Eileen Gray - E.1027 from concept to manifesto

"It is not a matter of simply constructing beautiful ensembles of lines, but above all, dwellings for great people.”- E.G

The reason why I chose to write about Eileen Gray it’s because I was driven by the curiosity regarding what a feminine figure can offer in design.

I don’t know how versatile or changeable her personality was, but I certainly know that these 2 word are definitely reflected by her work, especially in the E.1027 that she designed in an isolated spot in the French Riviera.

One other concept of the building is the idea of having a private place to hide that is having in the same time a lot of windows opened to the beautiful panorama. She solved this issue by placing the huge windows towards the shore ( which also removed the boundaries between indoor and outdoor ) and keeping the other façade hidden by nature and almost invisible to passerby.

Delicate, white and ship-like, the L-shaped and flat-roofed building with floor-to-ceiling windows, a sunken solarium and spiralling sky-lit staircase was completed in 1929. 

The building was a concrete counter-argument to modernism, and especially Le Corbusier’s belief that a building was a machine. Nevertheless, according to Eileen conceptions, the life lived inside a house, the possibility of changing, the organic spirit, a place where not everything is what is seems, should be the factors that shape the design. In order to achieve that, she used sliding doors, screens that would hide doorways, stairs and visitors room, offering deep privacy. She focused on this concept because she wanted a versatile house that is seductive and comfortable and would fit the needs of an unconventional family, which means they would be able to make some changes, according to their lifestyles. Not only does every room give out onto a balcony or terrace and the bedrooms get the morning sun but the shutters and windows are also adjustable, allowing the inhabitant to harmoniously engage with the sea and the hills surrounding the villa.

Her ideas attracted attention to Le Corbusier, who became obsessed by the house  and even painted some mural on the house, because he wanted to buy it.  He wasn’t successful, so he bought a plot nearby where he built a wooden shack, so he could look at the E.1027 all the time.

Her iconic Transat chair and Bibendum chair telescoping tubular steel tables, and a propensity for folding screens, rooms that awash in light, graphic shots of indigo and black against a chalky white background, informed luxe moderne interiors with beds as sofas for lounging.

From chairs to screens, carpets and even mosquito netting, every detail of the house was thought out. The entry partition consists of a series of racks that end in a deep vertical segment of a celluloid half cylinder, which encloses a column of gramophone records. “The tea table is made of tubes that can be retracted, and it is covered with a cork sheet to avoid the impact and noise of fragile cups.” The cloth canopy on the terrace “is made of four independent pieces to resist the strongest mistral winds;” and “a heavy brush-weave carpet for the terrace garden provides a note of gaiety.” The furniture was built-in and often served a dual purpose as in “the space used to serve and clear the dining room can be transformed into a bar. The bar’s surface of striated aluminium, as Gray was fond of aluminum which she described as a beautiful material “providing agreeable coolness in hot climates”, which is used for serving meals, can be folded up against a pillar, while a second serving table has pivoting drawers. The dining is supported on legs of tubular steel that can be extended or adjusted effortlessly.”

In conclusion, in my opinion, Eileen Gray started the project with a challenge, to design a refugee, carried out with intrigating distribution based on the hhide and seek game and finished it with technically advanced materials: glass partitions, zinc-covered cabinets, corrugated sheet metal, transparent celluloid fabric used as mosquito netting. In the end she managed not only to create a refined environment of comfort, utility and above all, beauty but also transforming a vacation home into a clear manifesto.

           

E.1027 space distribution

E.1027 products and colour scheme

                                     

E1027 before restoration

                                         

E1027 after restoration

P.S: The villa was restored recently and it's been the place were a film about Eileen Gray and her life in the time when she lived in E 1027 was shot. The movie is called The Price of Desire and it was realeased in 19th of March 2015.