Charlotte Perriand: The Art of Dwelling

When Charlotte Perriand arrived at Le Corbusier's studio in 1927, he told her there was no place for women in his atelier. She left, came back with her portfolio, and spent the next decade reshaping modern furniture with him. The tubular steel chaise. The modular kitchen. The idea that a well-designed room could constitute a social argument.

She was 24. She had barely started.

This exhibition catalogue — the first major Perriand monograph in twenty years — traces the full arc of an extraordinary practice: from the iconic steel furniture of the 1920s through experimental housing concepts, her transformative years in Japan and Indochina, and the landmark alpine ensemble Les Arcs. Archival materials, historical photographs, reconstructed interiors, and newly translated manifestos written across five decades illuminate a body of work that kept expanding its own boundaries.

Perriand understood design as a cultural and social practice — one that united formal precision, ecological awareness, and deep faith in the ordinary act of dwelling. She was interested in how people actually lived, and in the possibility that thoughtful design could make that living better.

Hardcover · 272 pages