Revivalist Contemporary? New Modern? Après Avant-garde? Whatever the name, contemporary design is experiencing a resurgence not seen since the end of World War II.

Then, it was the advent of new materials, exuberance of families being re-united, an influx of European immigrants, and a desire to be rid of traditional ornaments that combined to provide a fertile landscape for new designs and processes. Now, it is the streamlining of electronic technology and our exposure to good design that makes us demand sophisticated products and architecture. That’s in addition to an increase in two-career households. According to Gail Burton, professor of architecture at North Carolina State University, modern’s clean, minimalist lines are soothing, something people wrapped in the chaos of two-career families can really appreciate.

Those soothing, pure lines advanced in the last century with work by the likes of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Jean Prouvé. They re-defined design as a balance of structure and materials: simple but elegant, technically intricate but possible to make. Mies’ chair, made for the exposition in Barcelona, was an example of a chair aesthetically worthy of a king yet simple and sturdy. Prouvé, an engineer with a scholarly mind, wanted to merge the excellence of craft (he had apprenticed as a blacksmith) with the soulful awareness of art.

The two, and others from Germany’s Bauhaus School, married art, functionality and technological breakthroughs to impact architecture, furniture, typography––indeed anything that could be manufactured. “What we are seeing today,” says Gregg Wittkopp, Art Museum director at Cranbrook Academy, “is a re-interpretation of this International Style famed by Mies and Prouvé.”

owhere was this reinterpretation more evident than at Swiss manufacturer Vitra’s showrooms in Cologne and Milan this spring, where the company featured edited classics by Charles & Ray Eames, Prouvé, and others. But where the International Style was criticized for its starkness, this century’s version of modern offers vibrant colors and playful shapes. Indeed, Prouvé’s standard chair is now available in a choix de couleurs.

To embrace modern design is to embrace a belief system that one should not be shackled by the past. After the Bauhaus impact that spanned the middle century, there was a backlash to the austerity and “post-modern” emerged (an unfortunate moniker, says Gerhardt Knodel, Director of Academy of Art at Cranbrook. “The name left us with no place to go.”).

Only in retrospect can we see patterns and trends, and the post-modern era, from the 1950s through the late 80s, brought fresh materials and personality, say its proponents, or, from the critics’ point of view, flamboyant ornamentation and kitsch. The post-modern era saw famed architect Frank O. Gehry introduce furniture of pressed cardboard, and Ettore Sottsass start the Memphis Movement. Philip Johnson’s glass house fulfilled the modern manifesto, but his phallic AT&T building in New York City with the Chippendale adornment did not.

But once you strip everything to its pure design, do you have anywhere to go? Isn’t one shackled to the traditions of modern when only Le Courbousier’s chaise or the Eames' chair will satisfy as “pure design”? And does pure design mean being void of personal preference, individuality, and any sort of meaning?

Fortunately, these debates are left to art-historians. The rest of us are free to enjoy the new works of young designers like Jasper Morrison, the brothers Bouroullec and Campana, Karim Rashid or Dutch Designer Peter Traag. Each designer enjoys the freedom of a technological era that allows materials to seemingly defy the laws of physics and still marry art and function. The Brazillian Campana brothers originally handcrafted Edra’s Jenette chair in wood – and then redesigned it in injected-molded polyurethane with a back of hundreds of PVC “reeds.” Within the reeds is actually a stainless steel back – providing surprising comfort. Plastics in general have been the medium of choice for many designers – because of its workability. Vernor Panton’s chair from the 50s was reintroduced by Vitra this year, and Kartell figured out how to make Philippe Starke’s Lucite Louis Ghost chair from a single mold! (No unsightly screws to hold the chair legs to the seat a la Lucite designs in mid-century.)

American appreciation for modern is buoyed by exposure to modern. “While there typically isn’t an abundance of modern architecture outside of metro areas,” says Professor Burton, “there is now awareness to modern via the media.” New hotels like the Wynn in Las Vegas or the W in major cities do much to advance modern. But art museums in Chattanooga and Roanoke, the accessible designs at Target, and high-styled technology by Apple do more to influence American culture than we might think. Designers and manufacturers have had the opportunity to distill the post modern era’s good and interesting designs to create refreshing pieces with a hint of familiarity. In 20 years it will be interesting to see what this current period of contemporary revival will be called.