a table or armchair
Alternatives
Frank Lloyd Wright , who generally had a predilection for built-in furniture, fitted most of the houses built according to his design with permanently installed, upholstered rows of seats.
See also
- Blind wood frame
- Taptschan , an elevated place to lie and eat in the Muslim countries of Central Asia
literature
- Claudia Guderian: The couch in psychoanalysis. History and present of space and setting. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-17-018048-7 .
- Lydia Marinelli : The couch. Thinking while lying down. Sigmund Freud Private Foundation. Prestel, Munich a. a. 2006, ISBN 3-7913-3688-6 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Manfred Lorenz (ed.): The seven adventures of Prince Hatem. (1977) Kiepenheuer, Leipzig / Weimar 1990, p. 294
- ↑ Kluge: Etymological Dictionary
- ^ Friedrich Kluge , Alfred Götze : Etymological dictionary of the German language . 20th ed., Ed. by Walther Mitzka , De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1967; Reprint (“21st unchanged edition”) ibid 1975, ISBN 3-11-005709-3 , p. 135 f. ( Diwan ), here: p. 136.
- ^ University of Kiel, History Seminar: Furniture in its stylistic epochs . Archived from the original on July 1, 2015. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved June 28, 2015.
- ↑ The history of the sofa - from antiquity to modern times (PDF) Archived from the original on July 1, 2015. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved June 28, 2015.
- ↑ couch. In: Andreas Cyffka (Hrsg.): Pons large dictionary of German as a foreign language. Klett, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-12-517044-3 , p. 260.
- ↑ A piece of furniture with a round back that forms the 90 ° corner of the sofa set .
- ↑ Richard Peel: The perception of living rooms and their residents. Verlag Ruprecht-Karls-Universität, Heidelberg 1980, p. 18.
- ↑ Klaus Grefermann: Wood-processing industry from the perspective of the seventies. Duncker & Humblot Verlag, 1978, ISBN 3-428-04198-4 , p. 77.
