In the history of twentieth-century design, Charlotte Perriand’s name is frequently associated with Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, and the iconic furniture of modernism. Yet to regard her merely as a co-designer of celebrated chairs and tubular-steel furniture is to underestimate the true significance of her work. Charlotte Perriand: The Art of Dwelling restores the French architect and designer to a broader cultural context. For Perriand, design was never simply a question of an object’s form; it was fundamentally concerned with how people live, how they use space, and how they coexist with nature and society.
Centred on the concept of “the art of dwelling,” this book traces the full trajectory of Perriand’s practice from the 1920s through to her later career. From her early experiments with metal, glass, and modern materials that challenged conventional ideas of interior space, to her post-war modular storage systems and experimental housing, and eventually to the comprehensive planning of the Les Arcs ski resort in the French Alps, she remained consistently focused on how living environments could be reorganised. Her designs are clear, functional, and precise, yet never cold. On the contrary, they reveal a profound sensitivity to the scale of the human body, the rhythms of everyday life, and broader social ideals.
The book places particular emphasis on the relationship between her work and her cultural experiences in Japan, Indochina, Brazil, and other regions, moving beyond discussions confined to European modernism. These cross-cultural encounters transformed her modernism from a language centred solely on industrialisation and standardisation into one that increasingly embraced natural materials, local craftsmanship, bodily perception, and environmental awareness. This is precisely why her work feels so urgent today. As the design world once again confronts questions of sustainability, housing justice, and the responsible use of resources, Perriand’s practice reminds us that genuinely progressive design is not simply about creating new forms, but about reconsidering life itself.
Charlotte Perriand: The Art of Dwelling is not merely a catalogue of modern furniture and interior design, but a study of design philosophy that invites us to reconsider the very meaning of “dwelling.” Through furniture, interiors, architectural projects, archival photographs, and reconstructed settings, the book reveals how Perriand connected aesthetics, function, craftsmanship, industrial production, and social responsibility. What she proposed was not a reproducible style, but an ethics of design: good design should enable people to live more freely while helping them perceive more clearly their relationship with the world.
DETAILS
Author︰Charlotte Perriand, Katia Baudin, Marko Daniel, Waleria Dorogova, Harald Krejci Publisher︰Hatje Cantz Publication Year︰2026 Dimensions︰26 × 19 cm Binding︰Paperback Pages︰272
