E 1027: Eileen Gray’s dream come true

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E 1027: Eileen Gray's dream come true

Rossetti S.

Universita degli Studi di Trieste, Trieste, Italy

Abstract. During this spring I had the opportunity to go to the French Riviera and to see, finally restored, Eileen Gray's Villa E 1027. It is a very charming building located near the small Lecorbuserian pole consisting of the Cabanon, the small studio / shack of Le Corbusier, the camping units and the guinguette of Rebutato. For several times I have been able to visit these buildings and I observed from afar this marvelous Villa to which access was forbidden, initially because it was a private space, then because access was dangerous and finally because the long restoration works had begun. Finally after a long wait I was able to appreciate this wonderful building on which I am going to illustrate some considerations. Just as Le Corbusier admired this villa without reaching it, it happened to me. He made it his own with unscrupulous acts of wall paintings, I was instead able to appropriate it thanks to the access to its spaces and thanks to the photographs I was able to take.

Keywords: French Riviera, Eileen Gray, Jean Badovichi, Art Nouveau, Le Corbusier, E 1027, space, hull, Art Nouveau, design, Roquebrune, Cap Martin.

Россетти Симонетта Университет г. Триест, Триест, Италия

Э 1027: МЕЧТА ЭЙЛИН ГРЕЙ СБЫВАЕТСЯ

Абстракт. Весной у меня получилось поехать на Французскую Ривьеру и посетить восстановленную виллу Э 1027 Эйлин Грей. Это стильное здание расположено рядом с небольшим павильоном - летним домиком / мастерской Ле Корбюзье. Я несколько раз пыталась посетить это здание, но всегда приходилось наблюдать за этой чудесной виллой издалека, так как доступ к ней постоянно был запрещен. Сначала потому, что это частное строение, затем так как доступ к вилле стал опасным, и, наконец, потому что начались длительные реставрационные работы. И вот, после долгого ожидания я смогла оценить это замечательное здание и собрать фотоматериал, на котором я собираюсь проиллюстрировать некоторые мои соображения.

Ключевые слова: Французская Ривьера, Эйлин Грей, Жан Бадовичи, Модерн, Ле Корбюзье, Е 1027, космос, корпус, модерн, дизайн, Рокбрюн, Кап Мартен.

Introduction

Villa E 1027 in Roquebrune, France, was the first completely architectural project by Eileen Gray, a woman artist and designer, whose furniture projects have had important awards.

In the field of interior design he received criticism from the French, and praise from the Dutch de Stijl movement. His production has been strongly influenced by his experiences and frequentations in the professional, human and artistic fields.

The realization of E. 1027 takes place with the presence and total dedication of a woman, an unusual fact at the time of the modem movement. The building has a close relationship with nature and the landscape and its layout is designed to accommodate the occupants. In its modernity it is a house that collects the dictates of the modem movement, filtered through the eyes of a woman who has given her imprint, derived from her sensitivity and the rich cultural context in which she was immersed.

This document is divided into four theoretical themes in relation to E 1027 in Roquebrune; space, shape, body and technique.

Space

E 1027 is the code name of the villa designed by Eileen Gray as a holiday home for herself and Jean Badovici, it was he who encouraged her in this experience. The interior spaces are above all those in which the influence of modem movement is noted, and research on the concept of infinite space through the search for the continuum between the interior of the house and the landscape and the sea.

Eileen Gray lived in Roquebrune during the whole period of the construction site, witnessing the construction of the villa. Both for economic and princely reasons, Gray did not alter the topography, but made sure that the new construction fit into the natural context, also relating to the natural elements: wind and light, which she took care to consider carefully during the design.

At the time the villa was being built, the meaning of space was being redefined and Banham's idea of fluid space was taking hold (1). The walls of the house itself lost their structural value and became mechanisms to emphasize continuity from inside to outside (Photo 1).

Photo 1

The windows in the central hall also accentuate continuity, they were designed to be folded back, opening the view to the sea, which flows into the house (Photo 2).

Photo 2. Windows detail

In the choice of materials and the internal-external transition points, Gray cancels the boundary mechanisms and emphasizes continuity. The villa was conceived not following the decorative models of the past, but according to the dictates of the modem movement, focusing on the quality of the space inside and around the house. Gray designed furniture functional to the size of the villa (2), the applied logic also derives from the Bauhaus school where importance was also given to the idea that forms, functions and structures could no longer be introduced in isolation, but rational and coherent spaces had to be created within them. Space, functions, structures and objects had to have a unitary link and be coherent with each other (3). The design therefore produced a space that takes functional requirements into account and is flexible. Theo van Doesburg (4) in his writings suggests the abandonment of static dividing surfaces, encouraging an open, more fluid architecture, also using movable walls.

This solution is applied in villa E 1027 where the partition walls are mobile and light, which allowed for a reorganisation of the space, according to the needs of individual users. In fact, the rooms provided sliding partition walls, mobile screens, desks that fold away from the wall, tables coming out of closets, footrests coming out of tables. In E 1027 the space had to be adaptable and the accesses were numerous, which allowed a very varied use of space and a multiplicity of paths, in fact one of the design themes dear to Eileen Gray was precisely the logic of flows.

Although the villa starts out from reflections on the modem movement, Eileen Gray is rather critical of the homogeneity of modem architecture, which puts the interior of the buildings in the background or worse, ignores it.

The extreme rationalisation of the modem movement leads to the neglect or rejection of all the wonders of nature, the obsessive search for rigour and perfection overlooks the beauty of all these forms, while Gray has tried to develop the occupant's internal experience by giving him a sense of belonging to the place, an aspect that in the machine a habiter produced by fellow male architects is not developed.

There is basically a criticism of the purely practical building. Gray designs living buildings and the success of such architecture is probably linked to these themes and its rootedness in the place where it was built.

Norberg-Schultz attributes to the "genius loci" a fundamental value for the creation of a project that links the properties of the place and man" (5). Eileen Gray was perhaps the first woman to understand and experience the importance of "place" and "character" at a time when other designers were neglecting these aspects in their design (Photo 3).

Photo 3. Montecarlo's view from the villa

This villa is a complex model through which to study space; space is defined by the activities of its occupants; it is not an object designed, delivered and inhabited, it is a space in progress, in which the inhabitant shapes the environment and uses it according to his needs.

An example of this is the bed, which is used not only for sleeping, but also as a study and place of entertainment (6). The occupants define the role of the space, using it with private or public function according to their needs and activities (Photo 4).

Photo 4. Villa E1027 inside

Shape

Eileen Gray, in the realization of E 1027, while starting from the assumptions of the modem movement and Le Corbusier's reflections on the form and the 5 points of architecture, has been able to modify them according to a program centered on the man who would inhabit E 1027. Eileen Gray was very critical of many aspects of the modernist movement, her effort was to apply technologies to improve the human experience rather than replicate an industrial process.

She criticizes the standard practices of the modem movement, considers them to be standard and mechanistic rules, while in his project for E 1027: "nowhere was a line of form sought as an end in itself; everywhere was thought of man, his sensibility and his needs". Despite the criticism of the 5 points, however, Gray's design started from the orthogonal grid and took these five points into account.

At a superficial glance, one could interpret the villa as an unsuccessful exercise in the application of Le Corbusier's rules; in fact, it is the first project carried out by this woman and her rhetorical texts written over time make one understand how she was particularly critical of the movement. Deviations from the expected rales are not to be understood as errors, but as conscious criticism, as mediation with a context that is intended to remain such and, if anything, to be integrated into architecture.

The garden roof in such a context would have been redundant and this is the reason why a terrace roof is preferred.

The pilot is described by Le Corbusier, would have had the function of lifting the building from the ground while in Grey's reading they became elements with which to articulate a new outdoor room, shaded and in close relationship with living (Photo 5).

Photo 5

gray villa architectural designer

The continuous windows were one of the most important points for Le Corbusier, while they seem to be the worry of Gray, in fact that continuity and transparency should be screened with objects specifically designed to ensure privacy, shading and cooling, to these windows Eileen Gray has superimposed eyelids, or mechanical structures able to adapt to the changing needs.

The theme of the free plan is reinterpreted and what is observed is rather the freedom of the ceiling which appears as a unitary surface, never interrupted by the wall panels (Photo 6).

Photo 6

There is a strong connection and interdependence between the outside and the inside of the house and this constant tension derives from Gray's research, who tried to create an architecture that cares more about the human being than the machine.

Considering the complexity of Gray's form, one understands that it derives from the search for greater habitability of his buildings. Gray anticipates in a way the criticism of the modem movement of later theorists such as Robert Venturi.

Venturi defines the modem movement's model of living as "a diagram of an oversimplified life program" a reduction to overly elementary forms that idealize the primitive at the expense of the sophisticated (7).

The 5 points are essentially simplifications, reductions, fashionable formulas, which have dried up the project, erasing life, mind and heart. The reaction to the aseptic application of the formula could be a return to the past. Eileen Gray notes how in the modem movement "the external architecture seems to have absorbed the avant-garde architects at the expense of the internal one". As if a house should be conceived for the pleasure of the view rather than the well-being of its inhabitants".

Venturi states that complexity and contradiction in architecture should always be present and successful architecture should evoke many levels of meaning; its space and its elements can be read and function in different ways simultaneously. By bringing Venturi's reasoning back to Eileen Gray's villa, within E 1027 the occupants can shift the meaning of a space by their actions and by slight alterations of the surrounding environment. Gray's criticism essentially anticipated by many years the criticism of the modem movement formalized by Venturi.

Body

The primary purpose of the house is to offer protection and shelter to the body. Man first found refuge in caves, then in tents until he built his own house, in the variety of models we know today.

The modem movement does not seem to give priority to the house, the purpose of shelter, but rather a symbol of economic and industrial interests. E 1027 is a hybrid between the ideas of the modem movement and the understanding of the needs of the human body, it is this reflection that defines space and form. The house was not an object to be grasped through intellectual detachment, but a flexible structure animated by the life of its occupants and the positioning of their bodies in space.

Technology, for the modem movement has allowed the proliferation and replication of the image, consolidating the domain of vision and the body was considered as a static element.

At that time the French philosopher Merleau-Ponty (8), starting from the study of perception, came to the conclusion that the body is not only a thing, a potential object of study of science, but is also the necessary condition of experience: the body is the perceptive opening to the world (Photo 7).

Photo 7. View from terrace with атаса

Gray in designing strived to create a design that involved the senses, moving away from the dictates of modem movement, so that the inhabitant became an element that interacted with the environment, shaping the space. Gray's design involved the senses, movement. With an attention to materials and the interaction with the body, from a tactile and visual point of view, using essentially mirrored materials, chrome- plated, polished surfaces, etc...

The designer's attention was also focused on building a sequence of experiences, emphasizing the internal external transition, concealing the environments and allowing their gradual unveiling. Gray questioned the Cartesian rigour of Le Corbusier, which fully satisfied the intellect at the expense of the senses. Gray, while starting from the Cartesian rigour of the modem movement, brought the body to the centre of the project. Critics have often stressed the fascination exerted by El027 on Le Corbusier, who, when he had the villa at his disposal, put his signature on it by creating some murals that would have somehow ennobled the walls. This gesture was never intended by Gray as an embellishment or a gift, but as a real rape of his work.

Le Corbusier had a real obsession with this building, he tried several times to buy it, but he only managed to become a neighbour by building the famous Cabanon not far away, in a privileged spot that offered a view of the object of his desires, the Villa El027 (Photo 8).

Photo 8. E 1027, Unites de camping, Guinguette and Cabanaon

Over time, however, the object that has been enhanced, conserved and preserved has been the Cabanon and not the El 027, the minor work of a male designer and not the complex and admired masterpiece of a female designer. Objectively, at the time, female figures could find their greatest expression and recognition in interior architecture or design, a role known to Charlotte Perriand and no less to Eileen Gray. Gray's focus on the interior, and the body, can be traced back to the idea that traditionally female professional roles were focused on interior design, as if the interior of the house was a metaphor for the female body.

Technique

Look in gat villa E 1027 in its historical and social context, it should be noted that at the time there was a shortage of housing after the war, which was dealt with by standardized housing and innovative building techniques. E 1027 can be classified as a prototype of a minimum house, in which design also found its place in research on built- in furniture. Eileen Gray's small residences could easily be adapted and multiplied on a much larger scale; the fumiture was all prototypes for later production, and she used prefabricated elements in the use of wall panels, windows, even doors. E 1027 is a complex building, long neglected by the history of architecture for several reasons, not least because the design belonged to a woman. Furniture and art were strongly present in E 1027 and the loss of the fumiture as well as the degradation of the works provided an altered perception of that building and those places, which lived according to the interaction with man. Eileen Gray began her career first as an artist and then as a furniture designer and when she tried her hand at architecture she tried to reconcile and integrate it with her previous knowledge, belonging to other clothes. In doing so, seeking a balance between disciplines, Gray was probably debasing her design in the eyes of her colleagues.

The design of the El 027 cannot ignore the furnishings, which unfortunately were removed from the residence and sold throughout the 20th century. The fumiture is designed for humans, with a focus on technique, materials and innovation, they were an integral part of the project, so their removal can be understood as a loss of meaning for the whole project.

Thanks to the recently completed restoration, it is finally possible to visit E 1027 and appreciate Gray's vision in its entirety (Photo 9).

Photo 9. Entry door

Conclusions

As mentioned at the beginning, the analysis of the theoretical concepts related to E 1027 creates a rich and complex discussion. For various reasons E 1027 has long been ignored, although today, its value as a modem home is finally clear. From the documents drawn up by Eileen Gray regarding the design idea, it is clear that she addressed the issues of the modem movement in advance of her colleagues. Even the design is an aspect strongly linked to this house whose design and realization has been totalizing for Gray. In the house there are technological innovations and unique design pieces, the language is that of the modem movement and its reinterpretation/adaptation to the context.

References

1. Banham, R. (1975). Space and Power. In Age of Masters (p. 49-62).

2. Adam, P. (1987). Eileen Gray : Architect/Designer. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Incorporated.

3. Lefebvre, H., “the Production of Space,” in K.M. Hays, ed., Architecture Theory since 1968, p.178-188.

4. Theo van Doesburg, (1970). Towards a plastic architecture. In U. Conrads, (Ed.), Programs and Manifestoes on 20th Century Architecture (p.78-80).

5. Norberg-Schulz, C. (1996). The Phenomenon of Place. In Kate Nesbitt (Ed.), Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture, (p. 414-428).

6. Buisson E. and Mclendon, B. (n.d.). Architects of Ireland - Eileen Gray (1879-1976). Retrieved September 20,2009.

7. Venturi, R. (1966). Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture. The Museum of Modem Art, p. 16-22.

8. Merleau-Ponty, M. (1962).“The Synthesis of One's Own Body,” Phenomenology of Perception, p. 148-153.

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