Charlotte Perriand, design and teamwork #Charlotte Perriand

Architecture and design are always a team effort, even more so when they are combined to form a complete work that includes both disciplines. However, in the usual narration of the history of architecture collaborators are often forgotten to highlight only the figure of the main architect. In this way, Charlotte Perriand‘s name has been overshadowed many times by Le Corbusier, an architect for whom she worked for ten years, and other architects with whom she collaborated throughout her long career.

Together with Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret, Perriand created the LC furniture series and the interior design of several villas from the 30s, as well as the apartments of the Swiss Pavilion and the Cité de Refuge. Years later, she collaborated again with Pierre Jeanneret on the furniture for L’Equipement de la Maison and with Le Corbusier on the integrated kitchen for the Unité d’Habitation in Marseille.

Dwellings should be designed not only to satisfy material specifications; they should also create conditions that foster harmonious balance and spiritual freedom in people’s lives Charlotte Perriand.

After she left Le Corbusier’s studio, Perriand worked with the painter Ferdinand Léger and began to develop new furniture that adapted the rationalist vocabulary to natural materials and organic forms. Her stays in Japan, Vietnam and Brazil led her to deepen this approach with the influence of local crafts.

Perriand also worked together with Jean Prouvé and his metal furniture workshop. Perriand designed with Prouvé the equipment of several student dormitories in the University Campus in Paris and Air France offices in Congo, while Prouvé’s workshop also produced some furniture designed by Perriand. Together with Prouvé, Perriand explored the concepts of prefabrication, standardization, industrialization and minimal dwelling cell that she would later apply in her alpine shelters.