22 Understanding decorative laminates KEYWORDS: Decorative laminates, technical study, art history, melamine, Formica. Decorative laminates (DLs) are constructed of fibrous sheet material finished with a decorated surface. Ever since their introduction in the 1930s, the DLs’ popularity has taken off. Their relatively low production costs, high durability, functional and decorative versatility – allowing for combining complex surface structures with complex prints – made this a highly favourable material in interior/exterior decoration from the second half of the 20th century onwards. Today, its application is more common than ever before. DLs were used for heavyduty surfaces like chair seats, wood-imitation flooring, and kitchen-countertops but also for purely aesthetic reasons like the playful geometric patterns seen on 1980s Memphis furniture. A conservation project of a DL sofa from 1983 by Nathalie Du Pasquier, belonging to the Design Museum Ghent, revealed a knowledge gap for conserving DLs. Since their introduction, a rich variety of production techniques and materials were used. Yet, it also revealed that next to context and use, material-technical aspects, typology, composition, and build-up are very poorly represented in the field of conservation-restoration. Identifying and understanding the materiality of DLs is fundamental for their preservation and treatment. Consequently, first, this master thesis aims to address the question of how to study and identify the materials and techniques of historical laminates from the 1930s to the 1990s. A range of observational (macro/micro) and chemicophysical techniques will be used to identify the physical and chemical build-up of DLs. In addition, these findings will be connected to the history and use of the material throughout time, researched trough patents, archives, etc. The preservation of DLs is becoming a necessity and will be of increasing importance in the future because of their ongoing popularity. In response, first insights in the rich diversity of the materiality and its context will be presented. anjacquemain[at]gmail.com
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