Le Corbusier
(1887-1965)
Le Corbusier, byname of Charles-Édouard Jeanneret was born in 1887 in Switzerland. Internationally influential Swiss architect and city planner, whose designs combine the functionalism of the modern movement with a bold, sculptural expressionism. He belonged to the first generation of the International school of architecture and was their most able propagandist in his numerous writings. In his architecture he joined the functionalist aspirations of his generation with a strong sense of expressionism. He was the first architect to make a studied use of rough-cast concrete, a technique that satisfied his taste for asceticism and for sculptural forms.
This armchair is a reinterpretation of a wooden model used in India at the end of the 19th century, the so-called “British officers chair” produced in England until 1956. Its variable-tilt backrest guarantees a high level of comfort without any effort. . It was designed in 1928 for the furnishings of the Villa Church in Ville d'Avray and exhibited for the first time at the “Salon d'Automne des Artistes Décorateurs” in Paris in 1929. Le Corbusier contemplated the essential form, elegance and the austerity of this chair. Charlotte Perriand, Le Corbusier's collaborator, said that: “Metal in furniture holds the same place as cement in architecture. It’s a revolution! On the seats, the combination of metal and leather creates a series of magnificent combinations and original aesthetic effects ”.
The Grand Confort series - in its two versions, small and large model - is part of the series of tubular steel furniture presented in 1929 at the Salon d'Automne in Paris, and is the result of the collaboration between Le Corbusier, his cousin Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand. Translating their thoughts into terms of proportions and ergonomics, the latter created the large model for women, who tend to sit with their legs crossed in a transverse line, and the small model for men, who in contrast stand. straight legs apart.
The Grand Confort series - in its two versions, small and large model - is part of the series of tubular steel furniture presented in 1929 at the Salon d'Automne in Paris, and is the result of the collaboration between Le Corbusier, his cousin Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand. Translating their thoughts into terms of proportions and ergonomics, the latter created the large model for women, who tend to sit with their legs crossed in a transverse line, and the small model for men, who in contrast stand. straight legs apart.
Designed by Le Corbusier with Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand, the “infinitely adjustable chaise longue” - also known by the acronym B306 - was presented at the “Salon d'Automne” in Paris in 1929 as part of the “Interior equipment of 'a house". Certainly the most famous classic of the “Le Corbusier group” is made up of two free elements: the base and the cradle. The cradle - whose shape follows the curves of the human body - seems to fl uctuate on its base, and can slide without any mechanism in a continuous movement, thus allowing any type of tilt, while remaining stable thanks to the friction of the steel with the rubber that covers the crossbars of the base. Le Corbusier himself defines it as the “real resting machine” and said in designing it that he thought of the cowboy who smoked his pipe, sitting with his feet in the air leaning on the side of the road.
With the LC collection, Charlotte Perriand and her colleagues Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanerret traced a new language of modernity. Furnishings would be pared-back and simple, they declared — reduced to the only the most essential elements and silhouettes. The result was a beautiful series of contemporary designs, as timeless and enduring today as they were back then.
Designed by Charlotte Perriand and part of the LC collection by Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand. The LC collection takes its inspiration from the swivel chair designed in 1927 by Charlotte Perriand for her own apartment in the Place Saint-Sulpice in Paris, and was shown at the 1929 Salon d’Automne, as part of a collection co-designed with Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret.