Charlotte Perriand designed some of the most recognisable furniture of the 20th century. The LC4 chaise. The Les Arcs chair. The Free Form Table. The Tabouret Berger Stool. But perhaps more interesting than any single piece is the evolution between them. Moving from tubular steel to bamboo and solid timber, Perriand spent her career constantly questioning what modern design could be.
Her early career was firmly rooted in the Machine Age. In 1927, aged just 24, Perriand presented Bar sous le Toit, an interior of chrome, aluminium, glass and tubular steel that caught the attention of Le Corbusier. She joined his studio soon afterwards, working alongside Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret on a series of furniture that would come to define European Modernism.
The LC4 chaise longue, developed in 1928, was perhaps the clearest expression of it. Tubular steel, exposed structure, a machine for reclining.
But Perriand was never really interested in standing still.
By the 1930s, her attention was already shifting. Away from the polished surfaces of the Machine Age and towards the natural world. A keen skier and mountaineer, she spent as much time as she could outdoors, photographing trees and stones, collecting pieces of driftwood and other objects shaped by nature.
Timber began to replace steel. Forms became softer and more irregular. Rather than imposing geometry onto a material, Perriand increasingly seemed interested in what the material itself might suggest.
In 1940, another shift came when Perriand travelled to Japan as an adviser on industrial design.
There she encountered a culture in which many of the ideas European Modernism was striving towards simplicity, flexible living, economy of space and honesty towards materials had existed for centuries.
Japan became another layer in a way of thinking that would continue throughout the rest of her career.
The Mountains
The mountains had always been important to Perriand. A passionate skier and climber, she had been designing for Alpine life since the 1930s.
In the early 1960s, she created her own small chalet at Méribel-les-Allues in the French Alps. Modest in scale and deeply connected to its surroundings, the interior brought together many of the ideas she had been exploring throughout her career: simple forms, practical living and a generous use of timber.
The chalet feels remarkably contemporary. Solid wood sits alongside clean architectural lines; built-in furniture makes clever use of a limited space, while the natural character of the timber brings warmth and texture throughout.
These ideas would later be explored on an altogether different scale at Les Arcs, where Perriand spent almost two decades working across architecture, interiors and furniture for the vast Alpine ski resort.
There is a directness to the furniture of this period that particularly resonates with us. Perriand allowed the natural character of timber to sit alongside clean, architectural forms, irregular edges, heavy slabs and visible grain becoming part of the design rather than something to be refined away.
It’s an idea we often return to in our own work. Our Waney Edge pieces bring the irregularity of a natural timber edge together with simple, sculptural forms. Modern furniture that still celebrates the material it is made from.
Perriand understood that modernity didn't have to mean leaving craft or tradition behind. Instead, she found new ways for them to coexist.
A handmade modernism.
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