Charlotte Perriand

Charlotte Perriand convinced even Le Corbusier with esprit and courage

Charlotte Perriand was born in Paris on 24 October 1903. She studied interior design from 1921 to 1925 at the Union Centrale des Arts Décoratifs in Paris where she was taught by the head of the school – the designer, painter and designer Henri Rapin – and Maurice Dufrène. However, decorative arts failed to captivate her beyond her studies and instead, Perriand began designing furniture in her own particular style. Her application to the Swiss-French star architect Le Corbusier did not immediately garner the desired response, but she was able to attract so much positive attention with her Bar sous le toit (Bar under the Roof) made of anodized aluminium and nickel-plated copper, that in 1927 the longed-for employment in the studio of the belligerent and headstrong planner and designer finally came about – the bold young woman was only 24 years old. 

Pioneering design drafts; growing political engagement

Charlotte Perriand was mainly engaged with the production of prototypes and public presentation of the designs developed in Le Corbusier’s studio. Together with the Swiss architect Pierre Jeanneret, she developed a whole series of tubular steel furniture, which is still seen today as a powerful symbol of the machine age. Perriand worked for Le Corbusier for a whole decade and was responsible during this time for the majority of the furniture designs created there, whilst her designs were repeatedly exhibited with great success at the Salon d’Automne. For Le Corbusier, she embodied an indispensable role in his ambitious reformation project and many observers were of the opinion that Charlotte Perriand added a soothing human component to the master’s cool rationalism. Alongside her successful work as a designer, Perriand was interested in photography and politics, and was a member of France’s communist party, which she left again in protest against the Hitler-Stalin Pact. 

Fruitful sojourn in Japan and Vietnam; international success

In 1940, Charlotte Perriand and her fellow designers Georges Blanchon and Jean Prouvé opened their own architectural office, dedicated to the production of prefabricated aluminium houses. That same year, Perriand accepted an invitation from the Japanese Ministry of Commerce and had considerable influence as advisor on the development of industry design in Japan. But the artist herself also profited from the collaboration with her assistant Sori Yanagi and absorbed many Eastern influences for her own designs. After Japan joined the Second World War, Perriand was stuck in Vietnam for four years and used the time to learn woodwork and weaving. Back in Paris, she received numerous commissions from the public sector and major national and international companies. On the one hand, Perriand served the exclusive luxury demands of the wealthy with her original ideas, but on the other never lost sight of the conditions of the less fortunate, for whom she strove for and realised numerous improvements in housing conditions. 

Charlotte Perriand died on 27 October 199 in her birth and hometown of Paris.