Charlotte Perriand was born in 1903 in Paris as the daughter of a seamstress and is one of the most influential architects and furniture designers of the 20th century. Even if her works were presented in large exhibitions and significant furniture fairs in her lifetime, Perriand - who died in 1999 - was much later famous beyond architects and designers circles. Today, her works reach six figures prices in the art trade and at auction houses and many of her designs, such as the famous steel tube lounge chair, are now coveted designer classics.
At first, Perriand studied interior architecture from 1921 to 1925 at the applied arts school, Union Centrale des Arts Décoratifs de Paris, yet broke with applied arts and started to design pieces of furniture. She made a name for herself with chrome and steel, especially with the private bar "Bar sous le toît" conceived in a Parisian attic room. In 1927, she was present in Le Corbusier's collective and worked during ten years with Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret in the house rue de Sèvre 35 on all the pieces of furniture and interior design projects. Many pieces of furniture, designed by her, were at that time ascribed to Le Corbusier. After a long stay in Japan, Perriand went back to Paris full of inspiration and created the timeless, iconical objects characterized by rationality that are still modern today.
The designer's and architect's aventurous life is reflected in her passion for mountains and alpine sports. Her collaboration as an architect in the construction of the large appartment complex in the ski resort "Les Arcs" where she experimented a serial style of furnishing seems to be the logical consequence. In the winter sport resort Méribel, Charlotte Perriand invented the chalet style with wooden tripod-like stools, leather upholstered seats and exposed brickwork of quarry stone. For the illumination of her chalet in Méribel, she designed in 1962, simple, colourful wall lamps with adjustable reflectors, today manufactured true to the original by the Italian light brand Nemo.
The visions of Charlotte Perriand were never subject to a demand for luxury. Instead, she wanted to design practical, simple solutions for everybody and created again and again for a small budget. The fact that her objects not only embellished but significantly improved the daily life of human beings was more important to her than prestige.
Charlotte Perriand was visionary, idealist, aventurous and above all an independant woman at ease in the world. Her timeless pieces of furniture and light fixtures are now design icons with practical use and unique aesthetics.