Charlotte Perriand: Architect and Designer

I was recently on an Air France flight and uninterested in the movie options when I came across a documentary on “Charlotte Perriand,” an amazing architect and designer. You probably know her work but perhaps you do not know her name. As a recent art school graduate in Paris in 1925, she came to the attention of Le Corbusier after designing several pieces of furniture for her first apartment, which were exhibited at the 1927 Salon d’Automne.

Charlotte Perriand as Designer:

These pieces were unique in that they allowed her to properly entertain her friends in her small apartment with a built in wall bar and a card table with drink holders. Additionally, she chose materials that could be manufactured for the masses in factories as opposed to most furniture makers at the time, who crafted furniture out of fine woods and designed for the wealthy. Charlotte’s preferred materials included aluminum and nickel plated surfaces, glass, and leather.

Here are some of the famous pieces she designed while at Le Corbusier:

Charlotte Perriand as Architect:

After 10 years with Le Corbusier, she decided to strike out on her own. She teams up with cubist painter Fernand Leger. She had always found rejuvenation in the Alps, so her next project, a ski resort in Savoie known as Les Arcs, suited her. Rather than design a massive resort that competed with the mountains, she and Leger (among a team of architects) came up with a multi building resort that blended into the landscape. But it wasn’t long before WWII interfered with her career.

After a Paris manufactured housing collaboration with Prouve and Jeanneret, she heads to Japan, where she has been appointed to the Ministry of Trade and Industry. Japan, and their wood, shape her.

But before her study and work can come to fruition, she is forced by the war to leave, and ends up in Vietnam, where she marries for a second time and has a daughter. She returns to Paris and continues to collaborate with Le Corbussier, Prouve, and Jeanneret on various architectural and design projects, incorporating her knowledge from Japan, into her already progressive and epic designs.

Her work and collaboration with Prouve and Jeanneret has been re-released by Cassina. Below are some of the pieces still available today, along with her iconic work from above.