Design
How Charlotte Perriand Defined Modern Design
The pioneering French designer and architect is the subject of a new retrospective at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris.
Few people who have spent time in a college dormitory or studio apartment would describe their experience with the phrase l’art de vivre, or “the art of living.” But for the French architect and designer Charlotte Perriand, that was always the goal.
Each space she created was tailored to the purpose and type of person for whom it was destined. A young professional, an art collector, and a Parisian student hardly had the same needs (or the same amount of space and money), and Perriand acknowledged this. Instead, she sought to give them what we all hope for as we live and work in seemingly ever-smaller urban spaces: some degree of flow and harmony. Where others saw problems, she saw dynamic solutions.