Charlotte Perriand

Charlotte Perriand
Charlotte Perriand in Japan, 1954.
Born	(1903-10-24)October 24, 1903 Paris, France
Died	October 27, 1999(1999-10-27) (aged 96) Paris, France
Nationality	French
Alma mater	Ecole de L'Union Centrale de Arts Decoratifs
Occupation	Architect
Spouse(s)	Percy Kilner Scholefield

Charlotte Perriand (24 October 1903 – 27 October 1999) was a French architect and designer. Her work aimed to create functional living spaces in the belief that better design helps in creating a better society. In her article "L’Art de Vivre" from 1981 she states "The extension of the art of dwelling is the art of living—living in harmony with man’s deepest drives and with his adopted or fabricated environment."

Perriand was born in Paris, France to a tailor and a seamstress. Her high school art teacher noticed her drawing abilities early on, and her mother eventually encouraged her to enroll in the Ecole de L'Union Centrale de Arts Decoratifs ("School of the Central Union of Decorative Arts") in 1920 to study furniture design until 1925. One of her noted teachers during this period was Art Deco interior designer Henri Rapin. Perriand continued her education through attending department store classes that provided design workshops. She also went to lectures by Maurice Dufrene, the studio director of the La Maitrise worksop. In 1925, her projects from schoolwork were selected to be a part of the Exposition Internationale des Arts Decortifs et Industriels Modernes. Dufrene also put her wall-hanging designs on display at the Galeries Lafayette around this time.

Only two years after graduating Perriand renovated her apartment into a room with a built in wall bar made of aluminum glass and chrome and a card table with built in pool-pocket drink holders. She recreated this design as the Bar sous le toit (Bar in the attic) at the 1927 Salon d'Automne. It was full of gleaming aluminum and nickel coated surfaces, leather cushions and glass shelves, and her design received wide praise from the press at the time. The design caused a sensation and established Perriand as a talent to watch. The Bar sous le toit showed her preference for designs that represented the age of the machine, which went away from the preference of finely handcrafted objects made of rare woods. Perriand took advantage of the use of steel as a medium in this project, which used to be used only by men. Despite the Bar sous le toit's success in getting her name known, Perriand was not satisfied with creating designs just for the well-off, she wanted to work for Le Corbusier and pursue serial production and low cost housing. She was inspired by Le Corbusier's books, because she thought his writings that criticized the decorative arts aligned with the way she designed.

She applied to work at Le Corbusier's studio in October 1927 she was famously rejected with the reply "We don’t embroider cushions here." A month later, Le Corbussier visited her show at the Salon d’Automne, convincing him to offer her a job in furniture design.