Le Corbusier

Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris, not unlike many of the designers featured, did not get his start as a furniture designer. He was an acclaimed, prize winning watch smith in Switzerland. That is until he became Le Corbusier, a central figure in modern architecture and design.

Le Corbusier quickly became known as an Architect who help pioneer the "open plan” concept with his innovative use of materials and engineering. Through the 1920’s and 30’s Le Corbusier continued to enforce the importance of the incorporation of architecture as a vital part of life and positioned himself as a leader in the architectural design revolution. It was in the transition between these decades that he began designing furniture to compliment his living spaces.

In collaboration with designer Charlotte Perriand and his architect cousin Pierre Jeanneret, he helped create machine age classics such as the LC2 "grand confort” armchair, the Basculant Sling chair and the chaise lounge chair. Free from any form of decoration, these tubular steel designs embody relaxed and timeless elegance. It is a widely held belief that Le Corbusier's furniture design career really began when he started collaborating with Charlotte Perriand. Initially stubbing her, he later came around to appreciating her design style after he saw her tubular steel furniture designs at the 1927 Salon d’Automne furniture exhibition.

From that point, Le Corbusier, Perriand and his cousin Jeanneret conceived their most celebrated designs. They debuted the designs at the 1929 Salon d’Automne exhibition. In a set called "Equipment for the Home”, they devised a room to display their furniture designs made almost entirely from glass and metal with concealed lights sliding doors and modular steel units. The furniture designs included all the major pieces popular today: a sling back chair for conversation (the B301); a boxy upholstered chair called the LC2 or "grand comfort” for relaxing; the siege tournant rotating seats with and without a back; dining table; office table; and finally, the B306 "Cowboy” chaise lounge for sleeping. These abstract forms used tubular steel frames and hide and/or canvassed upholstery. Only the chaise lounge originally had the chrome frame and black leather upholstery, but these elements were later incorporated into the other two designs, and expanded to include other sizes of seating pieces, which brings us to the present day.