The Humanism of Charlotte Perriand

Kunstmuseen Krefeld Highlights a Remarkable Oeuvre

Charlotte Perriand was more than just Le Corbusier’s collaborator; she was a visionary architect and designer with an impressive body of work. Her practice ranges from the chair to the city and is driven by a profound sense of humanism. According to Harm Tilman, an exhibition in Krefeld on her diverse oeuvre demonstrates that her people-centred design approach is more relevant today than ever.

By Harm Tilman

Charlotte Perriand’s career (1903–1999) spanned more than 60 years, yet she is best known to the public for her collaboration with the French architect Le Corbusier. In 1927, she was hired by his architectural office, where she led the interior design department for ten years. Together with Le Corbusier and his cousin Pierre Jeanneret, Perriand designed four pieces of furniture that are now considered design classics.

There is something peculiar about these objects (Chaise Longue Basculante, Fauteuil Pivotant, Fauteuil à dossier basculant and Fauteuil Grand Comfort). The oddity does not concern the designs themselves, but the question of authorship. In the patents for these four pieces, Perriand’s name was listed first. Later, Le Corbusier insisted that his name appear before hers. At a later stage still, he removed her name and that of his cousin altogether.

An Impressive Exhibition
Not only was she denied authorship of these four chairs, but her architectural work beyond the collaboration with Le Corbusier also faded from view. The impressive exhibition Charlotte Perriand: L’Art d’habiter / The Art of Dwelling, which opened in early November at the Kunstmuseen Krefeld, proves that this is unjustified. The exhibition was curated by Katia Baudin and Waleria Dorogova, in close collaboration with Pernette Perriand, Charlotte’s daughter, and Jacques Barsac.

The exhibition demonstrates that Perriand’s designs of the 1920s and 1930s were widely appreciated, both in the press and among her peers. The idea that she was ignored until rediscovered by feminist scholars has already been debunked as a myth by architectural historian Mary McLeod. Perriand herself never saw herself as a victim. She told McLeod that Le Corbusier supported her and gave her the opportunities she needed.

The exclusion that did occur happened later. Retroactively, museums stripped female designers such as Perriand of their authorship and pushed their contributions into the background. Only very recently has a process of re-evaluation begun, giving female partners the recognition they deserve. A major example of this reassessment was the exhibition Buone Nuove / Good News at the MAXXI Museum in Rome (2021/2022).

The Architecture Office as a Pyramid
One of the first architecture books I ever bought was a Thames & Hudson pocketbook by Werner Blaser on the work of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. At the beginning of the book, there was a photo of the great architect sitting relaxed in one of his own chairs, cigar in hand. The image implicitly reinforces the notion of a man in charge, directing all projects and lending his name to the office.

This is no longer the only possible structure for an architectural practice. Although offices built as pyramids with one or more partners at the top have not disappeared, a range of alternatives has emerged over the past 30–40 years. During this period, architectural duos—working closely together professionally and personally—have become more prominent, as have flexible architectural collectives.

The exhibition in Krefeld shows that Perriand based her practice on collaboration. The figure of the solitary, heroic architect who determines everything held no appeal for her. Architecture, in her view, is the result of diverse forms of collaboration, involving a wide range of participants: clients, engineers, consultants, interns, photographers, journalists, politicians, and staff.

From Chair to City
In 1951, the Groupe Espace was founded, pursuing the ideal of a synthesis of the arts. The group sought to unite art, architecture, and urbanism to create a modern, humane environment in which art would form an integral part of public life. Perriand was part of this collective, whose aim was to secure major public commissions from the French government.

In this context, she designed the interior of the Maison de la Tunisie in Paris, a building by Jean Sebag. Perriand worked closely with Jean Prouvé on its execution. She furnished 40 of the 126 student rooms and designed the common areas, including the cafeteria, reception hall, lounge, director’s office, laundry room, and garden. She also designed a bookcase together with other collective members, for which Silvano Bozzolini created the colour scheme. In this project, Perriand combined functional design with a refined spatial sensibility.

Organic Style
Her Bar sous le toit (Bar under the Roof) in Paris consists of an extendable dining table with steel legs, red leather chairs, and cabinets with mirrored fronts. This interior reveals Perriand’s priorities: optimizing space and comfort. Her interiors carefully address the conditions of urban life.

The many years she later spent in the Far East (Japan, Vietnam) led to a reorientation in her work. She moved away from the machine aesthetic that had dominated her early designs and towards a more organic style. In 1938 she created the Forme-Libre table, recycling panels from the 1937 World Exhibition.

She increasingly drew inspiration from the simple forms she encountered in the vernacular architecture of rural areas, aligning herself with a rich tradition of regional building cultures. In the Refuge Bivouac, which she designed in 1938 with André Tournon, she reinterpreted traditional building elements in a modern way.

Compact Living Unit
The issue of minimal living space was central to many architectural debates in the 1920s and 1930s. Questions included: How much space does a person need to live? What qualities can be given to such a reduced space? These questions resurface today in discussions on housing shortages, urbanisation, and social reform.

Perriand designed the Cellule—a compact living unit based on functionality and rational use of space. This housing cell is a prototype that can be adapted to any context or need. From this model, Perriand developed emergency housing, student residences, and holiday homes. A splendid example of the latter is the holiday village she designed in the 1960s for developer Roger Godino in the French Alps.

Humanism and Engagement
Perriand consistently demonstrated strong social engagement. She embraced communist and Marxist ideas and remained committed throughout her life to a humanistic approach to design. As an architect, she sought to translate her social convictions into her projects.

She does this most explicitly in a photomontage shown in Krefeld. The Great Misery of Paris (1936) documents the social hardships and urban challenges faced by Paris between the wars. The collage combines newspaper photos, maps, documentary images, and typographic elements into a layered visual indictment.

In 1933 she participated in the fourth CIAM (Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne) congress on the functional city. Secretary Siegfried Giedion later remarked that the congress was a successful attempt to assert the legitimacy of modern architecture against the conservative building culture of the time. For Perriand, it marked the beginning of her long-term commitment to mass housing.

The Need for a New Humanism
The exhibition in Krefeld is compelling for many reasons. It corrects the image of Charlotte Perriand as a designer merely in the service of Le Corbusier. It also shows that Perriand was not only a designer, but very much an architect—one who worked across all scales, from the chair to the city.

According to the exhibition’s curators, Perriand’s vision of minimal living remains just as relevant today. They cautiously suggest that her work could once again serve as a model for a modern, humane, and sustainable life in and with limited space. There is merit in that suggestion, but Perriand’s humanism is equally compelling.

She shared a dream of global prosperity and emancipation—a dream that soon collided with the realities of socio-economic injustice, climate change, and social conflict. This led some to question her humanism and dismiss it as an “elitist” concern. Yet the paradox is that we live in a future she anticipated and helped shape, while we ourselves have now lost sight of that future.

Today, the future is no longer seen as a life one must learn to live, but rather as a problem to be solved through science and artificial intelligence (AI). There is a great need for a new humanism that reverses this perspective—one that restores priority to human life and its kinship with other species.

Exhibition
The exhibition Charlotte Perriand: L’Art d’Habiter / The Art of Dwelling is on view until 15 March 2026 at the Kunstmuseen Krefeld. It is spread across three locations: the Kaiser Wilhelm Museum and Haus Lange, Haus Esters. The latter two buildings were designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and handed over to the museum in the 1960s. The exhibition will later travel to the Museum der Moderne in Salzburg and the Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona.

About the Author
Harm Tilman (1954) is curator of the independent blog VivaArchitectuur.nl that explores topics related to architecture and the built environment. Previously, he worked as editor-in-chief of architecture magazine de Architect and as curator of the Lensvelt de Architect Interieur Prize and ARC Awards.

Source
This article previously appeared in Dutch on Viva Architectuur and can be accessed via this link.

Posted January 19th, 2026