When furniture was commissioned for the new city of Chandigarh in northern India in the 1950s, what resulted is some of the most important designs of mid-century modernism. But, from the partition of India to the overlooked name of a female designer, the story of Chandigarh furniture goes well beyond the sleek wooden lines of museum-worthy chairs and desks.

Chandigarh: a new capital inspired by Modernism

Jawaharlal Nehru, an anti-colonial nationalist and social democrat, took the mantle as India’s first prime minister in 1947 following the dissolution of the British Raj and the partition of the country into the independent states of India and Pakistan. When a new administrative capital was required in post-partition northern India, Nehru decided to create an urban centre from scratch that reflected his ambitious programme of economic, social, and political reform.

Deeply influenced by the advance of modernism elsewhere in the world, and how it was reshaping daily life to be more open and progressive, Nehru turned to British modernist architects Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry, who in turn enlisted esteemed Swiss-French modernist architect Le Corbusier to masterplan the new city: Chandigarh.

Focused on the Capitol Complex, the political and administrative city centre, Le Corbusier’s vision comprised stripped-back concrete architecture of clean lines and monumental presence. The design of Chandigarh was a bold break away from the decorative British colonial architecture that had come to define India’s cities; indeed, eschewing this tradition was a vital part of Nehru’s ambition.

Chandigarh furnituLe Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret

The new buildings – which were built from 1953 into the 1960s – also demanded extensive furnishings. For that task, Le Corbusier turned to his cousin, Pierre Jeanneret, with whom he had worked on furniture projects previously – including the tubular steel-framed pieces made in collaboration with Charlotte Perriand in the 1920s.

Jeanneret brought his own language of modernism to the designs, to reflect Le Corbusier’s architecture and the forward-looking vision of Chandigarh. But he also turned to local materials and talent to bring the pieces to life – a matter of practicality if nothing else, as the scale of production to furnish an entire city was huge. Materials such as teak, Indian rosewood and woven cane were central.

Furniture included sleek wooden library tables with integrated lighting, laundry chests made from teak and woven cane, lounge chairs with zigzagging frames (known as ‘Kangaroo’ chairs), daybeds upholstered in cowhide, and elegantly geometric magazine racks.

There were teak and woven cane benches for the lodgings of Legislature Assembly members, leather and teak office desks, teak writing chairs for university students, wooden beside tables for residential buildings – and plenty of other wooden tables, desks and benches besides.

Many designs feature the visually bold and practically stable inverted-V legs (also known as ‘compass’ legs) that have now become an iconic feature of Chandigarh furniture.

Jeanneret worked with Indian architects and designers already involved in the development of Chandigarh, including AR Prabhawalkar, Jeet Malhotra, Eulie Chowdhury (the only Indian woman on Le Corbusier’s team) and Shivdatt Sharma, and turned to local craftspeople for the production of the furniture.

Perhaps the most famous of the furniture works is now known as the ‘Chandigarh chair’ (or even the ‘Jeanneret chair’), an armchair design that was developed for administrative buildings and defined by its geometric teak frame with compass legs and woven-cane seat and backrest.

Chowdhury – who went on to become Chief Architect of Chandigarh – is believed to have helped design this celebrated chair, as well as create the lighter-weight library chair, a version without armrests and a slightly different frame. Both were presented at the V&A Museum’s ‘Tropical Modernism’ exhibition in 2024, shining a spotlight on Chowdhury’s otherwise overlooked impact on Chandigarh furniture.

Chandigarh furniture: decline and revival

The subsequent decline and revival of Chandigarh furniture is as much of the story as its development. As the city was inhabited, some of the designs with more fragile elements, such as woven cane, were worn out from frequent use. Coinciding with a desire that shifted away from modernist styles and natural materials to more robust designs, the deteriorating furniture was discarded in junkyards or sold off rather than restored.

In the late 20th century, European gallerists began to acquire Chandigarh furniture for low prices – and sell them on for a lot more, owing to the market’s resurgent appetite for modernist furniture, and works by Jeanneret.

Soon, heritage experts in Chandigarh realised what was happening. In 2007, Rajnish Wattas, former principal of the Chandigarh College of Architecture, established Chandigarh’s Heritage Furniture Committee, in an attempt to archive the remaining stocks of the Jeanneret designs. The city authorities ordered that no more furniture be auctioned, and Chandigarh’s Capitol Complex secured Unesco World Heritage status in 2016.

A furniture exodus

Plenty of Chandigarh furniture left the city over the decades, however, and is now highly collectable. London-based collector Rajan Bijlani has carefully sourced and restored over 500 pieces since 2004, and has publicly exhibited the works to build appreciation.

‘I started collecting it to help conserve this design legacy, because it was not really being looked after,’ Biljani told Wallpaper* in 2024. ‘As a custodian, I want to donate some pieces to cultural institutions, so that they can continue to be preserved. I want to make sure that there’s increasing awareness about the importance and the history of the collections. It’s been a very long journey, but it’s a process that’s been done with care, custodianship and passion.’

Admirers of the furniture need not only look to the limited vintage market. In 2019, Cassina launched the ‘Hommage à Pierre Jeanneret’ collection, which takes select designs of Chandigarh furniture and reissues them in slightly updated versions.

Bengaluru-based furniture brand Phantom Hands, meanwhile, has also reissued some of the classic designs in its Project Chandigarh collection, balancing an appreciation of original craft and aesthetic with structural and material improvements.

Considering the owners of one of Austria’s most prestigious hotels personally greet arrivals and wave off departures at any hour, it comes as little surprise that equal care is given to what surrounds their guests. High in the altitudes of Lech, Hotel Almhof Schneider has presided over the Alpine landscape for almost a century – since 1929, to be precise.

Current fourth-generation owners Gerold and Katia Schneider are no strangers to their family’s drive to preserve the hotel’s heritage while ensuring its future legacy. Their former life leading a small architectural practice between Vienna and Salzburg remains palpable in the way they operate the hotel, guiding sensitive restoration projects and initiatives, including the gallery and exhibition space Kunstraum Zug and the artist’s studio Werkraum Zug.

Beyond its considered permanent art and design collection – which includes (among others) a James Turrell Skyspace, botanical paintings by local artist Paul Renner and a whimsical fireplace by Italian sculptor Giuseppe Ducrot – the hotel now introduces a temporary exhibition focused on 20th-century art and furniture, developed in collaboration with Rajan Bijlani.

The British-Indian collector and curator is known for opening the doors of his north London home, once the studio of British ceramicist Emmanuel Cooper, to host intimate showcases that extend the site’s creative spirit. In a similar vein, through ‘Provenance’ at the Almhof Schneider, traditional exhibition parameters are gently dissolved: furniture and objects are distributed throughout the hotel, allowing guests to encounter them naturally.

‘Provenance’ at the Almhof Schneider

The exhibition’s title derives from American artist Amie Siegel’s 2013 film of the same name, which traces the migration of Pierre Jeanneret and Le Corbusier’s Chandigarh furniture into Western collecting circuits. At its core is a reflection on how objects, ideas and aesthetics travel across continents, cultures and domestic lives, expanding the confines of traditional genres.

In ‘Provenance’, the structural clarity of Swiss-French modernism is reframed through movements of migration. British potter Lucie Rie, for example, who trained in Vienna before relocating to London in 1938, developed a modernist sensibility shaped by the city yet deeply attuned to the natural world. A highlight here is an early teacup and saucer from her Vienna years (c. 1936), underscoring the exhibition’s themes of continuity and rupture.

Across the showcase, Bijlani’s curation centres on objects with what he describes as ‘unusually clear lived histories’, spanning rare early-production pieces by Swiss architect Pierre Jeanneret – conceived for Chandigarh and produced through local craft traditions using solid teak and Indian rosewood – and an early charcoal drawing of a Seated Figure by German-British painter Frank Auerbach, executed in 1951; his rapid, expressive lines then foreshadowing one of the most important art movements of the post-war generation (The School of London).

Much like the concept of Gesamtkunstwerk – the German term for a ‘total work of art’ that synthesises multiple disciplines – ‘Provenance’ brings together diverse artistic lineages, allowing their many origins to converge and shape new dialogues between objects and landscapes, linking the Himalayas to the Alps, Vienna to London, and the origins of modernism to its enduring afterlives.

Looking ahead, the Schneiders will soon unveil Haus W – a sensitively restored 17th-century chalet in nearby Zug, reimagined for year-round stays and conceived as both a home and a platform for artists-in-residence. It will house a Le Corbusier desk – widely believed to be a unique example.

‘Provenance’ at The Almhof Schneider is on until mid-April 2026. The hotel is located at Tannberg 59, 6764 Lech, Austria

Built in 1930 on a hilltop in Le Pradet, near Toulon, Villa de Mandrot – also known as L’Artaude – is a Le Corbusier gem that blends modernism with Mediterranean vernacular tradition. Designed as a holiday residence for Hélène de Mandrot, a prominent patron of the arts and a key figure in Parisian avant-garde circles, the property sits on a plot bursting with pine, lavender, cypress and lemon trees. It is now on the market through Architecture de Collection, listed for €2.3 million.

De Mandrot asked Le Corbusier to design a simple holiday home with ‘two bedrooms, four extra beds and a garden’. The result spans 200 square metres across two levels in an L-shaped plan. The ground floor is anchored by a living room with a fireplace that opens onto the rear garden, alongside a kitchen and dining area. The sleeping quarters include a master bedroom with an en-suite and a second space that can serve as a bedroom or office. The garden level – originally the caretaker’s quarters – covers 80 square metres and now houses a workshop, an open kitchen and a shower room.

Originally, the terrace was framed by two monumental sculptures by modernist sculptor Jacques Lipchitz – Le Chant des Voyelles (1931) and Nu Couché à la Guitare (1928) – though these have since disappeared.

Le Corbusier’s philosophy – and the branch of modernism that he fathered – encompassed the integration of light and air as a key tenet. The villa is perched on a hill with a southern orientation that ensures sunlight throughout the day. The shaded north façade, meanwhile, remains cool, reflecting a thoughtful response to the Mediterranean climate.

Villa de Mandrot, which has been listed as a Historic Monument, represents the intersection of two currents of modernism. On one hand, it reflects the purist, standardised, industrial aesthetic of Le Corbusier’s ‘machine for living’, akin to Villa Savoye and comparable modernist works such as Eileen Gray’s Villa E-1027. On the other hand, the Provence property demonstrates a dialogue between the International Style and Provençal culture, embracing local materials and landscape.

Le Corbusier anchored the house in its setting through the use of rubble and Var stone, while elements such as a grand staircase leading to the garden highlight the surrounding nature. The terrace, windbreak wall and cabin echo the Mediterranean patio. In 1931, the architect called the project ‘stunning, new, strong, solid, splendidly incorporated into the landscape’.

Villa de Mandrot is a compelling example of modernist ideals being adapted to local context without losing their formal clarity. A perfect blend of Le Corbusier’s standardised design principles and Mediterranean materials, climate awareness and landscape sensitivity, it is an enduring symbol of 20th-century architectural ingenuity.

In the south-eastern suburbs of Paris, a modernist gem has come to market for €880,000. Designed in 1957 by the French architect André Wogenscky – direct collaborator and disciple of Le Corbusier – the home stands as an exceptional example of post-war modernism.

Located in Chennevières-sur-Marne, roughly 15km outside the capital, the single-storey property exemplifies the modernist architecture ideal of harmonising the built environment with nature. Set on a 220 sq m footprint, the house sits within a tranquil, green environment, withdrawn from the main road and approached via a private lane. Chennevières-sur-Marne itself offers a leafy escape from the city, close to the banks of the Marne.

Shaped in an L-plan, the house clearly delineates day and night spaces. The living wing consists of a generous living room with an alcove, a kitchen with a pantry, and a bathroom – all opening directly onto terraces and a landscaped garden. A hallway distinguished by built-in storage and its original wooden ceiling leads to the sleeping wing, which includes a master suite with a private bathroom and two further bedrooms, each with its own bath or shower room. This area also features a dressing room and an additional bathroom.

The home is an instructive case study in both the Wogenscky’s style and the modernist movement at large. The movement champions functionality, material honesty and integration with the landscape, and this home checks all the boxes. Materially, the structure blends textured concrete, brick, glass and wood, creating the modernist interplay of geometric rigour and warmth. Here Wogenscky’s personal sensibility shines through, with interior spaces shaped by subtle variations in colour, texture and atmosphere – always anchored by functional intent.

In terms of environmental integration, the property features a green roof terrace and expansive bay windows, its western exposure further amplifying natural light. The layout physically and visually binds the interior to the outdoors, with many of the spaces enjoying direct access to the terrace and garden.

Wogenscky (1916-2004), a long-time collaborator of Le Corbusier and his chief assistant from the post-war years until Le Corbusier’s death (in 1965), played a key role in France’s post-war reconstruction. Wogenscky’s body of work – spanning industrial and administrative complexes, schools, hospitals and transport infrastructure as well as private residences – combined technological innovation with site sensitivity. His career was defined by a quest for harmony between architecture and nature, guided by humanist values and a commitment to social progress.

A modernist architect to the core, Wogenscky carried forward Le Corbusier’s legacy with conviction, and this house stands as a testament to that lineage.

The André Wogenscky home is on the market for €880,000 with Architecture de Collection

In postwar London, a generation of artists reflected on the changed landscape around them, both physical and psychological. Among them, German-British painter Frank Auerbach captured its density and disquiet in paint, while British potters Lucie Rie and Emmanuel Cooper channelled its resilience through clay – transforming raw material into expressions of touch, imperfection and renewal.

'Each of them represents a very grounded, tactile form of modernism, deeply tied to this part of London,' says collector and curator Rajan Bijlani, who brings their work together for ‘Electric Kiln’ (10 October – 16 November 2025), staged at his Primrose Hill home, which also happens to be the former studio of Emmanuel Cooper.

‘There's a shared resilience in their work that speaks to the post-war city – its rebuilding and layers of lived experience. Auerbach’s connection to this area, Primrose Hill, felt like the perfect point of departure for the exhibition. One of his renowned works, “Christmas Tree at Mornington Crescent”, is included in the show, and you can actually see Mornington Crescent right from the first-floor window, which brings the work’s geography full circle.'

Following last year’s ‘Syncretic Voices’, Bijlani once again opens the doors of his home, Fonthill Pottery, to the public, transforming the domestic setting into a meditation on material, memory and metamorphosis. This lived-in exhibition format – increasingly favoured by art and design collectors – is a deliberate move away from more traditional white-cube gallery spaces.

'For me, the beauty of having a space like this is in sharing it,' he says of opening his own private space to the public. 'I've always believed that homes should be lived in, not preserved. When I first bought the house, which was once Emmanuel Cooper’s studio, I felt a responsibility to continue its creativity. Hosting exhibitions here feels like a natural extension of that lineage, and of this area's artistic history.'

Spread across three floors, the show places Auerbach's impasto canvases and charcoals in conversation with Rie and Cooper's ceramics, offset by modernist furniture by Pierre Jeanneret and Le Corbusier (the pair’s Chandigarh furniture is a particular passion for the collector). 'With Emmanuel and Lucie, there’s both a historic and local connection: Emmanuel wrote Lucie’s biography, they both worked with the electric kiln, and spent time in this area,' Bijlani reflects.

'Bringing their work back into this space felt symbolically fitting. I’m drawn to the materiality of their work, Emmanuel’s heat, colour, and pitted glazes; Lucie’s refinement, her sgraffito lines, and the thinness and elegance of her vessels. Each, in their own way, transformed craft into something profoundly modern, rooted in touch, imperfection, and in the physical and emotional landscape of London itself.'

Experiencing the work while moving through the house in the same low autumn light that Rie and Cooper once worked in creates a sense of intimacy – as if being allowed behind the scenes to encounter the pieces as they might exist in daily life, while reflecting on how the artists drew inspiration from, and in turn helped shape, the character of the city around them.

That atmosphere finds its most potent expression on the lower ground floor. 'The space embraces darkness rather than fighting it,' Bijlani says. 'With the concrete floor and warmth of the timbers, it makes for a contemplative setting where the works can take centre stage. Seeing Auerbach's paintings alongside Emmanuel's ceramics and the Chandigarh furniture in this room feels particularly powerful. They speak to each other through texture, each piece grounded in material and process. There’s a sense that the house itself is part of the exhibition, holding these works in conversation with its own layered history and with the spirit of north London that connects them all.'

‘Electric Kiln’ is open by appointment only from 15 October - 16 November 2025; to request a viewing, please contact hello@rajanbijlani.com

Also read: These are the design exhibitions to see in London during Frieze Week

If there’s one thing that Wallpaper* does well, it’s houses – spotlighting architecturally arresting gems from around the globe and spanning the spectrum of modern design. Our inboxes are overflowing with news of the world’s most boundary-pushing architectural projects, and we strive to bring you the very best.

To ensure you don’t miss a thing – and to showcase the scope of residential architecture today – we’ve launched a new monthly series: The Architecture Edit. Each instalment will highlight our favourite houses of the month: buildings that demonstrate creative planning, innovative methods and, of course, aesthetic excellence.

A Neutra landmark

Perched in the Pacific Palisades, this landmark of Californian modernism went on the market in September. It was designed by Richard Neutra in 1948 for Arts & Architecture magazine’s Case Study Houses programme – an experimental post-war housing initiative. Neutra’s only contribution to the series embodies midcentury ideals with natural materials like birchwood and mahogany, and encompasses forward-thinking features including a prefabricated utility core for plumbing and heating. The original owners lived here for over five decades, commissioning additions such as a guest house, but the property retains its original finishes, integrated glazing and indoor-outdoor flow. Located near Will Rogers Beach and the Eames Foundation, Case Study House #20 presents a rare opportunity to own an authentic piece of Neutra’s legacy and California’s architectural history.

A midcentury gem

The Norton House by Buff, Straub & Hensman – key figures in Southern California’s postwar residential boom – has also come on the market. Built in a wooded gully in Pasadena in 1954, the house exemplifies the era’s lightweight, nature-integrated architecture: it features terraces, decks and bridges suspended over a central stream, while a post-and-beam Douglas fir structure enables open-plan living. Finally, large glass panels flood the space with light and frame woodland views. Still-present original details include cork flooring, built-in seating, and a concrete block fireplace that separates living spaces. While the kitchen has been updated, the home retains its authentic midcentury character.

A cottage transformation

The Black and Stone project by London-based Mallett reimagines a derelict 1930s farmer’s cottage in Perthshire, combining heritage conservation with contemporary design. Rather than demolish, the team restored the stone shell before inserting a new timber-framed structure inspired by Norwegian hytter (cabins). The dark-stained larch exterior contrasts with the pale original stone, while salvaged material has been repurposed – most notably in a kitchen feature wall – and existing window openings realigned to frame key views. The former three-room cottage has been transformed into a four-bedroom family home, blending rugged Scottish charm with modern architectural sensibilities.

A clifftop retreat

Casa Piscina del Cielo, a dramatic coastal retreat by Zozaya Arquitectos, is perched high above the Pacific near Zihuatanejo. The private residence includes two bedrooms, a guest wing, and multiple indoor-outdoor living zones – from a cinema and gym to breezy lounges. The showstopper is a 27m-long pool that extends over the cliff edge, with a transparent floor panel giving swimmers the surreal experience of floating above the ocean. The home is carved into native rock, with a palapa-thatched roof and lush landscaping. Inside, the open-plan layout connects directly to the pool terrace, offering sweeping sea views and a profound sense of place.

A Le Corbusier icon

Though it was snapped up quickly, a duplex apartment in Le Corbusier’s Cité Radieuse in Marseille recently hit the market – offering a rare glimpse inside one of the 20th century’s most important Brutalist buildings, now a Unesco World Heritage site (Wallpaper* was also recently invited to meet residents in their homes). Completed between 1947 and 1952, the building is based on Le Corbusier’s 'modulor' system – a scale of proportions derived from the human body and the golden ratio. This 100 sq m, two-bedroom unit spans two levels, with an open-plan living and dining space illuminated by a glazed façade. The current owners have embraced Le Corbusier’s signature palette, using primary-coloured panels on walls and doors.

A concrete sanctuary

Stealth House by Apollo Architects is an enigmatic residence in Tokyo defined by its monolithic concrete exterior – which conceals a surprisingly lush and luxurious retreat. Designed with privacy and security in mind, the home features an expansive infinity pool and terrace that flow from the main living area. Inside, the design embraces Japanese minimalism with airy volumes and refined materials. A built-in garage accommodates eight cars, with a dedicated car lounge that doubles as a gallery, while the basement is home to a gym, golf room and karaoke lounge, all lit by a sunken courtyard.

A coastal monolith

Designed by McLean Quinlan, Bay House is a robust and elegant modern home nestled into the North Devon coastline. Curving gently along the site’s natural contours, the structure blends into its landscape with a resilient, monolithic presence. Clad in Dorset Purbeck stone, the 550 sq m residence unfolds over three levels, with expansive windows and balconies framing views of sea and farmland. The design prioritises energy efficiency, featuring high-performance insulation, airtight construction, a ground source heat pump, mechanical ventilation with heat recovery, and photovoltaic solar panels. The result is a rugged yet refined residence, blending environmental consciousness with contemporary design.

From the team that struck the city of angels with Thunderbolt and Night on Earth comes another neighbourhood bar that is as accessible as it is design-centred and community-driven. This time, it’s Denver that welcomes the latest venture (and the first outside Los Angeles) from award-winning hospitality veterans Mike Capoferri and Rahul Marwa. Almost as a matter of habit, they enlisted Denver-based design company Wunder Werkz to conceive the interiors and branding; in the process, the local studio became co-owners of the space.

Semiprecious, Denver

Too often, a social hub forgets its ties to the area it inhabits, but for Semiprecious, that would be unthinkable. Inspired by the aperitivo culture of western Europe, the bar celebrates a convivial spirit, grounded in its surrounding culture. Once a midcentury furniture showroom, the site retains many of its distinctive architectural quirks: large canted windows and a stacked-stone façade. The mood here is playful yet restrained, nodding to the mid-century stylings of the Stork Club and other mainstays of 1950s New York drinking culture.

Despite its design-forward attitude, both the founders and the studio sought humility in construction and detailing. They took cues (and hues) from Cabanon de vacances – the tiny holiday cabin Le Corbusier designed for himself in the early 1950s in the south of France. Shades of oxblood (jasper) and cobalt (lapis lazuli) wash over furnishings and walls, while warm wooden accents temper the ebullience.

‘While the space feels incredibly design-forward and thoughtful, it is really all humble materials,’ says Jon Hartman, partner at Wunder Werkz. ‘We used a pegboard bar face, white oak, tile, paint and industrial fixtures, all readily accessible but elevated through their thoughtful application.’ The one notable exception, Hartman notes, is the bar top: a faux marble surface made entirely from post-consumer appliances, reinvented by the Good Plastic Company.

Cocktail cultures of France, Italy, Spain and Portugal inform the pared-back drinks menu, which is divided into categories such as ‘carbonated,’ ‘martini express,’ ‘sours et cetera,’ and ‘spirited,’ alongside wines, beers and ciders. There’s no theatre here; the team has stripped away the pretentiousness often associated with cocktail bars, streamlining and customising the process with tech-forward tools to deliver consistent, finely tuned drinks at speed.

‘As a neighbourhood bar, we want our bartenders to have every opportunity to provide hospitality to the guests. We’ve employed technology to remove some of the roadblocks that can take the team’s focus off the guest experience,’ explains Capoferri.

Take the Guava Sour: inspired by a classic Pisco Sour, it swaps egg white for a modified plant fibre, creating a plant-based cocktail with exceptional texture and depth of flavour. Snacks, meanwhile, are proudly unfussy and eminently pairable – from olives and almonds to a rotating cheese selection or a jamón platter. Close your eyes, and you could be in the Med.

Semiprecious is located at 2839 W 44th Ave Ste 101, Denver, CO 80211, United States.

More than 70 years after Le Corbusier built La Cité Radieuse, his utopian vertical village in Marseille, the modernist master’s brutalist landmark still stands proud. We meet the residents enjoying a harmonious balance of independence and community alongside the odd rooftop sunset apéritif

A self-sufficient community for around 1,600 people, built between 1947 and 1952, Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation, as he called the typology, in Marseille responded to the urgent post-war need for low-cost housing, yet also achieved a timelessly human appeal. Thanks to the ever-present proportions of Le Corbusier’s Modulor measurement, based on the average human body, but also to the sensory effects in the light-filled, double-height living spaces, with their framed views of the mountains or Mediterranean sea, its residents seem to enjoy both new perspectives and psychological wellbeing.

More than a ‘machine for living’, the building hums with the energy of a sculptural organism – one that embraces the materiality of raw concrete. Although colossal in scale, it is often personified fondly as a quirky character (flaws and all). It rests on thick pilotis, or stilts, that critic Reyner Banham described as ‘pachydermatous stumps’. The precast and poured board-marked concrete elements seem reassuringly ancient, sometimes cavernous, and across 17 levels, a grid of recessed geometric ‘units’ painted red, blue, yellow and green generates a free and random rhythm.

The 337 apartments are often compared to cruise liner cabins or the local holiday huts known as cabanons. Progressive for their time, the 23 different ‘types’ of interlocking apartments are constructed using eight combinations (A-H) of three standard modules, and feature efficiently integrated kitchens, built-in storage and ventilation. If the design ingenuity is still appreciated, the dimensions, however, are up for debate. In balance, the shared facilities – shops, offices, a doctor’s surgery, a hotel with a café, a cinema, and a nursery school – are generous. On the roof are a running track, a gymnasium (now a gallery run by designer Ora-ïto), a paddling pool and a play area.

Community life is accessible, yet living feels private and peaceful. This idea was central to Le Corbusier’s vision – the result of 25 years of built experience, travels from South America to North Africa, and research into the development of modern cities outlined in ‘The Radiant City’ urban design project. For him, the antidote to anxiety-inducing urbanism was the harmonic relationship between the individual and the collective; the connection to nature; and the pleasures of leisure and community. This all came together here in Marseille in its most total vision, and has resulted in this enduring sense of humanity: in the residents it has attracted and the sculptural, sensory and emotive ability of the architecture to anchor people to the everyday joy of life, both beyond, inside, and despite us.

Now, more than 70 years since it was built, has Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation stood the test of time? Despite having to cope with strict cabin-style living and ageing infrastructure, the residents we met for this article answered this with a resounding ‘yes’. The most common highlights include (developers take note): rooftop sunset apéros, the harmonious balance of independence and community, and the ever-present horizon line that spiritually elevates apartment living from prosaic to transcendental.

We did find underlying warnings of a Ballardian future on the horizon, with the challenges of climate change and Airbnb transience. Yet many of the residents we met engage with the spirit of the architecture’s intention, like a form of activism that keeps it authentically alive. Our cinematic study, documented by Marseille-based photographer Mathilde Hiley, pays tribute to the still-golden era of the Unité d’Habitation, which offers definitions of how humanity must be designed into all mass housing regardless of budget.

Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation according to 12 residents

Jean-Marc Drut

Jean-Marc Drut eats his breakfast on the third floor each day. He likes the smell of linoleum and wood when he enters the apartment. Even after living here for many years with his partner Patrick Blauwart, he is attuned to its monumental, sculptural status, describing it as a ‘vessel’. Drut has visited many of Le Corbusier’s buildings, from Paris to Chandigarh, and has a photo of his apartment’s original owner on the wall: Lilette Ripert (resident 1952-2000), teacher at the Unité d’Habitation’s nursery school and close confidant of Le Corbusier.

For him, the apartment is a ‘work of art’. Working closely with the Fondation Le Corbusier, the couple have carefully restored elements such as the original metal taps and colour scheme, uncovering a geometric painting beneath the stairs. Drut found the experience comparable to his first life working as a nurse, returning the apartment back to its ‘normal functional state’. The ‘plastic complexity’ of the interiors intrigues him daily: the view of the horizon when climbing the stairs or standing in the bath; the wardrobes that double up as partitions.

‘We are all conscious that we are sharing something exceptional,’ he says of the community. Neighbours consider each other in a ‘natural way’ – lending a magazine by dropping it through a letterbox, or sharing some food with an older neighbour. He struggles to think about what he would change – the kitchen is small, but it suits them. He believes that while the Unité guides a certain way of life, it also calls to people who share a certain kind of perspective.

Michelle Monnier

Michelle Monnier moved to the seventh floor of the Unité in 1970, while she was studying medicine. She visited many buildings, but felt drawn here. A few weeks after moving in, she realised she had been there before, as a child with her parents, who had been visiting acquaintances. She remembered how, at just ten years old, she had vowed to live there one day, not necessarily because of the architecture, but because of the simplicity, the atmosphere and the convenience of the services. She moved into her current apartment on the fifth floor in 1980.

In general, she finds the architecture and design efficiently answer all of her immediate basic needs. Beyond this, she appreciates watching the sun rise from the mountains and set over the sea everyday, and all the non-decorative, but carefully crafted aspects of the interior. She kept the apartment as close as possible to the original, adding paintings by local artists and modernist furniture that aligned with its authentic vision.

What she finds most successful is how she can feel comfortably included in the community or comfortably alone and private – and there is no pressure or expectation either way. After a recent absence due to health reasons, she returned home and as usual, encountered some neighbours in the corridor. They weren’t necessarily close acquaintances, yet many asked how she was and if she needed anything.

Cyrille Trignac

Cyrille Trignac combines work, life and play at the Unité. In 2021, he moved in when he stepped into his role as the director of the École Maternelle Le Corbusier. Welcoming 52 students, aged three to six years old, the nursery school is located on the eighth and ninth floors of the building.

He explains that, as it’s their first school, sometimes children only truly understand the special atmosphere when they leave – realising that it isn’t normal to have a paddling pool in the rooftop playground, or niches of small stained-glass windows to curl up in. He believes that these unique spatial qualities positively influence the teaching style, which is rooted in the values of kindness, autonomy and inclusion. As this is a state school, he is proud that these learning conditions are accessible to all children.

A full cultural and community life is catered to by the building: he takes advantage of exhibitions, the library, the film club at the cinema, and downtime on the roof terrace. He likes the brightness of his apartment throughout the day, and that it is well-insulated and therefore quiet. Overall, he finds the interiors functional and has decorated with a combination of furniture from the 1950s and personal objects.

Other than the absence of a back-up staircase on the north façade between the third and ninth floors, there’s nothing he would change about the apartment or building. Le Corbusier really pulled off his avant-garde vision for a ‘vertical village’: especially in regard to the light exposure and natural ventilation of the apartments.

Geneviève Bonino

After living in Paris for a long time, Geneviève Bonino returned to Marseille with her young family in 1971. Initially, they didn’t have plans to stay permanently in the building, yet they ended up staying and she still lives here – one of the longest Unité residents of the group we met. What she most appreciates about the building is its conviviality – she believes that communal living is relevant to modern urban life, though in practice, it has decreased, especially since the grocery store closed. She personally likes the cultural offerings such as the galleries, yet it is different from having the practical necessities accessible.

As for life inside her apartment – when she entered for the first time, she was told that it wasn’t an apartment, but a sculpture. She still believes it today, admiring the proportional beauty of the volumes. She has decorated with an eclectic mix of furniture and has preserved most original elements, though she did remove the divider between the two rooms designated for children, and the shower to expand the bathroom.

She finds that, during summer, the apartment does become overexposed to the sun and light, and hence heats up too much. Like other residents, she would love to add a metre or so to its width and the loggia.

Pablo Padovani

Pablo Padovani is a musician who appreciates the ‘exceptional soundproofing’ of his apartment. He works on music production from home, without a single noise complaint. After working in a cellar in Paris, the Unité d’Habitation’s sea views and visible horizons have transformed his music, and the serene atmospheres of space and light remarkably affect his mood throughout the day.

His living room has been extended into the void of the double-height space, where his sofa faces the window. In the evening, he watches the city lights slowly coming on, reminding him of New York. He has furnished his home with objects by Marseille-based artisans: a bespoke bench by cabinetmaker Eloi Schultz and a remixed 1970s ‘Serpente’ lamp by Martinelli Luce with a PVC lampshade by Dorian Renard.

The self-proclaimed architecture enthusiast arrived in 2023, and immediately noticed a certain ‘philosophy of life’ among the residents, who respect the intentions of the building. Despite their age, interior elements such as the folding bay windows remain pleasant to use. Since the rubbish chutes were sealed off, however, cockroaches have arrived. Tourists, on the other hand, he doesn’t mind: he likes living in a building where there is traffic and life.

For Padovani, winter is for dinners with friends; he cooks fresh fish from the Vieux-Port on his terrace barbecue. Summer is for rooftop apéritifs at sunset. All year round, he enjoys the poetry of the everyday, and reflects on how new high-end residential buildings in the rapidly urbanising La Joliette district have been stripped of this poetry.

Koubrat and Jocelyne Dimitrov

Previously residents of an artists’ collective in Montmartre, Koubrat and Jocelyne Dimitrov wanted to stay connected to an urban community and were considering a move to Naples, before deciding on Marseille for its closer proximity to friends and family. They were originally attracted to the Unité by its like-minded intellectual residents of diverse professions, from performers to professors, plus the shared amenities and events. Having lived here now for around ten years, both agree there is tangible ‘conviviality’. Koubrat was ‘Mr Cinema’ for five years, programming the schedule of films at the 40-seat residents’ cinema until he retired at 80 years old and trained up the next resident to step in.

When they initially arrived to view their apartment, there was a queue of 20 people down the corridor; four months later, they found out they had been chosen. It was in poor condition when they moved in, so they spent almost two years refurbishing it. They installed new floors and painted the walls white, and now enjoy living minimally. They have a series of sculptural design pieces, such as a dining table shaped like a hybrid rectangle with extended triangulated corners, which they’ve owned for 40 years. Art by one of their sons is hung on the walls. Jocelyne likes hosting friends and family on the top, entrance level of the apartment, which has the kitchen and living room, while the lower level stays more private. ‘It’s a bit like having a house in a building, with the advantage of the view,’ she says.

Ashley Helvey

After visiting the Unité for work in 2019, Ashley Helvey instantly fell in love with the building and jumped at the opportunity to move in for a three-month creative residency. The pandemic hit and she ended up locked down. With its rooftop yoga platforms and running track, it was the perfect place to be confined, she says: a shoebox in an architectural masterpiece. Today, she is still here, having abandoned plans to go back to her former home in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn.

The sunrise and sunset are a constant light show. She can see the sea and the horizon from the bath, and opening up the huge folding doors is like creating her very own James Turrell artwork. The kitchen is functional and sociable – ideal for chatting to guests while hosting a dinner party. However, unfortunate updates include the recessed lighting and bad plug outlets. She dislikes her neighbours’ ‘obsession’ with ‘primary-coloured’ midcentury design that she feels undermines the elegance of the architecture. She prefers it when design goes unnoticed, and the focus is on nature and people.

She believes that the original sense of community has drifted due to ‘building politics’ and ‘egos’. She misses the tabac-style shop that sold essentials such as cold beer, mineral water, lemons and eggs. She’s not a fan of the patisserie (the cakes or the décor) nor the menu at the hotel restaurant, and laments: please someone sell a baguette!

Still, for her it’s ‘absolute perfection – the building has an incredible energy because it was created with humanity at its core’.

Camille Paillard and Romain Voulet

Moving from London to Marseille in 2020, Camille Paillard and Romain Voulet decided to compromise on square metres for a sea view, curious about the experience of living in an icon of modern architecture. They decorated with collectible furniture from Japan and Denmark, plus some of their own, created for their design studio CPRV: the wooden ‘UH350’ stool, designed to the height of the Unité’s loggia platform, and their ‘Aso’ oil burner, made of cast iron sourced from recycled car brakes. They removed 1970s wallpaper, glass shelves, and layers of paint to reveal the original solid pine and plywood of the wall niches.

To some extent, the integrated elements ‘dictate’ their way of life; yet they also admire the ingenuity of the pan storage above the hob that doubles up as the extractor fan, for example. Regulars for morning yoga classes and rooftop sunsets, they love watching the sun set at different points along the horizon throughout the year. Though they do wish that the former gymnasium, now an art gallery, would be activated more often.

Spring and autumn are the best seasons in the building. In winter, the heating system works well. In summer, it’s hot and, while air circulates well, they find tricks to keep cool. Overall, they admire Le Corbusier’s utopian vision and feel closer to nature, even in a dense city. Life feels tranquil, balancing privacy alongside more than 1,000 neighbours – though they have noticed the community vision fading with increasing numbers of apartments bought as property investments.

Olivier Vanmellaerts

Living at the Unité was a dream for Olivier Vanmellaerts. In 2005, the architect moved to the second floor; then, in 2016, up to the sixth. He now also has an office on the third floor. He returned the apartment to the original grey-and-white colour scheme to rediscover the authentic atmosphere of space, light and colour. He enjoys contemplative moments in the double-height living room and appreciates the diversity of volumes: ‘large, small, high, low, light, dark’. To quote Le Corbusier, he says: ‘The wild beast must be free in its cage.’

Light transforms the architecture at different times of the day, revealing new atmospheres, textures and shadows. The building certainly resonates with the seasons, he says – cold in the winter, too hot in the summer, yet he doesn’t find it particularly discomforting. He likes embracing the elements, even the mistral wind as it sweeps beneath the thick pilotis on which the Unité stands. He wouldn’t change a thing, yet confesses that the building is a victim of its success in the amount of tourists it attracts.

Considering it was built in the late 1940s, what stands out to him is Le Corbusier’s optimism in believing that architecture can change our way of life. While everything is considered and functional, it’s also emotional, a quality that has been lost, he says. It makes him question the direction of our lifestyles today and reminds him everyday of the saddening state of today’s banal standardised housing.

Maxime Forest and Laura Serra-Hamilton

Paradoxically, Maxime Forest and Laura Serra-Hamilton first encountered the Unité through its brutalist epigones in Central Europe, where they previously lived. They opened their design shop, Kolektiv 318, on the third floor in 2016, moved into a duplex two years later and then added an exhibition space in 2021.

Forest likes waking up to see the ferries from Corsica and Algeria on the horizon. ‘You feel like you are one of them, a little disconnected, yet protected.’ Even on the roof deck, the sounds from the sculptural ventilators make this experience all the more relatable, but it’s part of the charm.

The couple like to sit on their interior step between the terrace and the living room to experience the 5.2m-high ceiling – the most spacious spot. Other moments are narrow: movement has to be calculated in the galley-like corridors. The apartment features modern furniture, art and design – they don’t mind being selective, because they put their energy into the shop and the gallery. Light is omnipresent in the building, especially in the third-floor ‘winter garden’. There have been increasing conversations about the sun and heat, however. Instead of air conditioning, they would prefer a passive solution: they collaborated on a project with École Camondo Méditerranée in 2022 during which students radically imagined how to cool the building in summer. Residents talk about the building like a character who is alive – and everyone knows the name ‘Le Corbu’. For them, this enduring fondness proves that it has passed the test of time.

Matthieu Afarian

Matthieu Afarian first visited the Unité with his parents when he was a child, remembering the dark internal corridors and the cool temperature change between the concrete pilotis. He used to live in the Vieux-Port, in a 1950s building designed by the influential architect Fernand Pouillon, yet he finds the Unité far superior and he prefers the location, positioned between the city centre and the Calanques National Park, where he likes to go running and climbing.

When he arrived eight years ago, Afarian was looking for a ‘refuge’, even considering building his own cabin, yet somehow the Unité’s apartments gave him that feeling. He met some residents in the lifts and visited a few homes, before moving to the third floor, then the fourth, then the seventh. He likes how you can choose to be either surrounded by community or keep to yourself.

He feels guided by the architecture to add well-proportioned objects to the apartment, and place them in the right place, such as plants pots by Marseille-based ceramicist Emmanuelle Roule, coloured to respond to the light and the sea. When he looks out of the large windows, the terrace frames the view, creating a bevelled edge and a sensation of infinity. It’s quiet, apart from the cicadas, and he likes feeling immersed in the weather conditions and the outdoors – the wind, the treetops and the sea. He describes living in the Unité as a ‘life choice’.

Elsa Zaffini, Camille Reynard and Elliot

After moving in at 20 years old, Elsa Zaffini has lived in three different apartments. Elliot has spent his whole life living in the Unité, arriving when his parents (Zaffini and Camille Reynard) lived on the seventh floor in a one-bedroom apartment – they made a little bedroom for him in a closet and nicknamed him Harry Potter. They soon moved to a larger apartment on the fifth floor, one of the apartments affected by a fire in 2012, which had been fully renovated, yet a little too superficially for their liking.

Elliot went to the building’s nursery school, and has friends on most levels. Children here share birthday parties on the rooftop terrace and play in the hallways, where some parents leave mattresses outside for them to sit on – it can become chaotic, laughs Zaffini, but it’s safe and secure. What they don’t like: the small kitchen; people who put their flats on Airbnb; the rising prices that change the feel of the building with slowly fewer older people; buses of tourists arriving; and people taking photos of them on the roof with their children.

Yet overall, they describe it fondly as ‘a village inside the city’. They’re not architects or design aficionados, but they are sensitive to the wooden interiors and the community atmosphere. After a long day, Reynard goes to the roof to unwind, and sometimes returning home takes nearly an hour because he meets too many neighbours along the way.

Producer: Clara Perrotte

Special thanks to Anne-France Berthelon, Ora-ïto and Raphaëlle Caldaguès

Visitors have access to the Cité Radieuse’s public spaces: the 3ème and 4ème rues, and rooftop terrace.

Guided tours of the Unité d’Habitation are available through marseille-tourisme.com

This article appears in the October 2025 Issue of Wallpaper*, available in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

A duplex apartment within Le Corbusier’s iconic Cité Radieuse in Marseille has just come on the market, listed at €495,000. This 100-square-metre, two-bedroom, two-bathroom unit forms part of the landmark building, which was awarded UNESCO World Heritage status in 2016 (and which was featured in Wallpaper's October 2025 issue).

Spanning two levels, the apartment embodies Le Corbusier’s philosophy of ‘form follows function’. The main floor features an open-plan living and dining area, fronted by a glazed façade that floods the space with light. A compact kitchen – originally designed by Charlotte Perriand, one of Le Corbusier’s key collaborators – was inspired by Margaret Schütte-Lihotzky’s 1928 Frankfurter Küche, the first mass-produced fitted kitchen. Although the original cabinetry was replaced in the 1970s, the kitchen still reflects Perriand’s practical, efficient and integrated approach.

An elegant, lightweight metal staircase with solid oak treads, designed by French architect Jean Prouvé, connects the two floors. The lower level contains two en-suite bedrooms, each with access to a private terrace, also originally conceived by Perriand. The current owners of the apartment have embraced Le Corbusier’s aesthetic, especially his signature palette, using primary-coloured panels on interior and exterior walls and doors.

Cité Radieuse was built between 1947 and 1952 and is regarded as a cornerstone of mid-20th-century architecture and a seminal work of brutalism. The concrete structure, raised on pilotis, houses 337 apartments in 23 configurations. Its design is based on Le Corbusier’s ‘modulor’ system – a scale of proportions rooted in the golden ratio (a mathematical proportion used to create visually harmonious designs) and tailored to the human body, ensuring spaces are ergonomic and aesthetically balanced. The building’s visual identity is defined by the interplay of raw concrete, light and colour, with brightly painted loggias and doors animating the façade.

Le Corbusier conceived the building as a utopian ‘vertical village’, where apartments are interconnected by ‘interior streets’ and residents could live, work and socialise without leaving the complex. This vision lives on today, with the building housing a range of amenities including shops, a café, a hotel, a nursery, a gallery, an open-air theatre and a rooftop swimming pool and solarium.

Le Corbusier once said ‘a house is a machine for living in’ – and this one is running beautifully, seventy years on. This Cité Radieuse apartment presents a rare opportunity for design lovers to inhabit a piece of living history.

The Cité Radieuse apartment is on the market with Architecture de Collection.

In the October 2025 issue of Wallpaper*, we give the magazine over to a selection of long-form stories that we feel warrant the unique perspective afforded by print. Given the clamour to create in a multiplatform environment, we believe offering time and space to a series of in-depth articles further enriches our engagement with the world. And by honouring the true value of a medium that privileges rich visual executions, expansive reporting, and the careful juxtaposing of topics and projects, we hope this goes some way to revealing something pertinent and insightful about broader shifts in culture and life, too.

Across the October issue’s 300 pages, we bring you the methods and motivations of a plethora of world-class creatives, including Bas Smets, the landscape architect renewing our relationship with the natural world; the visionary fashion designer Craig Green, whose London atelier we visited, the better to unpack his extraordinary talent; and Irma Boom, reinforcing the primacy of print one extraordinary volume at a time.

We visit Tbilisi, where a robust entrepreneurial spirit is resisting an encroaching authoritarian state, and head to Lagos, where the informal architecture of Nigeria’s street markets is inspiring a young generation of designers to adapt their home-grown structures.

We broaden our focus on the meaning of home at the Unité d’Habitation in Marseille, where inhabitants of Le Corbusier’s landmark housing project reflect on its continuing legacy, and consider the evolving role of our innermost realm, domesticity, through the eyes of contemporary artists contemplating this symbol of selfhood.

For our interiors story, we highlight the objects that define the remarkable shelf life of great design, and we offer our thoughts on technology and travel – two aspects of an ever-changing world that are bearing the brunt of our thirst for constant renewal.

Pulling this issue together has been the work of many, but I’d particularly like to thank Clara Perrotte, Anne-France Berthelon, Ora-ïto and Raphaëlle Caldaguès for their help in producing our story on the Unité d’Habitation; Kalpesh Lathigra, who brilliantly translated the backstage world of Craig Green’s Paris show; photographer Devashish Gaur, who traversed multiple time zones (remotely) to capture the ten portraits for our Landscape Architects’ Directory; and London Art Makers for their help in creating our monumental interiors story.

Bill Prince
Editor-in-Chief

The October 2025 issue of Wallpaper* is available in print on newsstands from 4 September 2025, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

Seen on the newsstand cover (top left): ‘Bibendum’ chair prototype made using EcoLattice for Aram’s ‘Beyond Foam’ exhibition in September 2025, price on request, by Eileen Gray, from Aram. ‘Bibendum’ chair in black leather, 1926, from £4,915, by Eileen Gray, from Aram. ‘Helia’ fabric in 0733, 2020, price on request, by Raf Simons, for Kvadrat. Paint in Baked Cherry, £70 for 2.5 litres, by Little Greene. ‘Leaf II’ recycled wool in Jet Black, 2021, £86 per m, by Kirkby Design

Modernist architecture emerged in the early 20th century as a reaction against the ornamental styles of the Victorian era and Art Nouveau. Rejecting decoration, modernism prioritised function, embracing new technologies and materials that arose from the Industrial Revolution. It also responded to the growing need for housing as a result of urbanisation. This was architecture for a new century, employing new construction methods and a fresh aesthetic that addressed social, technological and cultural shifts.

A whistle-stop introduction to modernist architecture

Throughout the 20th century, modernism spawned distinct regional variants. Le Corbusier's five points of architecture (more on this below) came to define the International Style, which is probably what most people think of when they think of modernism, characterised by clean lines, a ‘truth to materials’, and hallmarks such as flat roofs, glass curtain walls and steel frames.

In Europe, the Bauhaus School emerged as a prominent source of modernist thinking, with offshoots including brutalist architecture. The United States became a major centre for modernism, developing variants such as Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie School, California modernism and midcentury modernism. In Brazil and other equatorial regions, tropical modernism adapted the movement’s principles to local climates, while, in India, the quest for a postcolonial identity gave rise to its own iteration.

In the post-war period, modernist styles became the dominant aesthetic for institutional and civic buildings – known as late modernism (1950s-1970s). With the rise of minimalist modernism, which provided the blueprint for skyscrapers, and brutalism, which was often used in urban planning, the style faced mounting criticism for being sterile and monotonous. The architectural pendulum, as ever, began to swing back, sparking a renewed interest in complexity that heralded the rise of postmodernism.

Famous modernist architects

To tackle the long list of famous modernist architects, we have organised them by their continent of origin. This list is by no means exhaustive – modernism's vast and diverse nature means there will be many more – yet this is a strong starting point for the movement's most influential proponents.

Further, it reflects the societal imbalances of the 20th century – for instance, in terms of gender. Architecture has historically been a male-dominated profession, with women often pigeonholed into interiors or furniture design rather than building design. Recognition and attribution biases further obscured their contributions, frequently reducing their roles to collaboration or assistance.

Eurocentric aesthetic standards have also shaped the history of modernism, with Western movements often elevated as universal benchmarks, which is why we have chosen to represent a geographically diverse selection. That said, we have started with Europe, where modernism originated.

Europe

Le Corbusier (1887-1965)

Style: International style
Famous works: Villa Savoye; Unité d'Habitation; Chapel of Notre Dame du Haut, all France; the city of Chandigarh, India

Swiss-French architect and urban planner Le Corbusier viewed architecture as ‘a machine for living’, and was one of modernism’s most influential figures. He developed the ‘Five Points of Architecture’ – a set of principles advocating the use of pilotis (stilts), open floor plans, free façades, horizontal windows and rooftop gardens – which essentially constitutes the familiar modernist aesthetic. Le Corbusier is also known for the pivotal role he played in designing the Indian city of Chandigarh.

Walter Gropius (1883-1969)

Style: Bauhaus
Famous works: Bauhaus Dessau, Germany; Gropius House, USA

Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus School in Germany in 1919 (later forced to close by the Nazis in 1933). The movement embraced key modernist ideas such as form following function and simplicity in design, while also introducing distinctive concepts like the fusion of art and industry and the use of materials such as steel and glass. The Bauhaus building in Dessau, the art school’s HQ, is an iconic example of this architecture.

Alvar Aalto (1898-1976)

Style: Humanist modernism, organic architecture
Famous works: Paimio Sanatorium; Finlandia Hall, both Finland; Viipuri Library, Russia

Alvar Aalto was a Finnish architect and furniture designer who embraced functional modernist principles while humanising them through the use of natural materials – especially wood – and organic forms. His career coincided with Finland’s rapid industrialisation in the early 20th century, helping establish the style that he developed with his wife, Aino Aalto, as a blueprint for the Scandinavian modern aesthetic.

Eileen Gray (1878-1976)

Style: International style
Famous works: Villa E-1027; Tempe à Pailla, both France

Irish designer and architect Eileen Gray struggled to establish herself in a male-dominated field, but is now celebrated as one of the most important figures in 20th-century design. Her style blended art deco elegance with modernist functionality, exemplified in the E-1027 house in France, a minimalist villa featuring built-in furniture and sliding panels, which was incorrectly attributed to Le Corbusier for many years.

Lisbeth Sachs (1914-2002)

Style: Organic architecture, humanist modernism
Famous works: Summer House Strauss, Switzerland

The work of Lisbeth Sachs, one of the first registered female architects in Switzerland, is marked by an organic sensibility, with curvilinear forms, expressive materials and structural clarity. She created spaces where interior and exterior boundaries blur, exemplified in her 1976 project, the Summer House Strauss. Her long-overdue recognition culminated with a dedicated showcase at the Swiss Pavilion during this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale (2025).

Africa

Hassan Fathy (1900-1989)

Style: Vernacular modernism
Famous works: New Gourna Village, Egypt

Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy blended modernist principles with traditional building techniques, using indigenous materials such as mud brick and vernacular methods like Nubian vaults and passive cooling to achieve climate-responsive design. Culturally, Fathy sought to develop community-centered, affordable housing for rural, economically disadvantaged Egyptians. This philosophy is exemplified in New Gourna, a planned resettlement village near Luxor, designed in the 1940s.

Demas Nwoko (b. 1935)

Style: African modernism
Famous works: Dominican Institute, Nigeria

Demas Nwoko, a Nigerian architect, artist and designer, integrated indigenous African motifs, materials and crafts into modern architectural practices, challenging Western conventions. He viewed design as a force to positively shape the environment, seeking to create meaningful cultural and social spaces for African communities, such as the educational Dominican Institute, built in the 1970s.

Asia

Charles Correa (1930-2015)

Style: Contextual modernism
Famous works: Gandhi Memorial Museum; Kanchanjunga Apartments; Jawahar Kala Kendra, all India

Although he was born in Mozambique, Charles Correa is primarily associated with Indian architecture, with much of his work addressing urban planning challenges in the country and helping redefine national architecture in the post-independence era. His style fused traditional elements with modernist principles while adapting to local climate and culture. The Gandhi Memorial Museum in Ahmedabad showcases Correa’s signature use of open spaces, natural light and ventilation.

Balkrishna Doshi (1927-2023)

Style: Humanist modernism, brutalism
Famous works: Indian Institute of Management; Aranya low-cost housing, both India

Balkrishna Doshi was profoundly influenced by mentors Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn, but forged his own Indian interpretation of modernism. His work often featured elements suited to India’s climate, such as open courtyards, shaded terraces and natural ventilation. Awarded the Pritzker Prize in 2018, Doshi was celebrated for his humanistic approach, which focuses on low-cost housing, communal spaces and sustainable urban design.

Geoffrey Bawa (1919-2003)

Style: Tropical modernism
Famous works: Kandalama Hotel; Lunuganga Estate; Sri Lankan parliament building, all Sri Lanka

Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa is widely regarded as the father of tropical modernism – an architectural style that merges modernist principles with the demands of tropical climates. His designs frequently blur the lines between indoor spaces and lush natural surroundings, featuring open plans and natural materials. Bawa’s work is climate-responsive, with examples including the Kandalama and Lunuganga hotels, where you can stay today.

Tadao Ando (b. 1941)

Style: Minimalist modernism
Famous works: Church of the Light; Naoshima Contemporary Art Museum; Chichu Art Museum; the Koshino House; the Water Temple, all Japan

Tadao Ando buildings are generally minimalist sanctuaries crafted from exposed concrete with plenty of natural light and water features. His work reflects the Japanese Zen philosophy, with a focus on calm, contemplation and harmony with nature. Iconic projects like the Church of Light in Osaka and the Naoshima Contemporary Art Museum redefined contemporary Japanese architecture.

Minnette de Silva (1918-1998)

Style: Tropical modernism
Famous works: Karunaratne House; Pieris House; Watapuluwa Housing Scheme, all Sri Lanka

Minette de Silva was the first Asian woman elected as an associate of RIBA. She blended modernist principles with crafts, materials and forms suited to the tropical climate of her native Sri Lanka, using, for example, methods such as rammed earth and wattle-and-daub and features like open courtyards, passive ventilation and adjustable partitions. De Silva’s work was largely overlooked due to the gender biases of the 20th-century architectural establishment, but her influence on figures like Geoffrey Bawa is being increasingly recognised.

North America

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959)

Style: Organic architecture, Prairie style
Famous works: Fallingwater, Pennsylvania; Guggenheim Museum, New York; Robie House, Chicago

Frank Lloyd Wright revolutionised American architecture over his 70-year career with his philosophy of organic architecture – buildings that harmonise with their natural surroundings. His Prairie style, prominent between 1900 and 1917, sought to create a distinctly American aesthetic inspired by the landscapes of the Midwest, featuring cantilevered roofs, open floor plans and horizontal lines. Beyond his Prairie homes, Wright’s celebrated works include Fallingwater, a masterclass in environmental integration.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969)

Style: International Style, minimalist modernism
Famous works: Seagram Building (with Philip Johnson), New York; Crown Hall, Chicago

Though he was born in Germany, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe made his mark in the US after emigrating there, helping to define the glass-and-steel aesthetic that laid the foundation for the modern skyscraper. The Seagram Building became, in many ways, the global blueprint for corporate architecture. Credited with popularising the phrase ‘less is more’, van der Rohe’s designs are characterised by clean lines, open floor plans and light-filled, transparent spaces. Read more about Mies van der Rohe's life and works.

Richard Neutra (1892-1970)

Style: Mid-century modernism, California modernism
Famous works: Kaufmann Desert House; Lovell Health House, both California

Austrian-American architect Richard Neutra was a key figure in midcentury modernism, particularly in Southern California, where buildings such as the Kaufmann Desert House in Palm Springs helped define the California modern style. His designs are sleek, light-filled and open plan, emphasising health, lifestyle and a connection with the outdoors through the use of glass and natural materials.

Louis Kahn (1901-1974)

Style: Monumental modernism
Famous works: Salk Institute, California; Kimbell Art Museum, Texas

Louis Kahn, recipient of both the AIA Gold Medal and the RIBA Gold Medal, was renowned for his monumental, monolithic buildings that showcase their weight, materials and structure rather than concealing them. Kahn’s designs blend modernism with classical influences, characterised by geometric forms and materials like brick and concrete.

Charles and Ray Eames (1907-1978 and 1912-1988)

Style: Mid-century modernism
Famous works: Eames House, California

Perhaps two of the most influential figures in 20th-century design, married couple Charles and Ray Eames are renowned for their contributions to architecture, furniture and industrial design. Their use of new materials like moulded plywood and fibreglass combined functionality with aesthetics. The Eames House, built in 1949 in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, stands as a landmark of midcentury modern residential architecture.

South America

Oscar Niemeyer (1907-2012)

Style: Brazilian modernism, sculptural modernism
Famous works: Civic buildings of Brasília; Niterói Museum of Contemporary Art, both Brazil; United Nations Headquarters, US

Strongly influenced by Le Corbusier, Oscar Niemeyer’s use of free-form concrete, often cast in sinuous curves that echoed the natural landscapes of Brazil, led some to dub him a ‘sculptor of monuments’. Along with urban planners Lúcio Costa and Joaquim Cardozo, Niemeyer helped design the new capital of Brasília in the 1950s, including the National Congress, the cathedral and the Palácio da Alborada.

Lina Bo Bardi (1914-1992)

Style: Brazilian modernism, humanist modernism, brutalism
Famous works: SESC Pompéia; Glass House; São Paulo Museum of Art, all Brazil

Born in Italy, Lina Bo Bardi is celebrated for her contributions to Latin American architecture, particularly in Brazil, where she navigated challenges as both a foreigner and a woman. An advocate for architecture’s social potential, she created buildings marked by cultural and material sensitivity, blending brutalist forms with Brazilian vernacular influences.

Carlos Raúl Villanueva (1900-1975)

Style: Regional modernism, brutalism
Famous works: Ciudad Universitaria de Caracas; Olympic Stadium, both Venezuela; Aula Magna, Mexico

Venezuelan but raised in Europe, Carlos Raúl Villanueva brought modernist ideals to Latin America, where he fused them with local cultural and climatic contexts. A defining concept in his work was the idea of ‘synthesis of the arts’, a belief that architecture should be integrated with painting, sculpture and other visual arts. Villanueva also drew from brutalism, with extensive use of reinforced concrete, and his projects often had a social dimension – he played a major role in shaping the urban fabric of cities like Caracas and Maracay.

The Shakers: A World in the Making

On 7 June 2025, the Vitra Design Museum in Germany will launch ‘The Shakers: A World in the Making’, which will run until 28 September. The exhibition will explore the enduring influence of the Shakers, a Protestant sect that originated in England in the mid-1700s, its members emigrating to the American colonies in 1774.

‘The Shakers: A World in the Making’, with an exhibition design by Milan-based studio Formafantasma (a winner at Wallpaper's 2025 Design Awards), will bring together over 150 original Shaker artefacts, as well as newly commissioned works by contemporary artists and designers, creating a dialogue between history and modern creativity.

One of the exhibition’s four sections, titled ‘I Don’t Want to be Remembered as a Chair’, argues that Shaker design should not be appreciated purely for its aesthetics but through the lens of the group’s religious and communal philosophy. Thus, ‘The Shakers: A World in the Making’ will examine how these values became a wellspring of inspiration for modern designers, and how the Shakers’ legacy continues to resonate in art and design today.

Today, ‘Shaker style’ has come to mean a number of things: design that is simple, minimalist and democratic; functional, practical and optimised; and that prioritises craftsmanship and, later, technology. Below, we explore how these principles are manifested in key 20th-century movements such as modernism and Bauhaus, which find their roots in the Shakers’ way of life.

How Shaker principles have informed modern design

Simplicity, minimalism and democratic design

The Shakers were, in many ways, ahead of their time, espousing egalitarian ideals and even institutionalising gender equality in the 1780s. These values extended to those with physical disabilities. The Shakers’ inclusive philosophy, explored in the exhibition through the work of artist Finnegan Shannon, was reflected in their architecture and design, which prioritised accessibility and simplicity – design for all, not just the elite.

This laid the groundwork for modernism, which emerged in the early 20th century as a reaction against the ornate styles of Victorian and art nouveau. Modernist designers preferred clean lines and rejected unnecessary decoration, intending for their work to be applicable across cultures and contexts. The likes of Le Corbusier, Alvar Aalto and Charles and Ray Eames admired Shaker principles.

Bauhaus, which emerged in 1919, adopted similar ideals, with its clean lines and geometric shapes, avoiding ornamentation. Scandinavian design, too, bears the hallmarks of Shaker design, with its uncluttered, streamlined look (think Danish designer Hans Wegner’s iconic ‘Wishbone’ chair, as seen in this Swiss chalet, which has distinct echoes of Shaker seating). It also follows democratic ideals, aiming to create high-quality design for the many, distilled in the business model of Swedish stalwart Ikea.

Functionality, practicality and spatial optimisation

The importance that the Shakers placed on labour translated into designs that were functional: think ladder-back chairs, straight-legged tables, built-in cupboards, and efficient storage solutions such as wall-mounted rails, boxes and baskets. The Shakers were early adopters of serial furniture production; in the exhibition, in the section titled ‘When We Find a Good Thing, We Stick To It’, audiences can see examples of standardised and customisable Shaker chairs.

This element of Shaker design can be felt in Bauhaus, where decorative elements were minimised unless they served a function, and Scandinavian design, which seeks to create beauty from utility. Modernism sought to create efficient spaces and objects for modern life; the idea underpinning the ‘Eames Molded Plywood Chair’, for example, was that every element served a purpose. Modernism’s layouts, meanwhile, often used an optimised grid system.

‘The Shakers: A World in the Making’ uses furniture such as cabinets, chests of drawers and sewing desks to illustrate the community’s instinct towards orderliness, as codified in their 1821 and 1845 Millennial Laws, a body of teachings covering a wide range of aspects of Shaker life, including behaviour, dress and even how to climb stairs.

Craftsmanship, natural materials and openness to technology

The Shakers had a strong work ethic, which also translated into a focus on craftsmanship. In ‘I Don’t Want to be Remembered as a Chair’, the Shaker belief in labour as a form of worship is reinterpreted by artist and designer Chris Halstrøm through a large-scale embroidered artwork where each stitch is represented as a prayer.

The group’s emphasis on handmade quality resonated with the Arts and Crafts movements which took off in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and valued natural materials, simple joinery and built-to-last construction. The idea is also felt in Scandinavian design, where quality is paramount; this movement also, like the Shakers, favours organic materials such as wood, leather, linen, and stone.

Despite their insular communities, the Shakers were open to outside influences. The exhibition’s ‘Every Force Evolves a Form’ section traces how they interacted with the advancements of the wider world, showcasing oval boxes and rudimentary power tools. In ‘The Place Just Right’, audiences can see a radio that belonged to the Shaker community in Canterbury, Connecticut, as well as musical artefacts such as a metronome (music was a big part of Shaker life; they gained their moniker through the worshipful dance for which they were known). Shaker innovation is also explored through a commission from Christien Meindertsma, who reimagines their basketry as a biodegradable coffin.

Like the Shakers, later design movements such as modernism and Bauhaus embraced technological progress, especially industrial production, as a means of improving everyday life.

Full exhibition details at vitradesignmuseum.de

Le Corbusier first went to Rio de Janeiro in 1929, finding the city ‘violent and sublime’. The Swiss-French architect maintained a connection with Brazil for the rest of his life. He travelled there by Zeppelin, drew up disruptive urban plans for Rio and São Paulo (neither realised), worked with modernists Oscar Niemeyer and Lucio Costa, and designed the Maison du Brésil in Paris (making so many changes to Costa's original plans that the Brazilian removed himself from the project). His final commission was to design the French embassy for the new capital of Brasilia, though it was cut short by his death in 1965.

And yet the connection continues. As part of ‘France-Brazil Season 2025’, a year of cultural exchange, the Maison La Roche, which houses the Fondation Le Corbusier, is hosting the first international show by Brazilian exhibition platform Aberto.

Aberto was founded in 2022 by art consultant Filipe Assis, after he learned that the only Niemeyer-designed house in São Paulo had been put up for sale by the family who commissioned it in 1974. Like many modernist houses in Brazil, it was not landmarked or protected, and could easily be torn down. ‘I wanted to try to give a new purpose to these modern houses,’ Assis recalls. ‘I saw that there was a potential to do an art event, to bring awareness.’

He worked with curators Kiki Mazzucchelli and Claudia Moreira Salles (also a designer) to create the first Aberto exhibition at the house, showing national and international artworks in dialogue with Niemeyer's work. It worked: the family has since kept the house as an event space.

The team put together two subsequent editions of Aberto in other hidden architectural gems around São Paulo (including a little-known 1970s brutalist house by Chu Ming Silveira). After attracting more than 20,000 visitors last year, they decided to take the concept to Europe. Assis says, ‘Paris was the main choice because of Le Corbusier's rich relationship with Brazil.’

Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret designed the Maison La Roche in the 1920s for Swiss banker and art collector Raoul La Roche. With its open concept, ribbon windows and a colour palette of 17 gradient shades, it's a striking setting for Aberto4, which brings together contemporary and 20th-century Brazilian artists.

Some of them are big names, such as Beatriz Milhazes, who currently has a solo show at the Guggenheim in New York. Her vibrantly colourful collage at Maison La Roche includes Chanel ribbons and chocolate wrappers, and shares a hallway with a Le Corbusier collage from 1958.

Another important contemporary figure, Luiz Zerbini, welcomes visitors into the entrance hall with a painting of a decrepit modernist building in the Brazilian city of Recife, its coloured façade reminiscent of Le Corbusier's Cité Radieuse. Zerbini's painting is one of several works created for this show. Many are for sale, which helps to finance the project.

Raoul La Roche's private gallery is the largest room in the house, with a dramatic interior ramp and wall-length, sheet-metal lighting that also serves as a sun shield. It displays a selection of artists from Brazil's concretist and neo-concretist movements, which began in the late 1940s. On a table sits one of Lygia Clark's ‘Bichos’, or ‘Critters’, a hinged metal sculpture. Guest curator Lauro Cavalcanti says that, in the same way Le Corbusier believed sculpture should be ‘listened to’, Clark created these works to be unstable, and ‘activated’ by the viewer (though touching is discouraged).

Up the ramp, in the library, hangs an abstract work by Luísa Matsushita, who spent years singing under the name Lovefoxxx with a Brazilian indie band, and now paints full-time. Her painting for Aberto4 has sensuous organic forms and colour blocks in the shades of Maison La Roche. ‘She wanted to do something fluid, in contrast with the rigid architecture of the house,’ says Mazzucchelli.

A nearby wall shows a textured canvas in rich reds and browns by António Tarsis, who grew up poor in a favela in Salvador. Since his teenage years, he's been collecting discarded objects, which he cuts and dyes, then pastes to form grids with colour variations. ‘His work talks about found materials, recycling, his personal story,’ explains Mazzucchelli. ‘It's incredible what you can make with matchboxes.’

Also hanging in the library is a work by Sidival Fila, who creates art with a different kind of found object: antique textiles. Fila is a Franciscan friar from Brazil who lives in Rome. In his spare time, he meticulously sews old fabric, much of it liturgical, to create structural volumes on canvas frames. Until recently under the radar, he is now represented by Paris gallerist Kamel Mennour, and he donates 100 per cent of his proceeds to charity.

In the dining room, sunlight caresses the sinuous lines of Maria Martins' bronze sculpture, inspired by tree roots in the Amazon and lent to the show by a museum in Brazil. Martins was an important early 20th-century artist who lived in Paris for a time as the wife of a Brazilian diplomat. She was also Marcel Duchamps' lover. ‘He was crazy about her,’ Mazzucchelli says.

On the floor above, works by two major Brazilian names, Anna Maria Maiolino (soon to have a show at the Musée Picasso) and Tunga, grace La Roche's surprisingly modest bedroom. Next door in the dressing room, the sculptor Erika Verzutti is showing three stoneware ceramic sculptures cast from jackfruit, with bumpy skin and smooth interiors, inspired by pencils, Barbara Hepworth and architecture. ‘I call them ‘Brasilias,’’ she explains, ‘because they are Niemeyeresque.’ (As for Le Corbusier, Verzutti says that Brazilians have ‘internalised’ him.)

ABERTO4 runs until 8 June, but already, the team is planning upcoming editions. They are considering a 1970s spherical house by architect Eduardo Longo in São Paulo, as well as others in Europe. It's a pretty sure thing the event will be warmly welcomed wherever it goes. As Le Corbusier wrote in a 1962 letter, 'Brazil is one of those hospitable and generous places that one likes to be able to call a friend.'

Aberto4 runs until June 8 2025, aberto.art

There’s a travel trend to suit every taste nowadays, including one for those whose passion is architecture: architourism, which involves exploring built environments around the world.

Architourian is the brainchild of Ian Macready, who worked in architecture and design for over 30 years. The company operates tours in India, a nation brimming with architectural wonders. It aims to shine a light on the human stories behind buildings and cityscapes, focusing on the cultural, historical and social context of the architecture.

Architourian’s ‘100 Years of Architecture in India – Empire to Village’ tour is a seven-night foray through northern India. It begins in New Delhi, where travellers can see the imperial architecture of Edwin Lutyens, who designed much of the city between 1912-1930 when it was chosen to replace Calcutta as the seat of the British Indian government.

The tour also encompasses Chandigarh, India's first planned city, designed by Le Corbusier to serve as a symbol of the newly independent India. With its grid layout, it is a prime example of modernist urban planning. Le Corbusier’s Capitol Complex, which encompasses the Palace of Assembly, Secretariat Building and High Court, is a Unesco World Heritage Site.

The tour concludes in Amaya Himalayan resort, designed by Studio Mumbai. The studio’s Bijoy Jain handcrafted the resort’s villas, which sit within 20 acres of terraced forests near Darwa village, without cement, blending ancient tradition with modern comfort.

Through exploration of these destinations, the ‘architour’ considers the social and political impacts of India's built environment, examining ideas like the introduction of contemporary sensibilities into traditional crafts; the friction between colonial planning and indigenous voices; and how India can scale its offering sustainably. It also meditates on broader architectural themes such as whether modernist architecture can improve quality of life and how modern design can connect with vernacular architecture.

Whether you want to learn more about how built environments shape national identity, or are simply in the market to experience some breathtaking architecture, ‘architourism’ deep dives into some of the most fascinating sites on the planet.

‘100 years of Architecture in India – Empire to Village’ is available to book for 2025 and 2026. Tours cost £3,300-£3,950 per person, architourian.com

Le Corbusier defined modernism like no other architect. Part of a handful of masters of the 20th century midcentury style who made an indelible mark in modernist architecture - Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van der Rohe, Lina Bo Bardi and Alvar Aalto are some of the others – Le Corbusier is a leading figure in this most famous of architecture movements, and according to some, the first 'starchitect.'

Le Corbusier wrote, if not 'the', then 'a' rulebook for modernism – quite literally, as his groundbreaking 1923 book Towards a New Architecture famously outlined his 'five points of architecture', essentially the five elements a building should tick off if it wanted to be part of the brave new world of modernism (though others offered different interpretations, within the same movement). He was no stranger to controversy either, for example, painting murals on Eileen Gray's white-walled E-1027 house without her permission. A fascinating and complex figure, Le Corbusier has long captivated the architecture world, his influence spilling over to art, product, fashion and other creative industries. Scroll down, to explore the architect's life and work.

Who was Le Corbusier?

Le Corbusier was born in Switzerland's Jura region in 1887, named Charles-Édouard Jeanneret – and died during his daily swim (having suffered a heart attack) in his beloved seaside spot in the Cote d'Azur in 1965, aged 77.

Growing up in the Swiss heartland of watchmaking, young Le Corbusier started training in crafts and in particular, enamelling and engraving, at the age of 13. He went on to discover architecture with the encouragement of his teachers. A self-taught architect, he studied art history and drawing and followed the styles of his time, in particular Art Nouveau. He also travelled extensively in Europe, which started informing his understanding of architecture.

Early work, most done in his home country of Switzerland in collaboration with local architects, includes the Art Nouveaux-inspired Villa Fallet (1905–07, co-created during his studies there) and the more Art Deco volumes of Villa Schwob (1916–17), both in La Chaux-de-Fonds.

Living in Paris from the age of 30, he became familiar with the cutting-edge art movements of his time – such as abstraction and cubism. It was around that time that he started using his pseudonym, Le Corbusier – French for 'the crowlike one' but also a version of his grandfather's surname Lecorbésier. His work was influenced by his cultural encounters (eventually adopting the geometric, minimalist volumes his mature work is most well-known for) and he painted too.

Le Corbusier's five points of architecture

His designs were accompanied by studies and writing, as Le Corbusier authored several books over the decades. He proposed theoretical models, such as Dom-Ino House, an open-plan frame for a house, which outlined a system of planes, columns and stairs connecting levels, which could be customised and used as a base for several designs. It became a foundational model for his later works.

He also collaborated with artists and poets of his time, such as purist painter Amédée Ozenfant and poet Paul Dermée, and even founded a magazine with the two, the avant-garde L’Esprit nouveau in 1920. Arguably one of his most influential publications was Vers Une Architecture – translated to Towards a New Architecture and first published in 1923.

A collection of essays, some of which had appeared in some form in L’Esprit nouveau, the book became a seminal reference for modernists, and architects, around the world during the 20th century. Within it, Le Corbusier outlined the five key elements that he felt were revolutionising the architecture of his time - and defined a modern, progressive home. These included: the use of pilotis (columns raising the building's main body off the ground), free-form, open-plan layouts, a facade design that is free from grids and symmetry, horizontal strip windows, and terraces and accessible roof gardens.

Le Corbusier: the first period (1922-1940)

Le Corbusier partnered with his cousin Pierre Jeaneret to found a joint practice in 1922. Defined by more traditional forms, these early works are a distinct period in the architect's career, lasting till 1940 when life and work across the globe were disrupted by the Second World War. Examples of this time's output include lots of designs for urban planning, unbuilt works and shows. It also spans some of the architect's most well-known designs and his extensive, early collection of single-family homes.

Works of that era include instantly recognisable oeuvres, such as the Ozenfant House and Atelier in Paris (1922-24), Maison Cook in Boulogne-Billancourt (1926), Villa Baizeau in Carthage, Tunisia (1928), and Villa Savoye in Poissy (1928-31). Their white volumes, radical for their time appearance, and forms largely following the 'five points' are seminal in Le Corbusier's growing portfolio - and key examples of 20th-century architecture across history books.

Le Corbusier: the second period (1944-1965)

After the war ended, Le Corbusier's career took off, his portfolio becoming filled with landmark examples of 20th-century modernism, informed by his research and experimentations on what the modern city and the cities of the future could, and should, look like. His style started evolving too, from the clean, white, even serene shapes of his earlier houses to more bold, brutalist and austere forms.

His second-period portfolio offers a star-studded tour of his most famous works. Examples include Marseille's Unite d'Habitation (1945-52), a case study of urban, high-density, self-contained social housing filled with amenities for its residents (which birthed several more examples in other places), to the Notre-Dame du Haut chapel (1950-55) in Ronchamp; his extensive work on the city of Chandigarh, India (1950-65), which involved many more architects and specialists in a group he led; the millowners' association in Ahmedabad (1951); the experimental Philips Pavilion at the 1958 Brussels Expo; and his Église Saint-Pierre in Firminy, which was completed in 2006, 41 years after his death.

Le Corbusier: controversies, legacy and death

Le Corbusier has been a polarising figure in the field. He has been criticised for unapologetically ignoring the local context in his building designs, and for creating urban visions that felt 'inhuman' and too austere. His political opinions have also been controversial, as alleged in a 2015 book by Xavier de Jarcy, 'Le Corbusier: A French Fascism.'

At the same time, according to the Le Corbusier Foundation in Paris, the architect was truly prolific, having 'built 79 buildings between 1905 and 1965 all over the world: in France, India and Switzerland, but also Germany, Belgium, Argentina, Japan, Russia, Tunisia and the United States.' His legacy has been multifold, spanning building design and urban planning, ushering ideas for 20th-century architecture that were novel and revolutionary.

His work, throughout his career, has also included furniture design (often created in collaboration with partners, such as Pierre Jeaneret and Charlotte Perriand), painting, sculpture and crafts, such as enamelling and engraving. 'It is in the practice of plastic arts that I found the intellectual sap of my urbanism and my architecture,' he has said, as mentioned in the foundation's archives on his artworks.

Le Corbusier had a small, modest wooden cabin in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, built in 1951, which he often visited. 'I have a stately home on the French Riviera, 3.66m by 3.66m. It’s for my wife, a prodigality of comfort and kindness,' he has said of his retreat. He died there while swimming off the coast of the French Riviera in 1965.

‘I’ve always tried to approach design like an architect rather than a jewellery designer,’ says New York-based Shahla Karimi, who riffs off architectural references when creating the distinctive jewellery for her eponymous brand. ‘Each capsule feels like a unique site, shaped by a specific moment in time and context. This perspective helps me explore different directions without being limited to one aesthetic. While the forms may differ, they all share a common design language that connects them.’

Karimi has quickly established a strong visual identity throughout her extensive collections, focusing on boldly drawn lines, unexpected stone placements and sensual silhouettes that eschew stiffness to swoop and flow over the body. In the Wiskup X Shahla ring created in collaboration with Evan Wiskup, a juxtaposition of cuts bring a sharp modernity.

In her jewellery, she looks to the lines and ratios in architecture for inspiration, with recent capsule collections inspired by Herzog & de Meuron, Hossein Amanat, Antoni Gaudí, Le Corbusier, and Balkrishna Doshi. During a recent visit to Mumbai, she also began to appreciate buildings including Le Corbusier’s works in Chandigarh and the Indian Institute of Management, designed by Louis Kahn.

‘The Le Corbusier capsule is hallmarked by framed diamond baguettes mounted atop high-polish platinum and gold representing the modernist concrete and clean lines of Chandigarh, with the natural integration of the reflection pools, together forming a balance of form and soul,’ says Karimi.

It is an aesthetic she draws on more generally throughout her jewellery designs. ‘I tend to connect the most with buildings that have bold geometry and clean lines, modernist and postmodern architecture of late. The architects that inspire me incorporate modern materials like concrete, glass, steel and now sustainable alternatives. They leverage the latest in technology to create things the world has never seen.’

Karimi approaches form versus function as an enjoyable challenge: ‘Each piece needs to be both comfortable and ergonomic, and producable. Production can be challenging, especially when working with fabricators and finishers who have honed their craft in a certain way for decades. We’re fortunate to have innovative partners who embrace new ideas. They skillfully fuse different metals, bezel-set custom-cut diamonds – no easy task – and collaborate with us to develop algorithms that predict fit for non-traditional rings, like the Azadi wraps. Understanding how much a wrap displaces size on a finger is complex, requiring multiple rounds of design and quick iterations.’

shahlakarimi.com

In partnership with Switzerland Tourism

Whether you’re more into boreal forest-inspired paintings or tantalising textiles, plot some surefire cultural highlights into your itinerary with our pick of Switzerland’s best art exhibitions to see in 2025, at 11 of the most important Swiss art museums.

Fondation Beyeler, Riehen near Basel

‘Northern Lights’, 26 January – 25 May 2025

The northern hemisphere’s vast boreal forest is the inspiration shared by 74 landscape masterpieces, painted by artists from Scandinavia and Canada between 1888 and 1937, brought together for Fondation Beyeler’s new exhibition.

Stretching south and north of the polar circle, forming one of Earth’s largest primeval woodlands, the snowy boreal (meaning northern) forest has a magical appeal; cold, darkness and the heavenly pyrotechnics of the Northern Lights have long provided elemental drama and atmospheric mis en scène.

Focusing on a specifically Nordic way of painting, the ‘Northern Lights’ exhibition traces the development of boreal forest landscapes in modern art through selected works by Helmi Biese, Anna Boberg, Emily Carr, Prince Eugen, Gustaf Fjæstad, Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Lawren S Harris, Hilma af Klint, JEH MacDonald, Edvard Munch, Ivan Shishkin, Harald Sohlberg and Tom Thomson.

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Kunstmuseum Basel

‘Medardo Rosso – Inventing Modern Sculpture’, 29 March – 10 August 2025

Little known but highly influential, Medardo Rosso was a 1900s revolutionary. A sculptor, photographer, and master of artful staging, Rosso was both rival and role model to his contemporaries and countless artists across subsequent generations. To trace the artist’s radical, formal, material, and technical explorations, this comprehensive retrospective showcases bronze, plaster and wax sculptures, and hundreds of his photographs and drawings, alongside work by more than 50 artists from the last hundred years – among them Francis Bacon, Edgar Degas, Yayoi Kusama, Auguste Rodin, and Andy Warhol – whose concerns and technical approaches resonate with Rosso’s.

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Museum Tinguely, Basel

‘Fresh Window. The Art of Display & Display of Art’, until 11 May 2025

For decades, in storefronts and boutiques all over the world, there have been close links between art and shop window display. Marcel Duchamp designed his first shop window in 1945 for the launch of a book by André Breton in New York; Swiss artist Jean Tinguely worked as a professional window dresser in Basel; and Andy Warhol effectively launched his pop art aesthetic via a window dressing commission for the Gunther Jaeckel department store back in 1961. Flipping the medium, window displays have also featured frequently as a motif in artworks, or served as a stage for performances and installations.

This new exhibition, ‘Fresh Window. The Art of Display & Display of Art’, explores the eventful relationship between art and retail commerce, artists and shop windows, from its beginnings to the present day. Artistic interventions across stores in Basel will extend the show into public spaces.

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Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern

‘Le Corbusier. The Order of Things’, 8 February – 22 June 2025

To coincide with its 20-year anniversary, the Zentrum Paul Klee is devoting a major exhibition to the Swiss-French artist-architect Le Corbusier (1887-1965). One of the most influential protagonists of modern architecture and art, Le Corbusier tried to harness his unbridled creativity and enormous energy to reshape the world according to his ideas, to ‘order’ it and create a new living environment through functional and aesthetic architecture. Today, some of his buildings are Unesco World Heritage Sites. The exhibition is based around Le Corbusier’s three-dimensional thought and design. The prelude to the architecture is at the centre: the artistic experiment in the ‘workshop of patient research’, as Le Corbusier described his artistic work.

The permanent exhibition ‘Kosmos Klee. The Collection’ rounds up the visit with a chronological overview of Klee's artistic oeuvre through 70 works, as well as biographical material and archive items.

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Plateforme 10, Lausanne

Permanent exhibition

A 25,000 sq m art project sited on a former Lausanne locomotive repair shed, Plateforme 10 brings together the significant resources of three institutions: the Musée Cantonal des Beaux-arts de Lausanne, the Musée de Design et d'Arts Appliqués Contemporains (Mudac) and the Musée de l'Élysée, as well as the collections of the Fondation Toms Pauli and the Fondation Felix Vallotton.

Plateforme 10’s impressive, permanent exhibition, laid out chronologically over two floors, displays treasures from the local canton of Vaud’s art collections, with some 300 works dating from the 18th century to the present day. The museum’s historical collection explores major trends in post-Second World War creativity, geometric abstraction, neo-Fauvism, new media’s video and installation pieces, alongside drawings, paintings and ‘art autre’ of the second Paris School.

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MASI Lugano

‘Louisa Gagliardi’, 16 February – 20 July 2025

MASI’s 2025 exhibition programme focuses on rediscoveries, creative synergies and compelling narratives, offering a fresh exploration of Switzerland’s visual arts history and its dynamic, international trajectory.

The programme opens with an exhibition by Louisa Gagliardi, one of the most intriguing figures in Swiss contemporary art. Gagliardi’s work merges digital technology with traditional painting techniques, creating compositions rich in unexpected details that blend the familiar with the unknown. Drawing inspiration from artistic movements such as Surrealism, Metaphysics and Magical Realism, she crafts an imaginative world that reflects the transformative shifts of the post-internet era.

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Fotomuseum Winterthur

‘Poulomi Basu Phantasmagoria’, 25 October 2025 – 15 February 2026

Following an extensive renovation and redevelopment programme, Fotomuseum Winterthur will reopen in May 2025. From October 2025 the museum will present an exhibition by Indian artist Poulomi Basu. Interweaving documentary photographs and staged scenes enacted in front of fantastical backdrops, Basu creates multimedia, often large-scale installations. Here, the exhibition’s title references the 18th-century phantasmagorias that captivated audiences with projections and optical illusions. The artist also employs virtual reality, film and performance in her practice, using the activist potential of different media to champion the rights of marginalised groups.

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Museum Für Gestaltung Zürich

‘Textile Manifestos – From Bauhaus to Soft Sculpture’, 14 February – 13 July 2025

Fanciful fringes and embroideries, geometrically ordered weavings and spatial free forms; ‘Textile Manifestos – From Bauhaus to Soft Sculpture’ celebrates a graphic and colourful variety of crafted materials. Expect anonymous, provocative pieces next to well-known abstract works by the likes of America’s Sheila Hicks, and New Tapestry movement figurehead Elsi Giauque.

Surprising adjacencies of comparable perspectives from different periods emerge – a powerful commonality that includes the creative hand and a touch of magic. Quiet statements as well as the occasional activist message enhance the pulling power of these textile creations.

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Kunsthaus Zürich

‘Marina Abramović Retrospective’, until 16 February 2025

Including works from every phase of Marina Abramović’s extraordinary career, alongside iconic performances and a new, interactive piece, the Kunsthaus Zürich presents the artist’s first comprehensive retrospective in Switzerland. Abramović is known for her durational performances that explore physical and mental limits, inviting visitors to experience mindfulness and self-perception; this retrospective spans video, photography, sculpture and drawing, along with live restagings of iconic works including Imponderabilia and Luminosity. A new, interactive piece, Decompression Chamber, was designed by Abramović especially for Kunsthaus Zürich.

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Museum Rietberg, Zürich

‘Hallyu! The Korean Wave’, 4 April – 17 August 2025

‘Hallyu! The Korean Wave’ showcases South Korea’s vibrant and diverse popular culture. Since the late 1990s, this cultural phenomenon has made waves around the world. This exhibition explores the genesis of Hallyu and its ties to traditional Korean fine arts as well as examines global influences in pop culture, cinema, fashion, and media. Embracing K-Pop costumes, dance routines famed worldwide, unforgettable film props, and clips from music videos, beauty trends, and Korean fashion, ‘Hallyu! The Korean Wave’ is a dazzling kaleidoscope of South Korean art and cultural history. Some of the highlights that will captivate the public include works by media art pioneer Nam June Paik, a set design from the Oscar-winning film Parasite, a dance-along rendition of ‘Gangnam Style’, and the intriguing revival by South Korean pop stars of traditional hanbok garb.

Following a successful tour through London, Boston, and San Francisco, Museum Rietberg presents this spectacular exhibition in cooperation with the Victoria & Albert Museum on its only stop in Europe.

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Stepping through an elegant, pointed arch onto the pattern-painted concrete of the dusty colonnade, I suddenly felt a sense of familiarity and belonging. Two weeks into my Indian adventure, I had finally found the exact spot in Ludhiana, Punjab, where my grandfather photographed his iconic lamp prototype in 1953. In that moment, I also realised I was standing outside the very room where he had lived with my grandmother, then just 22 years old, on the floor where my father had crawled as a baby so many decades ago.

Pierre Jeanneret and Edward Armitage: tracing design inspiration in Chandigarh

I felt a startled sense of excitement, standing in such a significant location within the grounds of the hospital that he designed. The photograph of the lamp had been an essential artifact for me over the last 15 years – almost as important as the original prototype, which had sat in my grandmother Marthe’s living room for over 70 years since their return from India. Somehow, the way my grandfather, Edward, captured the lamp – framed by those colonnades – showcased the simplicity of its form and his design intent with unwavering clarity.

The next morning, I woke up in the hospital guesthouse, also designed by my grandfather, quickly downed a coffee, and hurried out of the doctors' residential compound, a fully assembled floor lamp slung over my shoulder. The low rising sun pierced through the tropical plants around me, and as I strode through the bustling morning traffic with locals eyeing my strange silhouette, I knew I didn’t have much time.

I ran the last 50m to the colonnade, adrenaline coursing through me as I hurriedly unpacked my camera and set up the shot. The long shadows cast by the morning light fell nicely perpendicular to the colonnade’s columns, just as they had the morning my grandfather took his photograph. As I adjusted my lens and pressed the shutter, I felt a wave of satisfaction. My mission was complete – it was a full-circle moment.

Although one of the primary goals of my trip to India was to recreate my grandfather’s photograph, my deeper ambition was to uncover what had inspired him in creating such a distinctive design. My grandmother always believed he had drawn inspiration from the flora and fauna surrounding him. The sleek, conical shade could have been derived from a tropical plant, while the V-shaped legs echoed the horns of the holy cows roaming the Indian streets.

However, I had another theory: the V shape could have been influenced by Pierre Jeanneret’s renowned furniture designs, which feature an identical leg form. To investigate, I planned another trip to India – this time to Jeanneret’s house in Chandigarh. Back in the 1950s, my grandfather several times made the 60-mile journey from Ludhiana to Chandigarh, where he maintained friendships with Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew, who had been appointed to design the new city alongside Jeanneret and his cousin, Le Corbusier.

To step back in time and view the legendary modernist city through my grandfather’s lens, I decided to bring his century-old camera. Engraved with his initials, EJA, the beloved Kodak was a key tool for Edward. He carried it everywhere, meticulously documenting the world around him: architecture, design, family, work, and inspiration. While in India, he developed photos to create annotated albums and sent letters with updates to friends and family.

Five months later, my bags were packed to the brim with lamp components, cameras, and equipment as I set off once again from the UK to India. While Jeanneret’s house in Chandigarh was the ultimate destination, my first stop was Le Corbusier’s ATMA building in Ahmedabad. Here, I joined a Wallpaper* shoot with Nilufar Gallery, featuring the ‘Noveconi’ chandelier [Joe Armitage's design, inspired by Edward's ‘Armitage’ lamp].

Over three days, we set up and shot the lamps within the incredible concrete structure of the ATMA building, guided by photographer Devashish Gaur and assisted by Professor Vijay Singh with his students from the Chandigarh College of Architecture. Access to this remarkable location had been kindly arranged by the Sarabhai family, prominent textile designers and industrialists in the region.

After wrapping up the Ahmedabad shoot, the team and I departed for Chandigarh. Jeanneret’s house is located in Sector 5 – a leafy neighbourhood near Le Corbusier’s monumental Capitol Complex and Sukhna Lake. The house is a playful composition of concrete, brick, and stone, set in a generous lawned garden. A tall, curved stone wall on the north face features an eye-shaped window looking out from one of the bedrooms.

We spent two days photographing the atmospheric interiors of the house. As I positioned Jeanneret’s iconic chairs beside my grandfather’s lamp, I imagined how Edward might have observed the chair leg during one of his visits and been inspired to interpret its form into a lamp. I documented the scenes with his camera, hoping the antique contraption would capture this inspirational moment on film despite not being used for decades. Once the shoot was complete, we packed up and I returned home.

Some time later in the UK, I visited Rajan Bijlani at home to see his extraordinary collection of Jeanneret furniture and the exhibition ‘Syncretic Voices’, which he co-curated with Michael Jefferson. Seated in original pieces from Chandigarh, we studied a book of Rajan’s, which detailed the chronology of Jeanneret’s V-shaped chair designs, first created in 1955.

As I scanned the dates, I felt a sudden sense of disbelief and hurriedly retrieved the original photo of Edward’s lamp. We examined the handwritten note below it – Ludhiana April 1953 – and reached the same conclusion simultaneously: what if it had happened the other way around? Could Jeanneret have been influenced by my grandfather’s design?

Weeks later, the film from Edward’s old camera returned from the darkroom. Among the photos was a serendipitous double exposure; my grandfather’s lamp stood on Jeanneret’s lawn, as seen through the eye-shaped bedroom window. A fitting metaphor, perhaps, for this intriguing new theory of design inspiration.

joearmitage.com

Just a ten-minute amble from the utilitarian whirligig of the recent Frieze London 2024, we discovered an altogether more cordial art happening. Rajan Bijlani – who for the last two decades has amassed a collection of some 500 pieces of Pierre Jeanneret furniture from Chandigarh, the city formed in 1952 by India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and masterminded by Le Corbusier – has opened a show, working with co-curators Truls Blaasmo and Michael Jefferson, which unites six artists of South Asian origin at his home, the historic London townhouse of Fonthill Pottery.

‘Syncretic Voices: Art & Design in the South Asian Diaspora’ in London

Working with Michael Jefferson, a former senior specialist in 20th-century design at Christie's, and independent curator Truls Blaasmo, Bijlani exhibits painting and sculpture for sale in a changing, lively, domestic space.

Ceramic artist Lubna Chowdhary’s emerald-green hand-glazed ceramic tile Marker 70 handsomely sits on the wall of the ground floor kitchen, framed upon first view by a curtain of pots and pans dangling from the ceiling. Rana Begum’s extra-terrestrial totem pole No. 1261 T Reflector in fluoro orange and red plastic is placed outside on a lower ground floor terrace lined by living walls.

Here, things are layered with design. The patina of wear on top of Jeanneret’s teak dining table from 1960 is mirrored in the abstract forms found in nearby paintings by Tanya Ling and Soumya Netrabile. A crease down the middle of a butterfly stool appears in Vipeksha Gupta’s Untitled IV as a charcoal line slicing through pigment. Jefferson says: ‘When people live with their art, it’s totally different to how it is experienced within a white box or barren gallery. People come through and they linger. Sometimes you have to take a minute to interpret the art, but it feels settled. It allows you to consider it.’

There is a risk that artworks outside of the protection of a white cube can too easily become reduced to objects of interior design. Props assessed only by their colour, shape and size. ‘I’ve noticed more and more that interior designers have a lot of power in deciding what art goes into a home,’ Bijlani says. ‘Yet while some art might work aesthetically, you might not want to live with it. There is a tension… should art be shown surrounded by blank space so you can really focus on it? Personally, I love the conversation that begins when everything gets together into one big thing.’

All of the pieces in Bijani’s furniture collection are embroidered with evidence of improvisational repair work, extra nails and hammered-in metal brackets.

On the lower ground floor a unique square table from the Punjab University Cafeteria in Chandigarh c.1961 bears a proud diamond-shaped patch of aluminium. Its scratched surface thrums with the same lustre of polymer and pigment in Harminder Judge’s nearby painting, A ghost dance (a composition 2). ‘This is the great thing about furniture, it absorbs the life force that it’s had,’ Jefferson says. ‘There are a lot of people that haven't been inspired by that and say, “Clean this up. Let's sand it down!” and that is a mistake. You can't get this back; you’ll erase its story. It may not suit your taste, but Rajan is focused on early production with this rigorous line and robust patina because it's appealing. It’s about humanity. It’s a different way of looking at this stuff.’

All of the works in ‘Syncretic Voices’ were installed one month before the show opened to the public, last week (9 October 2024). In that time, Bijlani has noticed how they each change according to the time of day. Begums’s No. 1260 B Reflector is placed on the first floor in direct view of Bijlani’s desk: ‘Depending on the light it can sometimes feel like a UFO has dropped into my living room,’ he says.

As a cohort, the artists share a focus on a meditative approach to making, yet their individual aims are broad. ‘I don't know if there is this universal theme of the works from a cultural point of view,’ Bijlani says. His own family had to leave Larkana (present-day Sindh in Pakistan) in 1947 to migrate to a newly formed India. He grew up in London. ‘Chandigarh was born because of partition. Nehru's principles and idea of this passing down of knowledge from Western architects to younger Indian architects like Charles Correa, Urmila Eulie Chowdhury, BV Doshi, etc, is why I wanted to show works made by artists from the South Asian diaspora. Through settling in places like the UK or the USA, their oeuvre adds to this conversation about movement, migration, attitude. We're all connected, regardless of where we're from.’

‘Syncretic Voices: Art & Design in the South Asian Diaspora’ runs until 1 November 2024, by appointment only, rajanbijlani.com

'Celebrating the Capitol', a new exhibition of photographic work by Noor Dasmesh Singh, is about to open in Chandigarh – the architect, urbanist and Wallpaper* contributor’s home town. Organised in time for the famous 20th-century city's anniversary (it was founded on 7 October 1953), the event, planned alongside a panel discussion on the making of Chandigarh, aims at honouring the legacy of modernist architecture, Le Corbusier and his team in the country, and beyond.

Exploring Chandigarh and ‘Celebrating the Capitol’

While the exhibition opens on Monday 7 October, the panel event kicks off the celebration in style on Saturday 5th, leading smoothly onto the art show's inauguration. The exhibition is set in the Capitol itself – at the brutalist Tower of Shadow – a 'dream venue', according to Singh.

A feted architectural pilgrimage destination for experts and enthusiasts the world around, Chandigarh's Capitol complex was designed by Le Corbusier and his team in the mid-20th century. It is now a Unesco World Heritage monument.

Its three main buildings – the Palace of Assembly, the Secretariat Building and the High Court – are monumental and sculptural. Meanwhile, the complex also comprises four distinct standalone monuments, the Geometric Hill, the Tower of Shadows, the Martyrs Monument, and the Open Hand Monument, which has since come to symbolise the city.

Le Corbusier also famously designed, apart from the buildings, the complex's furniture, fittings and artworks, making this a truly holistic opus spanning scales and disciplines.

Many of the furniture pieces were gradually lost or damaged. British-Indian collector Rajan Bijlani has long been tracking down and restoring pieces of unseen Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret Chandigarh furniture, making up a valuable collection and celebrating its legacy.

noorarchitects.com

Loewe ambassadors Jamie Dornan and Sophie Wilde are the brand’s 2024 fragrance campaign stars.

Yesterday (2 September 2024) Creative Director Jonathan Anderson revealed the portrait series and film by David Sims on Instagram, which sees Dornan and Wilde, who joined as faces of the Spanish house earlier this year, bathe in Le Corbusier’s and Pierre Jeanneret’s villa, Villa Savoye, which was built in the early 1930s in the suburbs of Paris.

Watch: Jamie Dornan and Sophie Wilde in the 2024 Loewe Perfumes campaign by David Sims

Soundtracked with Mulatu Astatke’s 1970 Ethio-jazz instrumental ‘Yègellé Tezeta’, the short video opens with a gardener, wearing a pair of blue Loewe jeans, watering manicured grass outside on a warm day.

Showering the camera lens with water, it then cuts to Wilde ascending the villa’s spiral staircase. She walks into the bathroom to find Dornan luxuriating in the glass-tiled sunken bath, before taking place on its adjacent reclining bed (which famously mimics the shape of Corbusier’s LC4 chaise lounge, designed with Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand).

Loewe has described the narrative as ‘a tensity of quotidian scenes whirling together with beauty and attraction, whilst simultaneously straddling undercurrents of the natural world that seep in through the windows.’

For Loewe Perfumes, which debuted in 2016 with scent ‘001’, Anderson has looked to nature and master craftspeople as an enduring source of inspiration. So the choice of modernist masterpiece Villa Savoye, situated in a sprawling open field and lit by the movement of the sun, is a fitting location.

The 2024 campaign spotlights four scents from Loewe Perfumes’ ‘Botanical Rainbow’ and ‘Un Paseo por Madrid’ collections: ‘Esencia’, ‘Agua Drop’, ‘Un Paseo por Madrid Doré’ and ‘Prado’. The latter is one of the brand’s latest fragrance editions, taking its name from Madrid’s Museo del Prado, with notes of chamomile, clary sage, cassis and lychee.

In addition, it debuts ‘Textura’, a scented candle offering featuring three new floral scents by Loewe’s in-house nose Núria Cruelles. The aquatic and juicy ‘Mimosa’, immersive ‘Tuberose’ and bright accords of ‘Dendrochilum Orchid’ are each contained in artisanal ceramic and granite pots.

perfumesloewe.com

This summer, the bubble architecture of the 1970s Maison Bernard, designed by Antti Lovag on the French Riviera, was illuminated by sound, dance, ceramics, sculpture and design pieces. From bedspreads to benches, each were carefully crafted and curated in response to the organic, ecological and extrovert spirit of the house. In a world full of distractions, the exhibition was specially designed to connect visitors to a moment in time; intimate viewings were accompanied by story-telling guides framing architectural history alongside contemporary issues, with no photography allowed for a focused and meditative journey..

This sensation-oriented atmosphere was set by Genius Loci, a French non-profit initiative that curates multi-disciplinary exhibitions in masterpieces of modern architecture seeking to discover the ‘spirit’ of a place and forge links between heritage and today. Since 2021, founder Marion Vignal, an art historian, author and curator based in Paris, has manifested the concept in and around the city at Gio Ponti’s Villa L'Ange Volant; an Auguste Perret-designed apartment; Atelier Ozenfant by Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret; and a Ricardo Bofill apartment in Noisy-le-Grand, with the belief that immersive installations can be responsive, grounding and bring new meaning to space

Marion Vignal on setting up the French non-profit Genius Loci

Wallpaper*: How and why did Genius Loci begin?

Marion Vignal : Inspired by the Bauhaus movement, I have always considered everything to be ‘art’, from a tiny object to a piece of architecture, I never apply a hierarchy to typology or medium. I’ve never formally studied architecture, so my approach to it has always been emotional and narrative-led, and during a visit to a 1930s house near Milan, I began to think about my role as a curator and how art could help visitors to understand a place from the inside. The concept of Genius Loci is to elevate the spirit of place through an ephemeral experience of sound, smell and the elements, to tell a story and activate the past and future like a piece of literature or theatre. The architecture is the stage and the characters are the artworks; they function with purpose together, bringing opportunities to artists and keeping architecture alive and visible.

W*: The exhibition at Maison Bernard was a poignant moment of reflection on the past 50 years of progress in environmental awareness and construction innovation, which were highlighted by some of the works. What draws you to the interiors of the 20th century?

MV: I have always been attracted to buildings of the 20th century, although I am interested in other periods of architecture too. I could imagine Genius Loci taking place in an 18th century building, but never a 21st century building because the space needs time to develop a soul and the generational layers of life. What first appealed to me about functionalist interiors is that there is space to welcome in imagination. The first edition took place at Gio Ponti’s Villa L'Ange Volant, which represented the evolution of his work from neoclassical to modern. While there is a painting on the ceiling in the living room, otherwise there are these great volumes where we could place sculptures and objects to reveal the curves, light, perspective of the space, to make the architecture visible.

W*: Maison Bernard is full of shapes, niches and levels, shelves, planters and hammocks. There's so many layers for the eye to compress, it was actually quite a relief not to be able to take photographs.

MV: Antti Lovag was very egocentric, I’m not sure he wanted any other artists in the house. He wanted to plan everything, including where objects could be placed. It is certainly a total artwork, yet at the same time the interior offers so many opportunities for display. Even, for instance, on the building itself, where a rooftop performance happened with dancers intuitively finding their way up small sets of stairs and vanishing into a sunken rooftop solarium that previously I had no idea existed. The house was inspired by the shapes of the human body, so it was essential to present the artistic medium of the body.

The first 30 minutes of the performance were slow and silent, against the sounds of the sea, the birds and nature. Some people found it too much, but I think it was radical, to really challenge people to focus on an artistic proposal, the architecture and the narrative. The owner told us from the beginning she didn’t want any photos, and we agreed that this would protect and preserve the experience for the visitors. It’s an energetic space, very emotional and sensitive. It’s an architecture that sharpens your consciousness and makes you feel more alive.

W*: How do you personally live with art, design and space?

MV: I don't define myself as an art collector, because I'm not necessarily interested in materiality. I think I don't need to own artworks to live with because my life is artistic. I have surrendered to art, but more in an immaterial way through books, visits and connections. Sometimes I buy artworks, but it’s very personal, like an unconscious projection. Yet overall I don't like to live with lots of objects, I enjoy the void in order to maintain a mental freedom. I’m eclectic in aesthetic and minimalist, sometimes to the extreme. If I do buy art, I constrain myself to only buying female artists. I think being a collector is about having an adventure with art and always staying intellectually involved.

geniusloci-experience.com

After six years, the door to faithfully restored ‘Apartment 50’ at Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation in Marseille, has opened to the public once more with an exhibition of collectible, experimental objects by French designers Marie & Alexandre. Inspired by the creative salons of the apartment’s original owner Lilette Ripert, who lived there from 1952 to 2000, today’s owners Jean-Marc Drut and Patrick Blauwart have invited designers such as Jasper Morrison, Pierre Charpin, Alessandro Mendini and a cohort of ECAL students to interpret the living space with a contemporary scenography every two years between 2008 to 2018.

Heralding the return of the format for 2024, Marie Cornil and Alexandre Willaume’s ‘playground’ of pieces from lamps, to table and tiles explore a reinvigoration of relationships between design, craft and manufacturing, curated in collaboration with Paris-based gallerist Maxime Bouzidi of signé, who has hosted five exhibitions of the emerging designers’ works over five years. After meeting in 2018 at the 13th Design Parade in Hyères and then working together for the Bouroullec brothers, Marie & Alexandre have embarked on a mission to discover new materials and techniques across France from glassblowing to ironworking.

A series of the resulting prototypes decorate the apartment with an organic yet modular language: a textured glass table encasing circular holes is reminiscent of Prouvé’s prefabricated panels, and the iron frames of a chair, lounge chair and table were developed during a residency at the Lycée Jean Monnet in Moulins this year. A series of local Salerne red clay tiles, carved with a colourful language of simple patterns, were manufactured at the Alain Vagh tile factory in Draguignan. They are a nod to the apartment’s inlaid concrete balconies with furniture designed by Charlotte Perriand. Elsewhere, lamps constructed of glass reflectors on cylindrical ceramic bases were cast and pressed at the Verrerie de Biot.

The pair thrive in a perpetual state of discovery at ‘beginner level’ – embracing mistakes and imperfections, and remaining physically and emotionally connected to the tools, machines and practitioners with whom they work. Alexandre admits that, like the irregular edges of each form, this style of working isn’t always smooth; it’s about building trust, negotiating time and energy, and often working weekends when machines are available outside of commercial product cycles – an interesting reflection on the relationship between humanism and industrial prefabrication in the 21st century, at a landmark building that addressed those same topics in the last century.

For gallerist Bouzidi, Marie and Alexandre represent an emerging generation of designers who approach the industries of craft and manufacturing with humility, eschewing ego for inclusivity and giving credit where it is due – all resulting in a ‘material energy’ that reflects the embedded emotional relationships and stories. As the sun sets at the Cité Radieuse, the light bounces through the primary colours of a modular glass unit created in collaboration with Glas Italia, and Marie and Alexandre, Drut and Bouzidi welcome collaborators and visitors into Apartment 50, continuing the legacy of conversation between design, craft and production.

signé & Jean-Marc Drut present Marie & Alexandre at La Cité Radieuse, Apartement 50. July 15th to August 15th, 2024. The exhibition will then travel to Paris, where it will be adapted for the gallery and presented at the launch of Paris Design Week from September 5th to October 21st, 2024.

'Air Play Moon Safari' is the French band's latest tour, as they play their intimate, retro-futurist classic album, in full, from a five-sided, white-walled, 21:9 aspect-ratio letterbox that faces its voyeuristic audiences like Hitchcock’s Rear Window property as reimagined by Californian modernists. 'It could be a home, it could be our world, our head… our architectural concept,' they say of the project.

Air play Moon Safari: the White Box stage

Designed by lighting / art director partnership Antoine Jorel and Pierre Claude, the pantechnicon installation acknowledges the band’s long-standing, creatively synergistic relationship with buildings. Before music became his full-time concern, the duo’s guitar and keyboard player Nicolas Godin studied at the École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Versailles. His father, Philippe Godin, also an architect, helped design Monaco’s Stade Louis II stadium (with French functionalist master Henri Pottier) and worked on Yamoussoukro, a new Ivory Coast capital city project commissioned by President Felix Houphouet-Boigny in the 1980s.

The dreamy instrumental 'Modular Mix' from Air's 1997 EP, ‘Premiers Symptômes’ was inspired by the work of Swiss architect Le Corbusier, while the compositions on Godin’s solo debut Concrete and Glass are described by the artist as 'square and parallel, very clean. Like a building.' Keyboardist and mathematics graduate Jean-Benoît Dunckel, meanwhile, cites Air’s greatest ever live performance as its 2016 show at Oscar Niemeyer’s UFO-shaped Amphithéâtre Coupole at Espace Neimeyer in Paris’s 19th arrondissement.

A recent show at the Jørn Utzon-designed Sydney Opera House comes a close second. For Air’s 2024 US and European tour, Godin and Dunckel’s creative team returned to architectural themes for visual reference. Playing with straight lines and white surfaces, compact, intensifying environments and James Turrell-esque light sculptures, a transportable, adjustable container of digital pyrotechnica was fabricated to encase the three live performers in a structure that echoes Richard Neutra’s Californian Stilt House or Mies Van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House.

'It’s a light box. It looks a bit like the studio on the cover of 10 000 Hz's Legend,' says Dunckel referring to the desert architecture fantasy by Ito Morabito (aka designer Ora Ito) on the band’s 2001 album sleeve. 'The box represents a frame for the Air universe. Trapped in a box together we are more tight.' Musically and socially. 'We enjoy hardware,' adds Air’s Nicolas Godin. 'We like the simplicity of the white box. It concentrates the live experience. It’s like we are in the space shuttle.'

Having already worked with The Strokes, French indie band Phoenix and rapper Disiz, Antoine Jorel and Pierre Claude created a concept for Air based on jet-age minimalism; 'technically complex but visually simple', with accents of Stanley Kubrick’s white-clad, Korova milk bar denizens in A Clockwork Orange and the movie’s frequent, visual white-outs.

The box’s walls are an electrically opaqueable polycarbonate, the semi-transparent video ceiling is made from lacquered and reflective white metal, while its floor is covered with white mirror 'dance carpet'. Everything is designed to be within the frame; there are few visible cables or unsightly monitors and no conventional lighting rigs. A plastic film in front of the box’s screen can render the performing image crystal clear or dreamily blurry.

'As kids our influences were pop soundtracks and TV,' says Godin acknowledging the band’s atmospheric, cinematic sound on Moon Safari. 'We didn’t have a pop music experience like the British and Americans. Instead, we heard music through TV and movies, soundtracks and themes.

'The French had Debussy and Satie, then rock ‘n’ roll came along, with its verse / chorus pop songs.' This, he says with a smile and a Gallic shrug, ruined everything for France. 'We wanted to change that perception but we didn’t want to copy the English or Americans. We wanted to do something continental.'

To complement Moon Safari’s sound, Air also wanted a future-lounge visual aesthetic for the album cover, Godin steering US film-maker and artist Mike Mills towards the strip cartoons in Guy Debord’s cutting-edge Internationale Situationniste journal from the 1960s for inspiration.

Some 25 years after the debut’s original release, animated renderings of Mills’ illustrations – the two band members as sexy boys alongside spaceship quarterdecks, shooting stars and interstellar salons – now dazzle the lightbox walls during Air’s live shows.

The music of ‘Moon Safari’ is still vocoder galactic and intimate, its atmosphere smoky-Parisian and fin de siècle seductive. 'The set is an invitation to come into our world, our living room,' says Dunckel '…our bedroom, even?'

'Air Play Moon Safari' is on tour throughout 2024 in Europe, the USA and Mexico

airfrenchband.com

For the last 20 years, British-Indian collector Rajan Bijlani has been painstakingly tracking down furniture from the city of Chandigarh, designed by a group of modernists, led by Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret. Located in the northern Indian state of Punjab, Chandigarh was conceived in 1947, when India and Pakistan partitioned and the British occupation ended. Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, sought to fashion a modern and forward-thinking country by building a city from scratch, commissioning Le Corbusier and Jeanneret to design the masterplan, many of the city’s main buildings and its furniture. 

Crafted between 1954 and 1966 – primarily from teak and rosewood – the furniture is a unique fusion of Eastern and Western design, which Bijlani first started acquiring in 2004 in a collection that now amounts to around 500 pieces.

‘It was quite amazing because it was all local materials, handmade by local carpenters and craftsmen who had these ancient skills, but designed by European modernist architects,’ he says. ‘I started collecting it to help conserve this design legacy, because it was not really being looked after, and because I loved the materiality of it, compared to the backdrop of the concrete and the brutalism of Le Corbusier’s architecture.’

Bijlani exhibited part of his collection publicly for the first time in February during Nomad in St Moritz, presenting a fitting update to sofas and armchairs that had previously been upholstered in cowhide by European galleries. Collaborating with Loro Piana, the new pieces come in hues of ginger, earthy brown and soft grey. 

‘The cow is sacred in India. It’s a very incongruous choice to use cowhide and it didn’t make sense, especially with me being Hindu,’ says Bijlani. ‘I started thinking of what would be synonymous with Punjab and, on a very clear day, you can see the Himalayas from Chandigarh, and so I thought of cashmere and pashmina.’

Standout pieces from the collection include some teak and zinc tables from the cafeteria at Chandigarh hospital and a library chair by Eulie Chowdhury, India’s first qualified woman architect, who worked with Jeanneret on furniture production. There are a pair of rarely-seen rattan chairs, from a private doctor’s house, which still have their original rattan in decent shape – a rare find after 70 years. Bijlani is also working with expert restorers to care for some of the pieces.

‘This is such an important collection, which has never really been seen and is so well preserved. As a custodian, I want to support it by donating some pieces to cultural institutions, so that they can continue to be preserved,’ says Bijlani. ‘I want to make sure that there’s increasing awareness about the importance and the history of the collections. It’s been a very long journey, but it’s a process that’s been done with care, custodianship and passion.’

rajanbijlani.com

The early flush of summer, between May and June, marks the arrival of the Cruise shows, a round-the-world odyssey that sees fashion brands decamp to far-flung locales to show their latest high-summer offerings (the tradition began in the early 20th century as European fashion houses began to cater for the burgeoning jet set classes). 

After the Cruise 2024 shows took us to Mexico City, Los Angeles and Seoul, this season, fashion houses looked closer to home, swapping cross-continental travel for locations across Europe. First, Chanel showed in Marseille in early May on the roof of the Le Corbusier-designed Cité Radieuse, while Gucci held a blockbuster show at London’s Tate Modern later in the month. On 23 May 2024, it was the turn of Louis Vuitton, seeing Nicolas Ghesquière pay ode to Spain in Antoni Gaudí’s phantasmic Park Güell in Barcelona, followed by a Balenciaga show in Shanghai backdropped by the city’s futuristic skyline. Dior showed at the beginning of June at the historic Drummond Castle in Scotland, while Max Mara provided the season finale in Venice yesterday evening (11 June 2024).

Here, Wallpaper* picks the best of the globe-trotting Cruise 2025 shows.

Fashion odyssey: the best Cruise 2025 shows

Max Mara, Venice

Venice’s Palazzo Ducale, overlooking St Mark’s Square, provided a cinematic setting for Ian Griffiths’ latest outing at Max Mara, which looked towards the Venetian merchant Marco Polo for inspiration. Perhaps the city’s most famous resident – his name hangs over Venice airport – Polo was selected by Griffiths on the 700th anniversary of his death to encapsulate the unique magic of traversing cultures (a fitting thematic for the Cruise season, which originally centred on creating a wardrobe for world travel). So set the scene for an opulent collection which drew on Polo’s travels: from classic Max Mara camel and cashmere wools, which would have once been traded on the Silk Road, to rich brocades, embroidery and ceremonial rope fastenings and twisted headpieces. But this was also a musing on womanhood: Griffiths noted that Polo was ‘open-minded, inquisitive and tolerant’ and perhaps even an early feminist, recounting with awe in a 13th-century travelogue how Tartar women rode horses, and how an island of women in India was only visited by men for three months a year. Whether this was true of Polo or not, here, Griffiths instilled the collection with a stately, otherworldly power, making it more than stand up to the show’s dramatic surroundings. 

Dior, Perthshire

In 1955, Christian Dior presented a collection in the ballroom of Scotland’s Gleneagles Hotel, continuing the designer’s longstanding fascination with the British Isles, its traditions and dress codes. Yesterday evening (3 June 2024), current creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri returned to Scotland for a Cruise 2025 show held in the grounds of Drummond Castle, the countryside seat of the Drummond family since the 15th century (in a nod to Monsieur Dior, guests stayed in the nearby Gleneagles). It began with the skirl of bagpipes as models walked from the main castle down into its famed terraced gardens, a preened Eden which contrasts with the wilder Perthshire countryside beyond. It was a juxtaposition which felt reflected in the collection: punky swathes of tartan, hearty leather boots, mutton-sleeved dresses adorned with ‘nag, hysterical, feisty’ and structured, armour-like bustier tops, met the undeniable polish and femininity of Chiuri’s Dior, figured here in nipped-waist lace gowns, tulle skirts and delicate veils dotted with dew-like drops of pearl. It was completed with a nod to the past, seeing photographs from Christian Dior’s 1955 show in Scotland adorning jackets and T-shirts ’in a kind of cinematic montage’. ‘The presentation of the Cruise collection is an opportunity to follow the footsteps of Christian Dior around the world,’ said Chiuri.

Balenciaga, Shanghai

The futuristic cityscape of Shanghai provided the backdrop for Demna’s latest Balenciaga outing, a Spring 2025 resort collection which was presented at nightfall at the Jean Nouvel-designed Museum of Art Padong (in a nod to the city’s cuisine, the invitation was a ceramic xioalongbao bun in a traditional bamboo steamer). As the show began, a number of the city’s skyscrapers lit up neon with the Balenciaga logo, while the silhouettes in the collection itself were similarly vertiginous, seeing models teeter on super-sized platforms in elongated trenches and overcoats, their hemlines drifting below the line of the heel (in flats, they would have dragged along the floor). Elsewhere, Demna’s idiosyncratic riffs on quotidian garments continued, spanning sporty separates supersized or shrunken (a collaboration with Under Armour was debuted, available directly after the show) and a dishevelled play on the uniform of the Parisian bourgeois, here conjured in body-wrapping blanket dresses, chain-link bags, faux-fur coats and ripped and laddered stockings. It ended – as has become tradition with Demna’s ready-to-wear collections – with a flourish of ballgowns, inspired by those in the house’s archive. This time, they twisted around the body like crumpled golden paper, or came replete with bows and feathers. Another was adorned with handfuls of glimmering jewellery – a wink, perhaps, to the city’s wealthy, high-rolling denizens.

Louis Vuitton, Barcelona

Nicolas Ghesquière’s latest Cruise collection for Louis Vuitton paid ode to Spain and its leading creative figures, an expansive list which spanned its great artists – he name-checked Velázquez, Goya and Zurbarán – to director Luis Buñuel and the futurist fashion designer Paco Rabanne. It was set against the backdrop of the phantasmic Park Güell on Barcelona’s Carmel Hill, a twisting, dreamlike landscape – replete with fairytale towers and colourful mosaic murals – by Spain’s most famous architect, Antoni Gaudí, long a draw for visitors to the city (in 1984 it was designated a Unesco World Heritage Site). ‘An architectural utopia,’ described Louis Vuitton of the choice of location, which continues a tradition of Ghesquière showing his Cruise collections in places of architectural significance, from the UFO-like former home of Bob Hope by John Lautner in Palm Springs to the equally futuristic Niterói Contemporary Art Museum by Oscar Niemeyer in Rio de Janeiro.

Shown in the Hypostyle Room of the park – imagined by Gaudí as a marketplace, the classically-inspired colonnade features 86 striated columns and a dramatic mosaic ceiling – the collection itself was described as ‘embracing the country’s passionate character… the fervour of its colours, its loyalty to tradition elevated into artistic expression.’ Tilted wide-brimmed hats, a motif which ran throughout, recalled the traditional cordobés, while layers of sheer polka dots and undulating ruffled gowns referenced flamenco-wear (albeit in Ghesquière’s typically postmodern style). References to Gaudí came in material which appeared to be made from shattered mosaic, while the abundant twisting, taffeta drapes of the show’s closing looks paid homage to the rich depictions of cloth in the work of the Spanish masters.

Gucci, London

‘I owe a lot to this city,’ said Gucci’s Sabato De Sarno as he presented his debut Cruise collection for the house yesterday evening in London, choosing the Herzog & de Meuron-designed Tanks in London’s Tate Modern as the setting. ‘It has welcomed and listened to me. The same is true for Gucci, whose founder was inspired by his experience there,’ he continued, referring to Guccio Gucci’s time at the Savoy Hotel as a porter, which would eventually lead to him creating an eponymous luggage line on his return to Florence, Italy in 1921.

Here, the vast subterranean concrete space was filled for the occasion with 10,000 plants – a clash which he described as one of ‘man and nature, sentimental versus minimal’, the ‘bare concrete Tanks invaded by a poetic panorama of greenery’. The idea of dichotomy ran through the collection itself – De Sarno cited Gucci’s ‘limitless capability to put together contrasts, make them converse, and find ways to coexist’ – with pieces which straddled a mood of delicacy and toughness, seeing romantic pussybow blouses worn with baggy distressed denim, or skirts decorated with intricate floral embroidery combined with chunky creeper-style versions of the house’s horsebit loafer. Meanwhile nods to Britishness came in oversized Harrington jackets, Prince of Wales check overcoats and a play on the Mackintosh raincoat.

Most striking, though, were the flourishes of craft: a matching jacket and skirt were adorned with a grid of thousands of gently clattering hanging beads, while fronds of glimmering tassels emerged from denim jeans. Or the laser-cut organza chamomile flowers, each assembled delicately by hand. ‘This is another piece of me, more romantic, more contradictory,’ said De Sarno. ‘I like taking something that we think we know and breaking away.’

Chanel, Marseille

Chanel travelled southwards for its latest Cruise show, choosing Marseille, the ancient port city that has long been a raw-around-the-edges counterpart to the more glossy Riviera cities of St Tropez and Cannes eastwards along the coastline. Creative director Virginie Viard said this was purposeful, part of a desire to expand the cultural impact of Chanel beyond the rarefied Rue Cambon in Paris and the high-earning locales with which it is most associated (it was also the reason the house chose Manchester’s cobbled streets for its Métiers d'Art show in December 2023, which was inspired by the energy of the city’s underground music scene). The setting here was Cité Radieuse, Le Corbusier’s 1952-completed ’vertical city’, recognisable for its monolithic concrete exterior punctuated with vivid moments of colour on its balconies (such is its architectural impact, Le Corbusier’s modular, utopian vision for living has since been designated a Unesco World Heritage site).

Viard chose the concrete-clad rooftop – the rain just about holding off – to present a collection largely defined by a sense of youthful ease, a hallmark of the designer’s tenure so far. There were breezy white blouses with broderie anglais motifs, colourful crochet mini dresses and spongy-soled flip-flops, while playful nautical motifs ran throughout – from anchor-charm jewellery to hand-drawn fish and plays on wetsuits and diving hoods. Signature Chanel tweed was of course in abundance: here shot through with Le Corbusier-inspired colour, like a grid-like design on a cropped tweed jacket and matching skirt, or a boldly-hued pinafore-style sleeveless blazer in shades of red, yellow and optic white. ‘Marseille is a city that puts me in touch with my emotions. I tried to capture its power of attraction, its breath of fresh air, and to convey the energy that reigns there,’ said Viard. ‘And you couldn't ask for a better backdrop to a runway show than the Cité Radieuse.’

Stay tuned for more from the Cruise 2025 season on wallpaper.com.

Modernist architecture defined the 20th century like no other movement. Its midcentury marvels quickly spread across the globe, represented in a multitude of typologies, scales and geographical locations – and giving birth to just as many regional expressions. Some of the 20th century’s most well-known architects – Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, Balkrishna Doshi, Oscar Niemeyer, Lina Bo Bardi, Eileen Gray, Alvar Aalto, Tadao Ando, Frank Lloyd Wright, Adolf Loos, Louis Kahn, to name but a few – are intrinsically linked to it. It is a movement with countless faces - and one that still influences design and architecture like no other, with iterations in other creative disciplines too, such as product design and art.

Modernist architecture explained

The modernist architecture movement was built around the veneration of functionality - as immortalised by architect Louis Sullivan (1856–1924) in 1896 through this famous saying 'form follows function.' An emphasis on geometric compositions, a certain minimalism in decor (although building elements and structural details effectively became objects of beauty in their own right), and what was seen as a 'rational' approach to design, were points which led the modernists' thinking. Le Corbusier's five principles of architecture - namely the use of pilotis, a flat roof, strip windows, free-form facades and an open-plan interior - were widely adopted and translated into different sites and countries.

Developing rapidly in and after the 1920s, modernism grew in the 1950s and 1960s and soon reached every corner of the planet, taking different, regional forms by responding to various, respective cultural expressions and climatic conditions. The movement's richness and layered offering cemented its place in the worldwide history books - remaining a popular reference to academics, architects and the wider public to this day.

Key characteristics

• Functionality is a key tenet of modernist design and architecture. Aesthetics follow function, and the movement's clean forms are dictated by what they do and the usage they contain, rather than the prevalence of any kind of ornament or decorative style
• Clean geometries are often a result of the above, which translates inside in free-flowing, open spaces and flexible floorplans. Symmetries are rare.
• Honesty in materials and industrial production define many strands of modernism. Raw concrete, exposed brick and mass-produced elements (even entire, pre-fabricated structures) feature in some of the most well-known examples of modernism, both in its birthplace of Europe, and across the world.
• While modernism can feel at odds with nature, due to its austere forms and often-industrial production, many modernists aimed for their buildings to establish a dialogue with their natural setting. This was achieved by large openings, an emphasis on outdoor spaces, and in some occasions, such as Finnish master Alvar Aalto, the use of natural materials, such as timber, and organic shapes inspired by flora.

Here, in an ever-growing round-up to celebrate, study and be inspired by its gems, we tour some of the world's finest examples of modernist architecture by continent.

Modernist architecture in Europe

Chapelle Notre Dame du Haut in Ronchamp, France

Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris, better known as Le Corbusier, sits firmly in the reputational VIP lounge of 20th-century architecture. Le Corbusier is the arch European modernist and master planner, the man who launched tenths of iconic buildings as well as his own post-cubist artistic movement (tagged 'purism'), and designed a roomful of iconic furniture – working with Charlotte Perriand and his cousin Pierre Jeanneret. He even plotted visions of high-rise living and built a city from scratch at Chandigarh (scroll down for more on this). Along the way, he designed what might be the most beautiful of post-war buildings, the Chapelle Notre Dame du Haut in Ronchamp, France. This chapel is a simple design in an unusual, flowing volume which poetically mesmerises, having become shorthand for his creator's architectural prowess.

Iver and Kirstine Jespersen House, Denmark

Architect Mogens Lassen – and his brother Fleming – was among the pioneers of Danish modernism. Lassen was born in 1901 into the artistic family of painters. Influenced by the rise of more organic approaches in architecture at the end of the 1930s, Lassen designed Jespersen House, one of the most imaginative and playful Danish modernist houses. Built for publisher Iver Jespersen and his wife, psychologist Kirstine, the house completes a row of modernist dwellings on Sølystvej Street. For the Iver and Kirstine Jespersen House, Lassen divided the structure into volumes of different shapes and connected them, following the curve of the gently sloping site. Each of the three main volumes has a different roof, from flat to pitched and vaulted, and covers different zones and functions of the house.

Barcelona Pavilion, Spain

It’s been nearly four decades since the recreation of Mies van der Rohe's celebrated Barcelona Pavilion. Originally designed in 1929 for the Barcelona International Exhibition, the beautifully refined glass, steel and marble structure was quickly disassembled in 1930 after the event. Half a century passed with only photographs and drawings for reference; but though long gone, the structure was not forgotten, fondly remembered by the world as a shining example of Mies van der Rohe’s architectural genius and 20th-century modernism. Work began in 1983 to reconstruct the iconic, low-slung structure in its original state and site. The Pavilion finally reached completion in 1986 and is now open to visitors.

Villa Tugendhat, Czech Republic

‘They say that Prague is a baroque city, and Brno is a modernist one,’ has said Czech architect Iveta Černá, and in the Moravian capital, the evidence is everywhere. Culture, commerce and industry helped create a remarkable collection of early modernist buildings here in the first decades of the 20th century, which includes work by local functionalists Bohuslav Fuchs and Ernst Wiesner. The city’s star architectural attraction is the Mies van der Rohe-designed Villa Tugendhat, which has been renovated by a team directed by Černá. Sat on a slope offering sweeping city views, the villa is the epitome of modernity, a composition of low, white volumes with a modest street façade featuring narrow openings and discreet milk glass. The three-level structure hosts a swathe of bedrooms at street level, with the main living areas and lush indoor garden above. The airy open-plan interior features an iconic strip-glass façade that overlooks a leafy, landscaped back garden.

Church at Firminy, France

Le Corbusier's built legacy is extensive, yet his archive of unfulfilled schemes is even more so. One town that reaped more than its fair share of his genius was Firminy, in France's Loire Valley. In 1953, a determined post-war mayor decided that Firminy, a former mining town, was the perfect blank canvas for Le Corbusier's dreams of a vertical garden city: enter Firminy-Vert. The new town has three complete Le Corbusier works, but plans for a new church foundered as subsequent mayors weren't quite so keen on the brutalist style, and work slowly petered out, leaving an unfinished concrete shell. But thanks to former Le Corbusier apprentice, José Oubrerie, the builders returned to the site and the church was completed in 2006. St-Pierre – a geometric composition dominated by a huge concrete cone punctured with slots that will allow light to cascade down into the nave – is only the third religious structure by Le Corbusier.

The full version of this article was originally published in the February 2006 issue of Wallpaper*

A Trellick tower apartment by Buchholzberlin and interior designer Peter Heimer, United Kingdom

Trellick Tower is a piece of modernist architecture history famously designed by architect Ernő Goldfinger and built between 1968 and 1972; it remains an exemplar of post-war modern architecture in London. Beloved by residents and architecture enthusiasts the world around, many of its apartments have been lovingly restored, such as this Trellick Tower apartment which has been respectfully refreshed to 21st-century standards by a team consisting of Berlin architecture studio Buchholzberlin and interior designer Peter Heimer. The 86 sq m private apartment on the 21st floor, was transformed to the needs of the two residents – the client and his partner – using brutalist architecture references from the structure's past blended with contemporary styles and needs, respectfully reimagining, for example, its spatial arrangement.

Royan, France

Every year in April, Royan Architecture Month celebrates 'The Most 1950s City in France'. For the 2024 festival, Royan's rich modernist heritage will be in the spotlight again during the event's 12th edition. This year's programme focused on the city’s preserved, post-war, modernist architecture monuments, including the Notre Dame church and the Palais des Congrès, as well as current restoration projects in the midcentury realm, such as its clam-shaped central market, the Jules Ferry school, and the creation of the Municipal Technical Centre. Surprises and unseen spaces are revealed every year.

Jyvaskyla City Theatre by Alvar Aalto, Finland

When Finnish photographer Janne Tuunanen travelled from his base in New York to his home town of Jyvaskyla at the start of the pandemic, his planned to take some time to slow down and spend the crisis closer to his family there. Soon, he rediscovered, after years of being away, the modernist architecture of Alvar Aalto; as this lesser-known, sleepy town in the western part of the Finnish Lakeland, is a treasure trove of the master architect's work. ‘I thought there might be material for a bigger project here,' he says. ‘I approached the Alvar Aalto Foundation about the project and they approved my pitch.' Tuunanen went on to create 17 images of Aalto's masterpieces in the vicinity, including the architect's own Experimental House and Jyvaskyla's main theatre, swimming pool hall and the local Museum of Central Finland.

Ahm House by Coppin Dockray, United Kingdom

Danish structural engineer Povl Ahm worked at the London office of Ove Arup & Partners in the mid-20th century, on projects such as the Danish Embassy in London. One of Ahm’s greatest, though lesser known, achievements is his own house in Harpenden, Hertfordshire, which has won a 2019 Wallpaper* Design Award for Best Remastered. The exceptional home was designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, whom he got to know during the early design stages of Utzon’s Sydney Opera House, which also involved Ove Arup & Partners. The original Ahm House – Utzon’s only completed project in the UK – was gently pushed widthways into the modestly sloping suburban site. From the street, the house is enigmatic, with the garage and entrance forming a buffer between the public and private realms. But as you step inside the entrance hall and ascend a series of steps, Ahm’s pavilion dramatically unfolds, opening itself dramatically to the rear gardens.

Lubetkin tower apartment by Studio Naama, United Kingdom

Set within modernist Bertold Lubetkin’s Grade II listed Sivill House on Columbia Road, Shoreditch in London, this apartment was originally designed by the architect together with Douglas Bailey and Francis Skinner in 1962. Now, the Lubetkin tower apartment has been given a 21st-century makeover by the emerging architecture practice Studio Naama. The design, though small at only 65 sq m, maintains the modernist architecture's bones and Lubetkin's original intention. So successful was the space's reimagining that it won the duo an award (Compact Design) at the Don't Move, Improve 2023 competition.

Hampstead House by Trevor Dannatt and Coppin Dockray, United Kingdom

Saved from possible demolition, this post-war Hampstead house designed by titan of British modernism, Trevor Dannatt, has had years of piecemeal additions peeled back in a refurbishment for a young, growing family. Coppin Dockray, an architecture studio familiar with employing historical sensitivity in its delicate revivals of 20th-century buildings, meticulously balances preserving the house’s original character while infusing contemporary boldness and resilience in the new design. As a result, this is now a versatile, unobtrusive, modern Hampstead house, cradled between grand Edwardian terraces and towering oaks.

Essex Modernism, United Kingdom

Essex, UK is peppered with pioneering and experimental architecture from the early and mid-20th century. These modernist architecture gems have been championed in the past during Essex Architecture Weekend, part of the Radical Essex initiative, which seeks to reevaluate the region in relation to its rich cultural history. Delights include Silver End, the village built by window industrialist Francis Henry Crittall to house his workers. Its village hall is the hub for the two-day event, and houses an exhibition. Other sites of note include the Bata Estate in East Tilbury, founded in 1932 by eponymous shoe company pioneer Czech Tomáš Baťa; and the coastal resort of Frinton-on-Sea. Shuttle buses will carry visitors between these sites.

New Century, Manchester, United Kingdom

Manchester's celebrated music venue New Century recently reopened following a sensitive retrofit by architects Sheppard Robson. Working with interior designers Sheila Bird Studio, the practice spearheaded an extensive revamp for the iconic nightlife destination, which had lain mostly vacant for years. Today, forming part of Manchester’s city-centre NOMA regeneration project, the modernist architecture of the 1,000-capacity venue is back in action. New Century was originally built in 1963 for the Cooperative Wholesale Society, as part of GS Hay and Gordon Tait's New Century House complex (which included an adjacent high rise). Now, the somewhat Miesian plinth structure, which is Grade II listed, has been rebranded 'New Century' and will operate autonomously. As well as the music venue, the building now houses spaces for Access Creative College, which trains young people in the creative industries, and a food hall.

Olympic Stadium, Helsinki, Finland

The modernist architecture of the Helsinki Olympic Stadium has recently been given a makeover. The elegant piece of design was originally created in the 1930s, but sadly not used until the Summer Olympic Games of 1952, due to World War II. The renovation took a team of architects including K2S, NRT, White Arkitekter and Wessel de Jonge four years to complete. Originally designed by Finnish modernist architects Yrjö Lindegren and Toivo Jäntti, the stadium features an extra tall, striking tower that has become a Helsinki landmark since its completion in 1938. The architecture blends streamlined concrete forms, sharp, white surfaces and shapes subtly reminiscent of ocean liners, in the typical fashion of the modernist styles of the time. Now, a new timber-clad canopy protects the stalls, while the seats have been replaced by modern versions made of sustainable wood composite.

Fondation CAB, France

The Fondation CAB, located in Saint-Paul-de-Vence in the south of France is an offshoot of the Brussels non-profit art centre of the same name, dedicated to conceptual and minimalist art. CAB’s founder, businessman Hubert Bonnet, was looking for a second address and fell for this 1950s-era former art gallery with modernist architecture, sensuous white curves and large bay windows. The French architect Charles Zana renovated the space, adding a travertine reception desk, a bookshop-boutique, four guest rooms, a restaurant, and a lounge where you can flip through art books or just gaze out at artist Richard Long’s circle of white stones in the grass. Zana added four guest rooms to the foundation, each one unique, and furnished with vintage 20th-century pieces: a Charlotte Perriand table, Jean Prouvé chairs, an Alvar Aalto lamp, and Le Corbusier headboards that also serve as storage space and room separators.

Villa E-1027 by Eileen Gray

Villa E-1027 in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin on the French Riviera is an emblem of modernist architecture by Eileen Gray, recently reopened following extensive restoration works. The two-storey house, which was completed in 1929, is a testimony to the vision, flair and expertise of the Irish furniture designer and architect. Contributing to its uniqueness are the sweeping views over the Bay of Monaco, which influenced the site’s nautical references, from the iconic Transat lounger, based on the classic ocean-liner deckchair, to the blue-hued rugs and the balcony with its azure canvas awnings.

Sainte-Bernadette du Banlay, by Claude Parent and Paul Virilio, France

Claude Parent was one of France's most revered modern architects, also known for his unorthodox approach to buildings. He started out in 1942, a time, he says, ‘that is not remembered for its enthusiasm for architecture', and during his long career, has hung out with all the ‘avant-gardists' of the day. He collaborated with Yves Klein on a series of paintings of a 'petite stripteaser' and the design of some fountains for the Palais de Chaillot in Paris, held a conference on a cliff in Folkestone, England, in 1966 with Peter Cook of anarcho British architects Archigram (‘To our surprise, everyone came!'), and completed a six-month stint at Le Corbusier's studio. Eventually, he set up with architect Ionel Schein, but it was a decade later, when collaborating with his friend, the urban planner Paul Virilio, that his career took off. The church of Sainte-Bernadette du Banlay, by Parent and Virilio is an archetypal example of the duo's 'fonction oblique.'

Modernist architecture in Asia

Kanade brothers' home, Nagaj, India

The house, created by and for brothers Shankar (b. 1937) and his younger brother, Navnath (b. 1944) Kanade, is a masterclass in quiet confidence. From the outside, it presents as a modernist composition of cubic volumes, built from locally quarried laterite stone. The only other colours are two shades of green, used to highlight elements like doors and windows, making them pop subtly against the earthy red laterite stone.

Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad (IIM-A), India

The Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad (IIM-A) is widely considered one of Louis Kahn's finest contributions. The campus, built between 1962 and 1975, has a distinctly modernist sensibility with its geometrical openings and sculptural monolithic brick structures. Brick is matched by concrete bracing elements. Kahn drew inspiration from historical treasures, such as the 15th-century palaces of Mandu in India and the brick cylinders of Albi Cathedral in France. While the university administration had plans to plans to raze 14 out of the 18 dormitories at the start of 2020, the design community and citizens initiated a campaign against the decision and the global support it gathered led the management to decide to put the demolition on pause – a decision reversed in November 2022, when IIMA director Errol D'Souza announced that some of the buildings would be demolished and reconstructed, citing safety concerns.

Sangath, India

The late Indian architect Balkrishna Doshi won the prestigious 2022 Royal Gold Medal for Architecture. The coveted gong was awarded to the established and widely acclaimed Indian architect through the RIBA and by personal approval by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth. It is the UK’s highest architectural honour, announced annually and celebrated globally by the architecture and design world. Balkrishna Doshi, who also won the 2018 Pritzker Prize and was interviewed in his Ahmedabad home by Wallpaper* in 2009, was one of the world’s most respected architects in his field. Pictured above is his own studio, Sangath, in Ahmedabad, India.

Chandigarh’s Capitol Complex, India

The Capitol Complex in Chandigarh, India, is considered one of the most significant pieces of Le Corbusier’s realised body of works. It demonstrates the famous architect's ‘five points’ as well as ideas found in his Ville Radieuse and the Athens Charter that encapsulate his practice ideology. The Capitol Complex includes three buildings – the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the Palace of Assembly, and the Secretariat. It also contains the Open Hand Monument and is dotted with water bodies and other smaller structures. Chandigarh was conceived in 1951 as the new capital for the state of Punjab, after the 1947 partition that led to the creation of Pakistan. Its coveted Unesco status celebrates India's modernist legacy.

Tadao Ando’s ‘Space of Light’, South Korea

‘Space of Light’ by Tadao Ando is one of the two meditation pavilions on the grounds of the Museum SAN in Wonju, South Korea. Launched in 2023, the project embodies the Japanese architecture master's signature style featuring concrete, light and integration with nature. Although not conceived as a piece of religious architecture, the space invites visitors to an almost sacred moment of contemplation and self-reflection - reminding, perhaps, guests of his Church of Light in Osaka, Japan. Here too, a cross-shaped opening features within - but here it is located in the ceiling, instead of the wall, and is open to the elements.

Modernist architecture in The Americas

Eichler home, California

This near-perfect example of an iconic Eichler home was designed by Claude Oakland, one of the famous developer’s principal architects. The 1964 house has only had two sets of owners. The first, who bought the house when it was new, stayed there for 56 years, ensuring key features were preserved, including the original kitchen and bathrooms. It was one of nearly 70 houses built by developer Joseph Eichler in the Parkwood Estates complex in Concord. The subdivision accounts for a large chunk of the 179 houses in the town, which lies about 20km north-east of the city of Oakland.

Donald Wexler house, Palm Springs

Architects' own homes often have a bigger purpose. The VDL overlooking the Silver Lake Reservoir was more than just shelter to Richard Neutra, for instance, as were Eileen Gray's Villa E-1027 French Riviera retreat and Albert Frey's hillside dwelling hovering above the Coachella Valley. This house, which seminal Palm Springs modernist architecture master Donald Wexler designed in 1954, navigated a certain tension, as both an aspirational design laboratory and a functional family home, which later fell into disrepair. Wexler's wood frame post-and-beam structure was a prototypical vehicle to explore engineering and design concepts later articulated in his experimental steel frame prefabricated homes with architect Richard Harrison in the early 1960s, as well as in his more luxurious commissions, such as the Dinah Shore estate. First and foremost, however, it was where Wexler and his wife Marilynn moved during her first pregnancy in 1955, and then raised their three children.

Downs House II, Vancouver

Downs House II perches on a cliffside overlooking West Vancouver’s Garrow Bay. The second home of the late, great Vancouver architect Barry Downs, the small footprint structure on a half-acre waterfront lot is surrounded by trees. The house is designed as a series of carefully orchestrated cross-axes that draw in mesmeric views of Howe Sound, embracing rather than upstaging its stunning natural environment. The highlight of the two-bedroom home is a sunken living room that appears to slip seamlessly into the sea.

Wright and Like Tour 2023 in Milwaukee, USA

Milwaukee's architecture legacy is celebrated annually with a Frank Lloyd Wright-themed tour - as exemplified by the Wright and Like Tour 2023, the event's 24th-year edition. The tour features homes and other structures located in and around Milwaukee, curated to celebrate and appreciate the work of 20th-century modernist architecture master, Frank Lloyd Wright. A section of the tour refers to homes and structures related to the particular architect's work but designed by others. Examples include historical works and 21st-century interpretations of the mid-century modernist style.

Architecture and Design Center – Palm Springs Art Museum, by E. Stewart Williams in 1960 and renovated by Marmol Radziner in 2014, USA

Of all the architects who shaped Palm Springs, E. Stewart Williams was the one who shaped public life the most. His legacy can be seen all over town and includes many must-see Palm Springs landmarks. Notably, he’s the architect behind the Palm Springs Art Museum (1976) and the Santa Fe Federal Savings & Loan building (1960), bought by the museum and reopened as the Palm Springs Art Museum Architecture and Design Center in 2014, after a renovation by LA-based practice Marmol Radziner.

Goldberg House by William Cody, USA

Palm Springs is the home of desert modernism. Many 20th-century architects were drawn here by both the light and space, and the eccentricities of the burgeoning city’s clientele. Architect William F. Cody is one of the style’s prime exponents. Cody came to Palm Springs in 1945 in search of fame and architectural fortune. He had been lured by the formidable Nellie Coffman – ‘The Mother of Palm Springs’ – to extend the Desert Inn, the sanatorium she founded in 1909. Cody was just 29 at the time, a recent graduate from the College of Architecture and Fine Arts at the University of Southern California (alumni of the era included Paul Revere Williams, Pierre Koenig and William Krisel). Goldberg House, pictured here, is one of his key projects in the area.

Racquet Club Cottages West by William Cody, Palm Springs, USA

William Cody’s serene group of homes at the Racquet Club Cottages West are a lesser known Palm Springs gem. Los Angeles developer Paul Trousdale worked with Cody to create a quiet modern enclave of 37 homes as an antidote to the celebrity-filled Palm Springs life. Built in 1960, the cottages are immersed in an oasis of palm trees, curved pathways and meandering streams and rarely seen by outsiders. The houses feature exposed beams, thin rooflines, private patios, floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors, and room service delivered from the nearby Palm Springs Racquet Club.

Lord House by Richard Neutra, USA

When Dora Chi and Erik Amir came across Lord House in 2021, they knew they had struck gold. The Los Angeles home, commissioned by TV writer and composer Stephen Lord in 1961, was a derelict, original Richard Neutra design, which the husband and wife team, and co-founders of young architecture studio Spatial Practice, decided to snap up and bring back to life. Lord House sits off Mulholland Drive at the end of a private road, in a lot that provides both seclusion and long views over the Los Angeles hills, with the Santa Monica Mountains and the San Fernando Valley in the distance. The two architects embarked on transforming the neglected structure into their own home, at the same time bringing it back to its former glory, respectfully restoring and sensitively tweaking the midcentury bones for 21st-century living. 'We were captured by the simplicity and purposeful design toward nature by Neutra that made the quality of space so unique,' says Dora Chi. 'Naturally, we were also excited to dive into the world of one of the most influential midcentury architects, Richard Neutra.'

Butterfly roof house by Donald Wexler and William Krisel, USA

Donald Wexler is one of the founding fathers of ‘desert modernism’ and creator of the backbone of Palm Springs – its schools, hospitals, banks and airport – from the 1950s to the 1980s. Wexler is of a generation that includes Albert Frey, E Stewart Williams and William Cody, who based themselves in the tiny desert enclave and turned its dust to diamonds. During the city's annual Modernism Week, house owners open up their modernist gems to allow the public a snoop, and Wexler's work always takes centre stage - as do those by his contemporary, architect William Krisel. The latter's legacy includes the butterfly roof house typology from the 1950s.

Frey House II by Albert Frey, USA

When you look at the low, long and linear forms of Albert Frey's buildings, which appear modern, but also instantly at one with the arid landscape of the USA's Coachella Valley, it is hard to believe that this founding father of Desert Modernism in fact hails from the snowy mountains of Switzerland. Born in Zurich in 1903, Frey worked in his home country and Belgium, before finding a position at Le Corbusier's Paris office and following that, moving to the US. Frey's career stretched over 60 years and his own home, Frey House II, is one of his most well-known works. Perched on the mountainside, majestically overlooking the city of Palm Springs, just a short drive from the city centre and on the west end of Tahquitz Canyon Way, the house is as iconic as they get. Completed in 1964 as the architect's second home in the town, the residence is the result of careful calculations of the site's stone-filled topography and the sun's path. Mixing modern materials such as glass and metal, with local stone, Frey composed a compact, steel-framed structure with little impact on the environment.

Cree House by Albert Frey, USA

Cree House is one of the lesser-known works by acclaimed California architect Albert Frey. The man behind Palm Springs classics, such as Frey House II, Loewy House and the Tramway Gas Station with its famous ‘flying’ canopy, created this hidden gem around 1955. Having worked with Le Corbusier and influenced by modernist teachings from Europe, Frey worked on this private residence in Cathedral City, which was neglected for years and fell into disrepair before it got restored to its former glory for Palm Springs Modernism Week 2019. Elements such as the exterior and interior wall panels, the fluted fibreglass deck pieces, kitchen appliances and cabinets have been preserved and remain part of this desert modernist house.

Garcia House by John Lautner, USA

Perched nimbly on one side of the Hollywood Hills along Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles, John Lautner’s futuristic Garcia House is one of the most enduring specimens of the midcentury modern movement. Completed in 1962 for the jazz musician, conductor and Hollywood composer Russell Garcia and his wife Gina, the almond-shaped house is as well known for the steel caissons that hoist it 60ft above the canyon below as it is for its part in 1989’s Lethal Weapon 2, where it appears to come crashing down in a foul blow to the film’s villains. Special effects and celebrity aside, the Garcia House, which is, in fact, standing tall and well, now serves as a piece of living history, with its V-shaped supports, parabolic roof and stained-glass windows. The house’s current owners, entertainment business manager John McIlwee and Broadway producer Bill Damaschke, have been on a mission to restore and revive the house since they purchased it in 2002, while living there full time.

Guggenheim New York by Frank Lloyd Wright, USA

Frank Lloyd Wright's Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is a true icon of modernist architecture, its rounded shape and spirals shorthand for progressive thinking and the 20th century. The building, which opened in New York in 1959, is widely considered its author's masterpiece. It is also part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Since its creation, the Guggenheim has been designated a New York City Landmark and was carefully renovated at the turn of the century - and is now hosting ground breaking exhibitions in art, architecture and design.

Brasilia by Oscar Niemeyer, Roberto Burle Marx, João Filgueiras Lima (Lelé), and more, Brazil

Contemporary Brazil's renowned capital, Brasilia, was purpose-built in 1960, featuring a grand urban plan by Lúcio Costa, Oscar Niemeyer as its iconic principal architect and Roberto Burle Marx as the landscape designer (plus buildings from some of the country's finest architects). Brasilia's urban planning design has been an example and universal reference to architects and urban planners ever since. And it was all beautifully designed inspired by the era's most forward-thinking movement - the International Style - which Brazil took and made its own. Recently, home to some 2.6 million Brazilians and a listed UNESCO World Heritage Site, Brasilia is now over 50 years old; with its famous Niemeyer buildings, and lesser-known classic modernist structures like the Sarah Hospital by João Filgueiras Lima (Lelé) and the Nilson Nelson Arena by Ícaro Castro Mello.

Farnsworth House, USA

The Farnsworth House in Plano, Illinois, has been a key site for architecture pilgrims for years, since its creation by Mies van der Rohe in 1945 (and completion in 1951) for Dr Edith Farnsworth. Its clean lines, arresting simplicity and minimalist perfection have inspired architects, designers and artists for generations. It has been recently undergoing extensive restoration work to preserve its tired fabric for future generations.

SC Johnson HQ in Racine, USA

HF Johnson Jr hired Frank Lloyd Wright to build his Administration Building (1939) and Research Tower (1950) in Racine, US - today, they remain two of the most innovative, and important office buildings in the history of modern architecture. 'I wanted to build the best office building in the world, and the only way to do that was to get the greatest architect in the world,' Johnson explained at the time. The Research Tower, renovated in 2013, was opened to the public for the first time a few years ago. Its 15 floors all cantilever off a central core, which extends more than 50 feet into the ground. The research spaces are skinned with 'Cherokee Red' bricks, and more than 7,000 Pyrex glass tubes. The development site of ubiquitous products like Glade, Pledge, and Raid, the tower contains original lab equipment, amazing architectural drawings, and correspondence between Wright and Johnson.

MUBE museum, Brazil

Paulo Mendes da Rocha died in 2021. But when Wallpaper* interviewed him in 2010, as this extract shows, he was still channelling the energy of a revolutionary at the age of 81. His works include some of Brazil's most instantly recognisable architectural landmarks, such as the elegant, low, concrete volumes of MUBE - Sao Paulo's Museu Brasileiro de Escultura - which is widely considered one of the architect's masterpieces, alongside his own house in Butanta.

House PLR by André Becker of ABPA and Roberto Aflalo, Brazil

House PLR is an intriguing synthesis of 1970s classic Brazilian modernism and contemporary work, set within a short distance from São Paulo’s Alfredo Volpi Park. André Becker of ABPA was commissioned to renovate an existing house, originally designed by the architect Roberto Aflalo (1926-1992) for his own family back in the 1970s. By the time Becker arrived, he worked under surviving partner Gasperini and Aflalo’s son, Roberto Aflalo Filho, and Felipe Aflalo Hermann. The commission sent him back to his former workplace to research the project. The renovation went far beyond upgrading the fabric of the 1970s concrete structure. The new owner also bought the adjoining lots in order to balance out the main house with a new pavilion on one side and a rewilded forest area on the other.

Yale Center for British Art, USA

Louis Kahn’s masterful Yale Center for British Art is a five-story 1974 building that houses the largest collection of British art outside of the United Kingdom, donated in 1966 by Yale Alumnus Paul Mellon. Its intimate, naturally lit galleries are organised around two ethereal interior courtyards, floored in travertine and clad with grids of bare concrete, matte steel and white oak wall panels. Perhaps most famous for its monolithic anchor piece, a drum-like cylindrical grey cement staircase, the centre is an astonishing example of Kahn’s gift for eliciting visceral emotion through pure volume, light, and materials.

Arthur Erickson house, Canada

The late great Arthur Erickson, Canada's most renowned architect, was a jet setter and a world traveller with an impressive list of international clients. But the place in his native Vancouver he called home was a relatively understated abode in a bucolic, residential neighbourhood, where raccoons and sparrows were just as likely to turn up as any grander visitors. A converted garage on a double lot he purchased in 1957, and transformed into an elegantly executed contemplative space, it was really more of an appendage to his rather extraordinary garden. Although his garden parties were legendary, 4195 West 14th Avenue was above all a sanctuary for Erickson, who would return from LA or Baghdad and stay cocooned in his small green paradise, contemplating his next project.

Umbrella House, USA

The tale of Sarasota modernism began when progressive and well-travelled developer Philip Hiss embarked on a mission to create a wealthy winter enclave with a community vision for modern living. He commissioned up-and-coming architect Paul Rudolph to build forward-thinking structures for his land, resulting in, amongst others, the Umbrella House, a billboard for his new neighbourhood, Lido Shores. This two-level house was built as a marketing suite for Hiss’ Lido Shores neighbourhood, right next to his studio and on the highway as a billboard for modern living, designed by Rudolph. The structure is a steel grid with jalousie windows, and a huge 10ft shading canopy frames the pool and protects the windows from the sun. The canopy or ‘umbrella’ was originally made of old-growth cypress wood and tomato stakes, then replaced in 2015 with aluminium and steel wire X-bracing to meet hurricane-proof building codes that protect structures from 160mph winds.

Hamptons modernism, USA

The series of hamlets and seaside communities that form New York’s Hamptons region in eastern Long Island is no stranger to hidden gems, but probably most elusive of all is the plethora of modernist architecture homes that lurk in plain sight. Possibly thanks to furiously private owners, or because the properties have simply been forgotten, these historic houses are difficult to find, especially without a governing body in place to help preserve them. The newly established organisation, Hamptons 20 Century Modern, is committed to changing that. Founded by interior designer Timothy Godbold in early 2020 with a mission to raise awareness and recognition for preserving these modernist gems, the organisation is dedicated to preventing historically relevant homes from being lost to real estate development.

House in the Dune, USA

A modernist home designed by iconic American midcentury architect Charles Gwathmey, originally known as the Haupt Residence, has been in recent years restored and refreshed by New York studio Worrell Yeung. The house, built in the 1970s in Amagansett, New York, cuts a distinctly modernist figure, sitting among sand dunes and looking out towards the ocean – a positioning that lends it its name, House in the Dunes. Partially clad in grey cedar siding, which is matched by white walls and swathes of glazing, the house is a composition of opaque volumes and voids. These create windows, terraces, rooms and double-height living spaces indoors, in a design that feels at once dramatic and comfortably domestic.

Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, USA

Born in Osaka in 1941, Tadao Ando is well-known as one of Japan's most prominent contemporary architects. A self-taught professional, he travelled the world to understand architecture across cultures as part of this learning. He set up his practice Tadao Ando and Associates in 1969 and since then, he has completed over 300 projects across his 50-year career, picking up the Pritzker prize in 1995. His back catalogue spans from his first house project in 1976, the Azuma House in Sumiyoshi, to the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (2002), projects on Naoshima island that commenced in 1988, the Church of Light in Ibaraki, Osaka (1989), and La Bourse de Commerce in Paris, which opened in 2021.

Oceanus House by Pierre De Angelis and Donald Luckenbill, USA

Oceanus House is a sun-drenched Los Angeles home recently revived through a design by the architecture studio of Pierre De Angelis, Good Project Company. Originally created in the 1990s by Donald Luckenbill (repurposing a significantly smaller 1975 structure on site), who worked in the office of Paul Rudolph for many years, the home features modernist architecture influences and minimalist architecture lines, which have been reimagined for the 21st century by De Angelis and his team. Oceanus House commands striking views of Los Angeles from the elevated Mount Olympus neighbourhood. As a result, the home is orientated towards the long vistas featuring large terraces and a swimming pool with a lounge area that overlooks the LA cityscape below. The refreshed home spans a striking 7,466 sq ft and four bedrooms alongside an additional, fully independent (with its own kitchen and living space) pool house that adds 1,500 sq ft to the property.

Modernist architecture in Africa

Villa Baizeau by Le Corbusier, Tunisia

Villa Baizeau – Le Corbusier's only project in Africa – is located in Carthage, in the historic suburb of the Tunisian capital, just steps from its impressive Roman ruins and brilliant blue seas. Designed by Le Corbusier and his cousin Pierre Jeanneret, and completed in 1930, Villa Baizeau stands on a hill overlooking the Gulf of Tunis. It offers sweeping and striking views of the lush Bou Kornine summit and national park and the blue and white houses of Sidi-Bou-Saïd. It is the project on which the architect first trialled and developed his ideas around the brise-soleil (or sun-breaker) and adapted his open-plan Dom-Ino housing concept for hotter climates.

FIDAK (Foire Internationale de Dakar), Dakar designed by Jean Francois Lamoureux and Jean-Louis Marin, 1974, Senegal

If architecture is, as Mies van der Rohe famously claimed, ‘the will of an epoch translated into space’, how was the break from colonial rule expressed in the built environment? With daring and optimism – at least in the sub-Saharan Africa of the mid-twentieth century, when newly independent African countries were confronting complex issues of sovereignty and national identity. FIDAK (Foire Internationale de Dakar), Dakar designed by Jean Francois Lamoureux and Jean-Louis Marin in 1974 in Senegal is a great example of this wave of African Modernism. The movement includes government buildings, museums, schools, universities and conference centres across nations including Ghana, Senegal, the Ivory Coast, Kenya and Zambia.

Modernist architecture in Oceania

Silhouette House, Melbourne, Australia

Silhouette House, a modernist Melbourne house, has been reimagined to 21st-century standards by local architects Powell & Glenn. The structure, a fine example of modernist architecture in Australia, is a generous property adjacent to the city's Royal Botanic Gardens in South Yarra. As it is protected by heritage and planning regulations, the architecture team worked with specialist consultant Roger Beeson, who helped guide them in their meticulous restoration of the home's fabric.

Bridging Boyd, Australia

Bridging Boyd is a family home that addresses how to bring a valuable, but in-need-of-a-refresh, piece of modernist architecture into the 21st century. The home, originally named Richardson House, was designed in 1955 by renowned midcentury Australian architect Robin Boyd during his partnership with Grounds and Romberg. Situated in an inner Melbourne neighbourhood, the structure is now listed, having received a series of interventions by different past owners.

Fisher House, Australia

Fisher House, a work by legendary Australian designer Alistair Knox, has got a new lease of life thanks to architect Adriana Hanna, who headed a redesign of the midcentury home for its new owners. Set in Melbourne's suburb of Warrandyte, the house still maintains its original low-key, modernist architecture glory, but also features a few, gentle, 21st-century twists that make it a comfortable, practical and contemporary family home. 

As Salone del Mobile 2024 and the wider Milan Design Week got underway this week in the design capital, one thing quickly became clear: the majority of the fashion contingency among the schedule was in a reflective mood.

While some brands looked to design masters past, others mined their archives: Bottega Veneta worked with the Le Corbusier Foundation to re-interpret its LC14 Tabouret Cabanon stool; Yves Saint Laurent collaborated with the Gio Ponti archive to create an exclusive porcelain collection; and Gucci presented archival re-editions in its now-signature Ancora red from the likes of Tobia Scarpa and Venini.

Elsewhere, Hermès and Armani placed their new furniture and design creations beside the sartorial objects that inspired them (with Giorgio Armani sharing personal photographs that span his career) and Loewe worked with its Craft Prize alumni to create 26 unique lamps that spotlighted the time-honed craft techniques that still exist around the world.

It’s a move that reflects a recent trend in their primary medium of fashion, where reminders of iconic codes are increasingly served up to highlight the importance of respecting the signatures that stand the test of time.

Here, in our comprehensive round-up, is the Wallpaper* edit of the best fashion moments at Milan Design Week 2024.

Fashion moments at Salone del Mobile and Milan Design Week 2024

Armani Casa

Held once again in Palazzo Orsini on Via Borgonuovo (also known as Armani HQ), Armani Casa’s Salone installation took visitors on a journey of the places founder Giorgio Armani has been most inspired by during his illustrious career. His travels have taken him far and wide – all over Europe, as well as Japan, China, Saudi Arabia and Morocco – and over the years, homages to the craft and skill he has discovered in each have appeared in his ready-to-wear collections. For this installation, called ‘Echoes From The World’, he placed his exquisite couture creations and his own personal collection of souvenirs (from Samurai swords to kimonos) alongside new pieces of furniture such as the Venus console with a hand-painted lacquered glass top backed in gold-leaf to give a luminous shimmer in the room dedicated to China and the blue velvet bed in the room celebrating Morocco that took months to make (only seven centimetres of this fabric can be woven in a day and this bed took 12 metres of material). A highlight waiting at the end of the show was a room with supersized images from Armani’s private photo album in a few of the locations celebrated here. ‘For this edition of the Salone del Mobile, I imagined a “cinematic” journey to the countries that have always inspired me: places and cultures that spark highly personal reworkings,’ shared Armani, adding: ‘I like to present myself to the public in the most authentic and direct way possible.’

Hermès

Taking over the sprawling La Pelota space for the week, Hermès presented ‘Topography of Material’, an installation conceived ‘to create a dialogue between roots and movement, between materials and know-how’, shared the brand. Suspended below foot-level on a diagonal catwalk of sorts, guests were welcomed by 16 intersecting floors that brought together 16 different types of stone, ten types of earth, four types of wood and many variations of terracotta brick all sourced from either Italy or France arranged in intricate ways to celebrate the skill of timeless handcraft. It formed a powerful introduction to the presentation of objects itself as this year Hermès made a point to highlight its own enduring codes. Behind a 35m-long and 6.m-high suspended black wall lay objects from the house’s archive juxtaposed with recent masterpieces and objects making their debut. For example, the silver Timour choker necklace from 2002 sat beside the new Diapason D’Hermès chair designed by the Hermès Studio this year in homage to the piece of jewellery; the original Mangeoire pouch from 1949 (used to feed horses) stood beside the new Derby leather buckets, also launched this year; and the Drag travel bag from the 2010s was presented next to Jasper Morrison’s Equilibre chair for Hermès from 2020. As intended, it effectively presented the virtues in time-honed skills and luxurious designs that retain a forever relevance.

Valextra

Valextra worked with Bergamo-based Studio Temp (with whom it also collaborated for Casa Valextra) on its Valextra Vocabolario concept that transformed its John Pawson-designed Via Manzoni flagship into the Valextra Spa. The idea was to highlight the exceptional care that goes into each of Valextra’s leather goods, from the hands that craft them to the after-care that the brand offers its clients. Inside a huge, simulated sauna, guests were invited to sit and observe the brand’s artisans hand-painting its signature black lacquered Costa edging onto handbags in real time. In the pink-carpeted space around, the brand’s new Assoluto collection – a three-piece capsule crafted from Econyl – was unveiled as machines worked in real time to 3D-print the new Iside Onda handbag. Combining state-of-the-art handbag development and best-in-class customer service through a radical architectural lens, it beautifully captured the DNA of this Milanese brand.

Bottega Veneta

Bottega Veneta presented ‘On The Rocks’ at the Palazzo San Fedele, a special location for the house as it was the setting for creative director Matthieu Blazy’s first show and is its soon-to-be HQ. Partnering with Cassina and Fondation Le Corbusier, the brand honed in on the iconic LC14 Tabouret Cabanon stool that it described as ’a timeless icon of Le Corbusier that embodies the excellence of the Cassina carpentry workshop’. First conceived by the designer for his Côte d'Azur cabin, it was inspired by a washed-up whisky box he found on the shores beneath the residence, hence the title of the installation, which saw several iterations piled high, one on top of the other, reminiscent of a jagged coastline. This isn’t the first time Blazy has affiliated himself with the object; at his recent A/W 2024 womenswear fashion show set, guests sat on bare wooden versions. For Salone, they came in the same rendering but also covered in the brand’s famous intrecciatio leather to create 160 limited editions.

Loewe

Loewe creative director Jonathan Anderson primarily worked with alumni from the brand’s prestigious Craft Prize on his first-ever lighting installation at Salone del Mobile. Staged at Palazzo Citterio in the heart of the Brera Design District, the presentation featured one-of-a-kind lighting designs from 24 artists who the brand has either worked with or supported in the past. Remarkably, it was the first time that any of the featured makers had worked with light, which accounted for the originality on display. From Enrico David’s curved Onyx table lamp that features the face of a woman on closer inspection and Dahye Jeong’s spherical structure using an ancient weaving technique using horsehair, to Young Song Lee’s hollowed-out calabash fruits covered in twisted mulberry-tree paper and Dame Magdalene Odundo’s cinched leather hanging lamps (above), each captured the celebratory spirit of Loewe in the world of craft and design that promotes and helps preserve the most exquisite techniques from all over the world. While each of the 24 pieces was for sale at the start of the week, by 5pm on the second day the majority were – predictably – all snapped up.

Gucci

Gucci’s creative director Sabato de Sarno’s ‘Ancora’ campaign continues to thrive in Milano as the brand unveiled Gucci Design Ancora in its newly reopened flagship on Via Montenapoleone. Entering through a carpeted staircase surrounded by lacquered walls in the dark red ‘Ancora Rosso’ hue that is a signature of the De Sarno era at Gucci, visitors were presented with an antidote in acid green when they reached the top. Inside this starkly saturated mini maze, architected by Guillermo Santomà, were five objects De Sarno had chosen from several Italian masters over the years that had been re-issued in the Ancora-red hue for the occasion. The Le Mura sofa by Mario Bellini for Tacchini from 1972; the Clessidra rug from an iconic design of Piero Portaluppi made by CC-Tapis; the Storet tallboy by Nanda Vigo for Acerbis in 1994; the Opachi vase by Tobia Scarpa for Venini in 1960; and the Parola lamp by Gae Aulenti and Piero Castiglioni for FontanaArte in 1980 each stood in their own space to be admired from all angles. ‘Through Design Ancora, Gucci doesn’t simply celebrate old icons, it creates new ones,’ said Michela Pelizzari, founder of P:S Agency, which co-curated the project. ’The aura emanating from the brand spotlights five pieces by Italian masters that are perfect from a design standpoint but less known to the general public.’

Thom Browne

For his Salone del Mobile debut, Thom Browne took over the Palazzina Appiani to unveil his collaboration with the 160-year-old home textiles expert Frette with his performance, entitled Time To Sleep. True to his reputation for subverting traditional settings and concepts into unexpected scenarios, Browne placed six identical beds under the frescoes in the Hall of Honour and had models undress themselves before getting into bed. In the models’ getting dressed, rather than undressed, to sleep, Browne intended to ‘challenge the audience to question the role of dress in public life’, highlighting that the act of sleeping is just as important as the hours we are awake. ‘I think it's so much more interesting, and it elevates the product launch, when you create an installation that transcends the specific world that it’s in,’ Browne told Wallpaper* during rehearsals for the performance. The collection, which is available immediately, comprises sheets, blankets, terry-towel and cashmere robes, bath towels, and a quilted bath mat in crisp white cotton-sateen. ‘The reason I wanted to work with Frette is because they’re the best at what they do,’ added Browne.

Saint Laurent

The Paris-based house turned the clock back to 1953 and the private collection of Anala and Armando Planchart who commissioned the legendary architect Gio Ponti to mastermind their hilltop Venezuelan villa overlooking Caracas. On finishing the project, Ponti commissioned artisans from his native Italy to help furnish the space and turned to Ginori 1735 to create a collection of porcelain plates featuring motifs from around the villa and the couple’s initials. It is these plates that creative director Anthony Vaccarello curated and had reissued by the ceramic experts for Saint Laurent’s special installation in the cloisters of the Chiostri di San Simpliciano. Displayed in oscillating tubes on a raised platform that mirrored the height in which they originally lived in Villa Planchart Segnaposto, the presentation marked a coming together of multiple design icons.

Prada

Once again collaborating with FormaFantasma (above), Prada staged its Prada Frames seminar discussions on the theme of Being Home. Throughout the week, luminaries in different fields came together – including Paola Antonelli, Brigitte Baptiste, Kate Crawford, Jack Halberstam and David Van Severen – to cover myriad topics that were contextualised by Alice Rawsthorn. Each of the 17 sessions took their leave from different rooms around the home: for the bedroom, Gulsum Baydar and Philippe Rahm discussed the bedrooms role as a comfort zone; for the living room, Jayden Ali and Jack Halberstam were in conversation with Andrés Jaque exploring the rituals of diaspora communities in architectural spaces; and in the library, Isabella Rossellini and Mary Kuhn examined the relationship between humans and nature in the home, past and present. Staged each year to invite people out of their everyday lives and explore new and alternative analysis of familiar situations, it continues to be a highlight. Read more about Prada Frames.

Issey Miyake

60,000 bamboo skewers were used to create the one-of-a-kind carpet collaboration between Issey Miyake and the Dutch collective We Make Carpets. Famous for transforming everyday objects into artistic works of beauty, the artisans channelled Issey Miyake’s own skill at finding the sweet spot of robust-delicacy with the piece that was created by inserting the skewers one by one by hand into a thick piece of foam. The resulting patterns emerged organically as their dipped ends started to create surface patterns. Issey Miyake praised the group’s tenacity in making something meaningful without the need for ‘fancy gadgets and advanced technologies’, praising their labour-intensive and synchronised teamwork in bringing the piece to life. Transported flat to Milan city centre from where it was crafted in the Netherlands, in a nod to the national emblem it was presented resting on wooden beams crafted from tulip trees at the Via Bagutta flagship.

Versace

‘If These Walls Could Talk’ is an apt name for Versace’s Salone del Mobile presentation staged in its original atelier, the Palazzo Versace on Via Gesu. As many a fashion aficionado will know, it is at this residence that many of the fashion house’s famous catwalk shows have taken place over the years (including that 1991 show that birthed ‘the supermodel’) and where many of its globally recognised logos and icons were first designed, including the Medusa, Barocco and Greca emblems. They were omnipresent through this presentation that guided visitors from room to room, with even more opulence around each corner – an experience heightened by an audio experience created in collaboration with Radio Raheem for each space. They featured pieces new and reworked including The Medusa ’95 Conversational Sofa, the La Greca Bed and the Lady Desk, each a conversation starter in the space they stood.

Loro Piana 

Paying tribute to the late Milanese designer and architect Cini Boeri, Loro Piana showcased the most iconic pieces from her archive and presented them in its famously luxurious interiors fabrics. The collaboration with the official archive of Boeri, marks not only what would have been the year of Boeri’s 100th birthday, but the year Loro Piana also celebrates its centenary. Honouring Boeri’s insistence that furniture should be engaged with at all times, visitors to the presentation were encouraged to touch and sit on the pieces as they moved through the space. ’The thinking of Cini Boeri is extraordinarily contemporary,’ shared Francesco Pergamo, Director of Loro Piana Interiors. ’Just as extraordinarily contemporary remain the pieces we have chosen to exhibit together with Arflex and Archivio Cini Boeri, and to dress with our fabrics.’ Featured in the presentation are the famous modular Strips system, that won the prestigious Compasso d’Oro in 1979, the corresponding bed, the Bobo and Boborelax armchairs and the Botolo Chairs that have been covered in the brand’s ‘cashfur’ and made in a limited edition of 100. ’The dual centenary of Cini’s birth and the founding of Loro Piana has offered us the opportunity to contribute to the appreciation of the architect's figure,’ added Pergamo, who revealed plans to work with the archive on additional projects over the next three years.

Fendi Casa

Welcome to the world of Fendi Casa where the family keeps growing. This year, the Via Manzoni space was masterminded by Silvia Venturini Fendi and realised by Controvento creative collective. Together, they kept the house’s ‘double F’ logo of the house front and center, creating intimate spaces that invite people to cosy up, much like the emblem. The perfect example lies in the new Fendi F-Affair sofa by Controvento that is an interlocking platform of seats and suspended tables presented with a champagne bucket and glasses. It was joined by other collaborations in the sumptuous sofa department, the F-Stripes by Ludovica Serafini and Roberto Palomba and the Sohoft by Toan Nguyen. Existing families grew their brood, too: Thierry Lemaire’s Parsifal sofa was joined by the Mrs Parsifal armchair; Stefano Gallizioli’s Adrianand’s Audrey chair was complemented with square-shaped Audrette chairs; and Cristina Celestino's Ottavia chair was delivered of a sister, the Lazy Ottavia armchair.

Zegna

Zegna staged something of a takeover of Milan as it released its new Rizzoli tome, Born In Oasi Zegna. Named after the 100km of forested land north of Milan in the Biella Alps where its founder Ermenegildo Zegna initiated a reforestation programme in 1910, the book marked a moment for the brand to celebrate both its values and association with the city of Milan. In celebration, mini Zegna-branded newsstands (‘edicolas’) that are famously found on most corners were giving out limited-edition tote bags, while over in the piazza in front of the landmark Duomo, tulips transported in from the area were being planted in the square’s new flower beds. ’The project aims to convey the value and urgency of respect for the Earth and nature, as well as the importance that urban green spaces can bring people closer to natural ecosystems and the protection of biodiversity and social responsibility,’ shared the brand, ’concepts that are fundamental to Oasi Zegna.’

Dolce & Gabbana

Fresh from setting the city alight with its extravagant Milanese exhibition, ’From the Heart to the Hands’, Dolce & Gabbana staged an intimate reveal of its new interiors offering, The Dreaming Collection. Here, it was all about sitting comfortably, as the Moss Curved Sofa, which sits on a polished metal base in black nickel, and the DG Casa Moon Island armchair (above, which the brand said was ‘reminiscent of a warm embrace’) were joined by the Moon Island Sofa – designed to steal the spotlight in any room it’s in, much like everything this brand turns its heart and hand to.

Lanvin

Parisian house Lanvin looked towards its heritage for its installation at Milan Design Week; specifically, Lanvin Decoration, a furniture and decoration line which was first introduced by founder and couturier Jeanne Lanvin in 1920. Lanvin united with Rooms Studio – founded by two Georgian designers Nata Janberidze and Keti Toloraia in 2007 – for the project, which saw the pair curate a number of their pieces, including a series of sculptural chairs and benches, which were displayed at Lanvin’s Milan outpost.

Think of Carthage, and modernist architecture is unlikely to come to mind. Yet Villa Baizeau – Le Corbusier's only project in Africa – is located right here, in the historic suburb of the Tunisian capital, just steps from its impressive Roman ruins and brilliant blue seas. 

An exhibition currently on display in 32bis, a multistorey cultural space in downtown Tunis, aims to bring the story of this lesser-known Le Corbusier project to the wider public. 'We were keen to put on this exhibition because the building has never been open to the public,' explains locally based architect Chacha Atallah, the driving force behind the show, which is curated by architectural historian Roberto Gargiani and supported by innovative local art platform La Boîte. 'It went from being a private home to a property that became part of the presidential palace precinct so it has an air of mystery about it.'

Le Corbusier's Villa Baizeau in Tunis

Designed by Le Corbusier and his cousin Pierre Jeanneret, and completed in 1930, Villa Baizeau stands on a hill overlooking the Gulf of Tunis. It offers sweeping and striking views of the lush Bou Kornine summit and national park and the blue and white houses of Sidi-Bou-Saïd. Unbeknownst to many, it is the project on which the architect first trialled and developed his ideas around the brise-soleil (or sun-breaker) and adapted his open-plan Dom-Ino housing concept for hotter climates. 

It’s interesting and significant for other reasons, too. Firstly, because the client –French industrialist Lucien Baizeau, a prominent player in Tunisian social, political and economic life during the French protectorate in Tunisia – had an at times feisty and conflictual relationship with Le Corbusier, says Atallah.

Secondly, and intriguingly, Le Corbusier designed the building without ever setting foot in Tunisia. 'He was already quite well-known back then and busy travelling the world and giving conferences,' explains Atallah. 'He had been to Algeria but not Tunisia, so the client asked a topographer and photographer to take photos and send him drawings and plans that showed the views, the orientation, where the sun landed.'

The seeds for the project were first planted in 1927, when Baizeau received a catalogue of the groundbreaking modernist housing exhibition in Stuttgart, ‘Die Wohnung’, and saw Le Corbusier’s Double House for the Weissenhof Estate. 'He was utterly seduced by these new construction methods that made use of reinforced concrete,' says Atallah. 

At the helm of several companies, including a construction firm called La Tunisoise Industrielle that also made building materials, Baizeau was looking to expand the capacity of what the firm could do and introduce these modern and revolutionary techniques. As a result, he had a far clearer idea of what he wanted than most clients. 'When he eventually sent the contract to Le Corbusier, he also sent plans and drawings for the house,' explains Atallah. 'It’s rare and unprecedented that a client is so involved in a project,' she continues, 'but Baizeau was a construction man and had a genuine understanding of the process.' 

The design process was long and, at times, arduous, with Baizeau rejecting the first three designs sent by Le Corbusier and Jeanneret, which were based on the Maison Citröhan prototype that was more suited to urban or city settings, explains Atallah. Baizeau proposed changes and counter-projects that took on elements of the duo’s design solutions but disregarded others. 

'The spaces Le Corbusier had designed were very open-plan, whereas Baizeau wanted more intimate and acoustically insulated spaces as suited their lifestyle,' says Atallah. 'By the third iteration of the design, Baizeau had had enough and sent a letter to Le Corbusier, along with more drawings and a note stating “I ask you to study these documents immediately and to conform to them as much as is possible”.'

The fourth design was, fortunately, the final one. Though many things had been modified along the way, the main changes related to climate and ventilation issues. From the outset, Baizeau had been adamant that his modern seaside home be adapted to the local climate and be able to withstand the hot Tunisian sun and sirocco winds. 

His suggestion that there be a balcony that wrapped around the building sparked something in Le Corbusier, who not only ran with the idea but adapted it, creating the generous cantilevered open terraces we can see on three sides of the house today. With railings on the front elevation, the building took on the air of one of those grand ocean liners Le Corbusier so admired. Above all, these terrace overhangs provided plenty of shaded outdoor space throughout the day, and the possibility of indoor/outdoor living throughout the seasons. 

'Le Corbusier had never done a project in this part of the world before and until that point had not concerned himself much with questions of climate, surroundings, ventilation and sunlight,' explains Atallah.

'Villa Baizeau represents the birth of the brise-soleil, an idea that would accompany him the rest of his life and in every project he later developed, for instance, the honeycomb façade of the Cité Radieuse in Marseille, Villa Shodhan in Ahmedabad, and his work in Chandigarh. With Villa Baizeau, the notion of climate entered his architecture.'

The final design also represents the birth of a new typology Atallah explains, an adapted version of Le Corbusier’s Maison Dom-ino, with reinforced concrete columns that do away with the need for load-bearing walls. 'But instead of being open-plan, it is filled with rooms.'

Though Villa Baizeau acquired national listed status in January 2024, Atallah and the rest of the team behind the exhibition would like to see the building acquire Unesco status and be restored and opened up to the public. 'People need to be able to visit and study it,' she says. Making this exhibition and catalogue 'was the only diplomatic way we knew of to make the relevant people pay attention.' Here’s to hoping they do.

 ‘Simple Architecture: Villa Baizeau in Carthage by Le Corbusier and Jeanneret’ runs at 32bis until 30 May 2024

expositionvillabaizeau.com

32bis.org

laboite-kilanigroupe.com

fondationlecorbusier.fr

In Paris in February 1956, a prototype prefabricated house designed by French architect Jean Prouvé opened to the public for three weeks on the banks of the Seine. Amidst a post-war housing crisis, the Maison Les Jours Meilleurs, or House of Better Days, was a direct response to an appeal by activist Abbé Pierre for urgent homeless relief in Paris during the brutally cold winter of 1954, which saw widespread suffering and the tragic death of a mother and baby. 

Now, 70 years on, an exhibition at Galerie Patrick Seguin in Paris is exploring the house and its social history through deconstructed architectural elements, archive material and the opportunity for the public, once again, to step inside the house – this time in virtual reality (back in 2012, the gallery released an animation of archive imagery and computer graphics that detailed the construction of Maison Les Jours Meilleurs).

The House of Better Days at Galerie Patrick Seguin

Even with VR headsets beckoning, the exhibition’s pièce de résistance is the very real, load-bearing core of the Maison Les Jours Meilleurs. The finely crafted, sculptural piece of steel was an innovative multi-tasker (greatly admired by Le Corbusier); it supported the building, carried plumbing and ventilation, hid a compact bathroom and revealed a neat kitchen. 

At the heart of Prouvé’s concept, it shows that – even though this efficient, low-cost house built of industrial materials including aluminium roof panels and a plywood façade could be constructed within seven hours by two people – precision and craft were not lost.

Though the Maison Les Jours Meilleurs was modest at 57 sq m for a family of four, the virtual reality experience helps to communicate the quality of its interior; such as the warmth of its beech wood interior panels (also displayed in the gallery as a comparison) and sliding windows framing cinematic views of the Seine in the 1950s. 

Back in 1956, an impressive 96 per cent of visitors approved of the interiors (with 59.8 per cent claiming interest in purchase). Today, achieving a sense of texture and depth virtually was the result of a painstaking collaboration between gallerist Patrick Seguin, VR experience architects Double Geste and architectural visualisers Le Visiomatique, who describe it as a process of ‘reverse archaeology’.

It is through newspaper cuttings, magazine covers and construction photographs that the social history of the house can be better understood, as both a product of its context and the humanist ambitions of its creators, Prouvé and Abbé Pierre. 

Prouvé had been working on ‘emergency’ architecture for many years prior; developing the axial portal frame system patented in 1939, then responding to a government brief for post-war housing in eastern France in 1944. In Paris, Abbé Pierre founded the Emmaüs group, also known as the Compagnons Bâtisseurs, or Companion Builders, dedicated to tackling housing and poverty; and tirelessly raised funds through a campaign with washing powder brand Persil to raise more than two million francs to commission Prouvé.

While designed with optimism for a better future, only five Maison Les Jours Meilleurs were ever built – after failing to meet planning restrictions, a proud Prouvé refused to alter his designs. Yet gallerist Patrick Seguin believes there is much to be learnt from the house and its story, commending architects such as Shigeru Ban who continue to work on humanist approaches to emergency architecture today and in this vein, he’s open-minded to see where the virtual maison might travel next.

Maison Les Jours Meilleurs, 1956’, Galerie Patrick Seguin, 14 March – 20 April 2024

Galerie Patrick Seguin, 5 rue des Taillandiers, 75011 Paris

patrickseguin.com

Lissoni & Partners has completed a serene mountain apartment on the Dolomites, in the Trentino-Alto Adige region of Italy. Designed for a private client as a 'tailor-made refuge equipped with all the comforts of modern day living', the apartment sits on the top floor of a new building nestled in a picturesque mountain village. 

The project was led by Lissoni with Stefano Castelli and Andrea Piazzalunga, and the styling was entrusted to Elisa Ossino Studio. 

The luminous open space faces the surrounding nature through full-height windows, and is furnished with a combination of discreet classics and iconic pieces. In a muted chromatic palette, the furniture features white and greys complementing the natural wood of floors and ceilings. 

The eclectic mix ranges from Le Corbusier's ‘Le Petit Confort’ armchair upholstered in neutral linen to Rick Owens' ‘Tomb’ chair, made of white marble and moose antler. 

The furniture complements the apartment owner's art collection, featuring sculpture and paintings that favour an organic aura, also evoked by design details such as the raw wooden tabletop and the dark stone kitchen.

Meanwhile, in the night area of the apartment, a series of suites offers a more intimate approach, with direct access to the wraparound terrace. 

Says Lissoni & Partners of the choice of colours and palettes: 'The materials of rustic wood and stone that are typical of mountain homes are here reinterpreted in a contemporary key, while at the entrance, a large custom-made panel re-explores the traditional marquetry of mountain valleys.'

lissoniandpartners.com

‘Le Corbusier’s legacy has always been an inspiration for Tekla – he’s one of the most influential architects, synonymous with modern architecture,’ Charlie Hedin, co-founder and creative director of Tekla, told Wallpaper* on the launch of the Danish lifestyle brand’s first collaboration with Les Couleurs Suisse AG in 2022, which was inspired by the pioneering architect’s ‘unorthodox and playful’ use of colour. 

Launching this week, the brand’s third Le Corbusier-inspired collection of blankets – once again in collaboration with Les Couleurs Suisse AG – reaches stores. Like with the previous two collections, Hedin looked towards Le Corbusier’s seminal 63-tone palette ‘Architectural Polychromy’ – which spans two colour series, created in 1931 and 1959 – for the blankets’ distinct shades. Zurich-based Les Couleurs Suisse AG is the worldwide licensor of these colours, having been entrusted with the palette by the Le Corbusier Foundation in Paris. 

Tekla’s Le Corbusier mohair blankets

The latest collection selects four colours from ‘Architectural Polychromy’ to adorn the Spain-manufactured mohair blankets – Vert Anglais 32040, Rouge Rubia 32101, Orange Vif 4320S and Le Jaune Vif 4320W. Deeper shades than those used in the previous two iterations of the project, these, says Tekla, ‘express a maturation of Le Corbusier’s ideas’ and were utilised by the architect for the interiors and murals of Le Cabanon, a simple cabin-like structure built in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin on France’s Côte d'Azur, where he would spend much of the final years of his life.

‘Colour in architecture – a means as powerful as the ground plan and section,’ he once noted of the importance of colours in his work. ‘Or better: polychromy, a component of the ground plan and the section itself.’

Architecture has long been an inspiration for Hedin, who co-founded Tekla with now-managing director Kristoffer Juhl in 2017. The work of Alvar Aalto, Mies van der Rohe and Axel Vervoordt have all been noted as touchpoints for the brand’s designs – which include bedding, sleepwear and textiles for the bathroom – while a recent collaboration between Tekla and John Pawson saw the British architect design a series of textiles inspired by his Oxfordshire home.

Earlier in 2023, Tekla opened its first store in Copenhagen, a serene space in Copenhagen’s Egmont Building meant to evoke the feeling of being at home. ‘Everything you see inside the store now is built by us,’ Hedin told Wallpaper* at the time, noting his desire to evoke the Nordic Classicism of the building’s exterior. ‘All of the fittings are inspired by the time the building is from; we tried to bring the exterior inside. It’s an iconic building here in Copenhagen so we wanted to approach it with honesty, and the story, that we could.’

The collection is available now and is sold exclusively at teklafabrics.com

The V&A's 'Tropical Modernism: Architecture and Power in West Africa' is located at the heart of the 18th Venice Architecture Biennale’s revolutionary re-framing. Organised by the museum and the Architectural Association (AA) in London, along with the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), in Kumasi, Ghana, the show focuses on the legacy of the British architects Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew, and the development of what they called ‘Tropical Modernism’. It is an exploration of modern architecture in newly independent Ghana, and a fascinating insight into the shape-shifting interplay between modern architecture and colonialism.

V&A's Tropical Modernism

Drew and Fry were archetypal modernists, the power couple of inter-war British architecture. In the UK, Fry had worked with Walter Gropius, and after the war, both moved to India to collaborate with Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret on the plans for Chandigarh. They were also involved in designs for Nigeria and Ghana, then both part of the British Empire (when the latter was known as the Gold Coast). 

In 1956, Fry and Drew published Tropical Architecture in the Humid Zone, an influential book that used their considerable experience to show how the Corbusian five point of architecture could be applied to equatorial conditions. So far, so predictable – a classic example of the International Style bulldozing its way towards global cultural hegemony. But Africa was in the throes of massive change, and one of those at heart of the independence movement was Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah. 

The structures of colonialism across Africa made modern architecture more of an imposition than a collaboration, but Fry and Drew’s experience, as well as the benevolent support of Nkrumah, saw Tropical Modernism briefly flourish as the newly independent state's de facto style, as much a counterpoint to the fortifications and other colonial institutions that were indelibly linked to first the slave trade and then economic subjugation. How these post-Corbusian ideals became a strong symbol of pan-Africanism is the subject of this exhibition, curated by the V&A’s Dr Christopher Turner, and Nana Biamah-Ofosu and Bushra Mohamed from the AA.

The show is defined by an exhibition wall shaped like a brise-soleil, a typically Corbusian architectural device that screened and shaded a façade; Fry and Drew used these large-scale screens in many of their Ghanian projects. Into the gaps of this 35m long wall goes a host of archive imagery, tracing the story of this new architecture and its role in the changing political landscape of the country. In the UK, Fry and Drew founded the AA’s Department of Tropical Architecture, ostensibly for European architects to learn how to design for the colonies, but also a place for the new generation of post-colonial architects to study. 

Here the waters are muddied. Architectural intervention in Ghana was both benevolent and cynical, a way of mollifying a populace that was increasingly agitating against colonial rule. Nkrumah was an instrumental figure, and after his inevitable accession to the country’s presidency following independence in 1957, he made full use of funding from London to build educational infrastructure for the country. This quid pro quo arrangement not only involved Fry and Drew, as well as links with the AA’s educational programme, but also architects from Eastern Europe and China, driven by Nkrumah’s socialist leanings; even Buckminster Fuller, who was invited to contribute to the Ghana International Trade Fair Centre in Accra. 

The exhibition culminates in a film installation, three screens showing a mixture of unseen archive footage, contemporary views of the key buildings, and interviews with Samia Nkrumah, politician and Nkrumah’s daughter, as well as Ghanaian architects who worked alongside Drew, Fry and the AA’s John Lloyd, thanks to Nkrumah’s insistence on local involvement at all levels. Through this blend of co-operation and misaligned interests, Tropical Modernism emerged as a symbol of a new Afro-centrism, shaping not just universities and administrative buildings, but also monumental structures that celebrated independence.

The exhibition showcases some of the key buildings of the era, including the Wesley Girls’ Senior High School, Cape Coast, the George Padmore Library in Accra and the extensive KNUST campus, a ‘Bauhaus city within the forest. In 1966, a military coup overthrew Nkrumah, damaged by the new country’s plummeting economic prospects and increasingly autocratic rule (‘He was a very good African, but a poor Ghanian’, as one of the interviewees notes in the film). It was also the end of Tropical Modernism, and the AA closed its department in 1971.

Ultimately, the imported modernists of all political persuasions never quite grasped the social and spiritual aspects of Ghanian culture, even though Lloyd – a younger generation from Fry and Drew – had a more open and inclusive attitude towards vernacular architecture and tradition. 

The UK and Ghana remain intertwined both socially and culturally. The Biennale’s curator, Lesley Lokko, is Ghanaian-Scottish, whilst one of the most prominent contemporary architects showing in Venice is Ghanaian-British David Adjaye, whose office is currently working on 100 hospitals in the country, amongst many other projects. The buildings and histories presented in Tropical Modernism are a vivid slice of cross-cultural pollination, a social and political pinch point where, amongst other things, aspects of the Afro-futurist aesthetic took root. 

Tropical Modernism: Architecture and Power in West Africa is at the Applied Arts Pavilion, 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale, LaBiennale.org 

Samuel Ross is not an architect, at least in the traditional sense, but his creative practice is inextricably linked to the semiotics and aesthetics of the discipline.

A Cold Wall*, the clothing line he founded in 2015 when he was only 24 years old, is ‘a material study for social architecture’; Concrete Objects, a range of functional designs co-created with Jobe Burns, are inspired by brutalism and Le Corbusier; and his studio SR_A, ‘operates within the fields of luxury industrial design, interior installation, architecture, furniture design, sound design and sculptural/visual communication’.

His latest project– a redesign of Acqua di Parma’s iconic Colonia bottle– is no exception. Colonia Limited Edition, designed by Samuel Ross sees him repackage the fragrance (which has remained unchanged since 1916) in a new design inspired by the architecture of Milan and London. The new bottle comes in three colours – Sun_Rise_Yellow, Grass_Blade_Green and Ultra_Orange – and features a scaffolding-like window frame in place of the traditional label.

Samuel Ross on the limited edition Colonia bottle

Ross is well-acquainted with both cities – he was born in London and operates SR_A out of 180 Strand; while A-Cold-Wall* relocated its atelier to Milan 2022. But the redesign of Colonia is hardly just an expression of Ross’ own familiarity with the two locations; rather, it is a product of, as Ross describes it, SR_A ‘fracking and mining’ the architectural dialogue between Milan and London in the wake of the Second World War, and then bringing the history of that connection into the present. 

‘We were really looking at are there any connective points between the historic architecture of London across the 20th century in correlation to Milan, which this fragrance represents,’ says Ross. ‘We found post-modern architecture and modernism onward from World War II and this reintegration of what Europe could look like as the focal point. Especially as England has unfortunately left Europe, it felt like it was important to reassert a certain optimism and an optimistic connection between European cities.’

‘Architects that do that when on to inspire this product are Renzo Piano, Richard Rogers, and Superstudio, which all have this Italian-British connection that we really wanted to dive into,’ he continues. ‘And it was particularly those three practices that we focused on because they [express] an optimism in the face of adversity within a post-war society. If I think about post-Brexit and this yearning we have spiritually to be close. I wanted to frack and mine that in the past and bring that forward.’

In addition to the work of Rogers and Piano, Ross sites ‘Massimo and Lella Vignelli’s typographic works across visual maps and routes – specifically the New York Subway’ and ‘modernism’s use of flat bold primary colours, paramount across European architecture and city iconography’, as influences on the bold colour palette of the new collection. Meanwhile, the label draws from ‘the scenography of Milan, London and beyond’.

It is the inherent irony of good design that it takes a lot of thought to create something that seems simple and intuitive. Such is the case with Colonia Limited Edition, designed by Samuel Ross, a perfume bottle that, on its surface, just looks good, but really belies complex considerations and meticulous execution. 

A version of this story appears in the April 2023 issue of Wallpaper*, available now in print, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today 

Balkrishna Vithaldas Doshi, a prolific architect and educator, has left behind a huge legacy for generations to come. He studied in Mumbai, and famously worked with modernist architecture masters Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn, before founding his own practice Vastu-Shilpa from his studio Sangath in Ahmedabad. He continued his work there for over six and a half decades, until he passed away on 24 January 2023, having designed numerous realised and unrealised projects.

Balkrishna Doshi's even greater contribution to architecture was his deep and consistent personal engagement with the architectural community at large and the profession as a whole. In 1962, he founded the Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT), School of Architecture in Ahmedabad as a one-of-a-kind educational facility, enabling an unprecedented meeting place for direct encounters between young learners and accomplished professionals from across the globe. He remained personally approachable to one and all, and continued to directly engage with students and colleagues in the field throughout. He was also the architect of this school’s building (without doubt one of his best works), a perfect balance between the inside and the outside, contemplative and social, formal and informal spaces ‘celebrating life’ in all its complex aspects, and in sync with his description of good architecture. His lectures, research and writing facilitated dialogue in much the same way. 

Remembering Balkrishna Vithaldas Doshi (1927 – 2023)

My own interactions with Doshi steadily increased since 1998, in connection with my growing engagement in the planning work for the international city of Auroville in South India, in collaboration with its chief architect Roger Anger. I had started my architectural practice in Auroville in 1990, and in 1996 I was a recipient of the Vastu Shilpa Foundation research fellowship for my research titled ‘Urban Eco-Community: Design and Analysis for Sustainability’. Thereafter, during my involvement in producing Auroville’s masterplan in 1999 for approval by the Ministries of Urban Development and Human Resource Development (under which Auroville Foundation is positioned), I had approached Doshi for guidance. He would receive me warmly at his studio and home, and I had the good fortune of staying over in both those places. He too visited us in Auroville on several occasions and I facilitated meetings between him and Anger, and others involved in Auroville’s planning. He would always bring snacks and goodies from Ahmedabad when he visited or give me something to take back from Ahmedabad when I visited, leaving a lasting impression of his porous boundaries as a warm and social human being with whom it was easy to connect on a human level, as when collaborating on a professional one. 

Conversations with him and his wife Kamala over meals made us feel at home, like there was no distance necessary between people. When he came to Auroville, he too visited me at my residence Wall House, and made it a point to meet my father and my bedridden ailing mother who lived with me in Auroville during their last years. We kept in touch even after Anger passed away in 2008, and soon after Doshi was appointed as a member of Auroville’s governing board for two cycles of four years each. Doshi deeply admired and appreciated Anger and saw a great promise in his visionary ideas and unique city plan. As chairman of the Auroville Town Development Council (ATDC), he eagerly supported the same line of development as envisaged by Anger. As current head of Urban Design at ATDC, I was looking forward to our ongoing interaction along with the Board of Experts that is now in the process of being set up. He had accepted to be part of this board. Thanks to post-Covid digital platforms on which we met, the recorded interactions with him will inspire further work and decisions being taken in realising Auroville.  

His expansive contribution was recognised through India’s highest honours, Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan. He was also a recipient of the Aga Khan Award. Much more recently, in his nineties, Doshi received the Pritzker Architecture Prize 2018 for his substantial contribution to the field of architecture, and the RIBA Gold Medal 2022. While many felt that these international awards came in too late, they were nonetheless timely, as what Doshi stood for is important the world over now more than ever. The timeless values and holistic approaches that he represents personally and professionally are exactly what needs to be globally acknowledged as architectural best practice. Everywhere. At a time when architecture is being reduced to seductive building forms and photogenic façades that are air-dropped into diverse contexts, regardless of their complex local cultural or climatic context, where over-simplified computer-generated renderings and often frivolous play of forms are becoming the norm, I was personally overjoyed that the Pritzker committee’s decision brought the attention back to architecture’s real capacity to facilitate and create environments that are human society-centric. 

Doshi’s body of works shows that outstanding contemporary buildings can be expressions of deeper cultural values of a collective, that architecture is the synthesis of many complex concerns, and above all a backdrop for life to take place, where the architect is at the service of human society.

As an educator, and an engaged member in society, Doshi has inspired generations of students and architects from the world over to share experiences freely, just as on a personal level his home has been equally open to all. Despite his success and fame, he has always been accessible and inclusive, and treated people regardless of age and experience at par. He may be one of the eldest architects to have been honoured with prizes like the Pritzker, but his spirit is probably the youngest. Those who have interacted with him will agree that his youth, curiosity and openness were inspirational. 

While architects the world over are celebrating him and the universal values they see in him, I am glad that the global community will equally take the time to discover more about his work and legacy, and perhaps rethink where contemporary architecture is headed.

Conversations with him smoothly crossed over between the practical and the philosophical, the professional and the personal. I remember on one occasion, when I had been sharing some of my recent projects and research on my laptop under the title of ‘Form follows Technology’, and had mentioned the context of my ferrocement research [a profile on Anupama Kundoo published in Wallpaper's April 2021 issue, discusses her work in detail], saying that the architecture was ‘site-specific’, he responded thoughtfully: ‘…actually architecture is life-specific’. These are Doshi’s words that encompass the summary of all my discussions with him. That architecture is life-specific. 

anupamakundoo.com 

sangath.org 

Great home office desks are key to create the best study areas in your home. And the best home office desks feature an ergonomic design, well-considered proportions and the right amount of accessories. Whether you need a compact work surface for a small home study or a large bureau for a more expansive office, these contemporary desks are sleek and elegant, while functionality comes from features such as integrated USB ports and lighting, and discreet storage. 

Conceived by some of the most celebrated creative minds and produced by some of world's best furniture manufacturers, our selection of office desks includes historical designs, multifunctional workstations, essential furniture pieces and desks in bold colours. 

13 Home Office desks from contemporary makers

A small and minimal writing desk

Name: Baguette desk
Designer: Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, for Magis
Price: on request

Originating from Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec’s popular Baguette dining table for Magis, this compact writing desk features die-cast aluminium legs and a slim top made of veneered Fenix with edges in painted ABS. The Baguette desk is available in three colour combinations: beige with a white edge and legs, burgundy with a black edge and legs, and grey with a black edge and legs. The perfect writing desk to transform a corned into a home office, it works just as well as a small dining table for small spaces. 

magisdesign.com

An iconic desk rediscovered 

Name: Office Desk
Designer: Bodil Kjaer, reissued by Karakter
Price: DKK 47.999

Danish architect and designer Bodil Kjaer created this office desk in 1959, originally designed for MIT and later made famous by featuring in an early James Bond movie in the 1960s. The simple, almost floating design was reissued by Karakter in 2018, and the rosewood and chrome metal combination of its origins updated with a contemporary spin. In this new version, the oak top, equipped with discreet drawers, sits on top of a graphic lacquered aluminium frame (available in red or grey). At the time of its creation, the desk was part of a larger family of objects that demonstrated Kjaer’s approach to a flexible work environment, with elements that could be combined by each user to suit different needs. The essential design of the desk and its modern life make it as relevant today as when it was first conceived. 

karakter-copenhagen.com

The compact and versatile workstation that adapts to any environment

Name: ‘Touch Down Unit’ workstation
Designer: Studio Klass for UniFor
Price: on request

This versatile office workstation adapts to any environment, from airport lounges and libraries to high-end offices and private studies. It sits on 360-degree swivel castors and offers a rich palette of colours and configurations, and compact storage space, as well as a modular walnut desktop, allowing you to work sitting or standing. A wired version comes with a flip-door hiding USB ports and a rechargeable battery, while wood and leather trays let you display your sharp stationery on the side cabinet (or hide it inside, if you are of a messier disposition).

molteni.com

A monumental, leather-clad desk

Name: Arch desk
Designer: Jumandie Seys
Price: on request

This monumental desk by emerging Belgian designer Jumandie Seys is conceived as a micro-architecture, and is the result of a series of 3D visualisations to explore the endless possibilities of digital rendering. The starting point for the design is inspired by the architectural arch, defining the curved symmetries of the piece. The weather leather canvas used to clad the desk adds a textured depth to the piece, making it a standout desk.

jumandieseys.com
weareatelierecru.com

A slim leather desk 

Name: ‘Terrazzo’ desk
Designer: Nicola Bonriposi, for Potocco
Price: £1,500

Known for combining creative innovation with artisanal tradition, Italian furniture company Potocco has worked with designer Nicola Bonriposi to realise this new desk. Characterised by a delicate silhouette and refined details, ‘Terrazzo’ is an ode to minimalism and elegance. The slender metal structure is all restraint, while a leather desktop adds a luxurious touch, and an upright back partly encloses the workspace and keeps stationery from falling off. Touches of burnished brass complete the design.

potocco.it

An elegant desk with functional details

Name: Romancier desk
Designers: David/Nicolas, for Carpenters Workshop Gallery
Price: on request

In true David/Nicolas fashion, the Romancier desk for Carpenters Workshop Gallery features exquisite details, from the oval purple leather top to the satinated brass hardware, and the ridged  curved legs in amaranto wood doubling as storage cabinets. Combining the functionality of a home office desk (such as the well-considered proportions, discreet front drawers and spacious cupboards on each side) with eclectic elegance, the Romancier desk is available in a limited edition of 8 pieces, and follows a large collection from the Beirut-based duo for the gallery, which demonstrated the studio’s design talent through an extensive collection of furniture made of stone and wood. 

davidandnicolas.com

The small desk for any space

Name: Treviso Desk
Designer: Matthew Hilton, for L. Ercolani
Price: from £1885

This compact desk by Matthew Hilton combines a small footprint with intelligent design and honest craftsmanship. Available in ash or walnut, the desk features built-in drawers and a raised shelf, and takes up little space in the room thanks to the oblique legs and small desktop space. The design nods to Ercol’s history and modernist aesthetics, updated by Hilton for the modern workspace. 

lercolani.com

The historic office desk design reimagined for modern life

Name: 'Petit Bureau en Forme Libre'
Designer: Charlotte Perriand, reissued by Cassina 
Price: on request

Part of Charlotte Perriand's freeform design experiments, Cassina's 'Petit Bureau en Forme Libre' was originally designed for her own Montparnasse studio. Perriand's pioneering design approach is evident in the curved forms of the home office desk, allowing users to approach the piece according to their needs and allowing flexibility of use. The desk was an innovative design when it was first conceived in 1952, and remains a marvel of furniture design to this day. Made of solid Canaletto Walnut and available in a black version, Perriand's desk design was discreetly updated with optional space for cables, combining its modernity with an added functionality.

cassina.com

The home office desk that combines Italian expertise with a Japanese aesthetic

Name: ‘Iren’ desk
Designer: Kensaku Oshiro for Poltrona Frau
Price: £4.150 + VAT

Designer Kensaku Oshiro was inspired by the Japanese concept of ‘iren’ ( indicating ‘an invisible but deliberate continuity between points, lines and characters’ in Japanese calligraphy), a motion that ensures complete harmony between symbols. The resulting office desk is a combination of harmonious lines and practical details. Thanks to a simple movement, the desk’s double surface can overlap to extend the workspace or create storage, and recharging and USB are discreetly concealed in a leather-bound metal box. The gently curved work surface is engineered for a more comfortable arm positioning, and the desk is also available in a wall-mounted version with fitted LED lighting. 

poltronafrau.com

A colourful home office desk to create a working alcove in any space

Name: ‘Akira’ bureau
Designer: Mathias Hahn for Schönbuch
Price: from €2,950

The ‘Akira’ home office desk by Mathias Hahn for Schönbuch is a bold piece of furniture that is both a functional workstation and a peaceful retreat. The compact surface can be extended to maximise deskspace, and the bureau includes storage compartments that can fit a laptop and notebooks, as well as a smaller case to fit pens and similar items. The desk is a sculptural statement piece whose elegant design is enhanced by the rich palette of matt painted finishes, which can also be customised to create bold, contrasting colour compositions. 

schoenbuch.com

The organic, modular table

Name: ‘POV’ table
Designer: Kaschkasch for Ton
Price: €7,493,53 (for ‘POV’ table 467)

Designed by Cologne-based studio Kaschkasch, and produced by Czech bentwood specialist Ton, the ‘POV’ collection of tables comes in two heights, three base types and six tabletop shapes, allowing for multiple configurations. The bases are made by joining three bent plywood forms, and the same process is used to produce a stackable conical stool. The collection is available in beech, oak and American walnut, and can be finished in various colours.

ton.eu

The mini office desk addition with space for plants

Name: ‘World of Plants Sideboard’
Designer: USM
Price: £1,373.10 

A design classic since its creation in 1965, the ‘USM Haller’ modular system is branching out with a new range featuring integrated plant pot cut-outs, allowing you to build a towering green wall or simple herb display around your desk. Not only is the contrast between the furniture’s metal grid and soft cascading plants aesthetically pleasing, but the greenery should also help reduce stress and boost creativity. The range includes panels in five sizes and 14 colours, pots in terracotta or basalt, and a discreet watering set.

usm.com

The compact writing desk that fits anywhere

Name: ‘Harri’ writing desk S
Designer: Peter Fehrentz for More Moebel
Price: from €2,517

This compact writing desk is sleek and elegant while small enough to fit anywhere. Featuring a veneered tabletop available in walnut and oak, the table's design is defined by a curved edge that results in a slim writing surface and a more generous side for a ribbed drawer and discreet flap for cables. 

more-moebel.de

The north Indian city of Chandigarh is perhaps best known for its abudnance in iconic modernist architecture, by Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, Jane Drew and Edward Maxwell Fry. Of course, contemporary Indian architecture thrives there too. Residence 145 by design studio Charged Voids is a case in point. This is a Chandigarh house designed to juggle openness and privacy, warmth and minimalist architecture, as well as ensuring it provides ample space to house three generations of the owners' family. 

The architecture team worked with a composition of opaque surfaces and voids to find the right balance between creating a flowing, modern home that features plenty of natural light and views, and maintaining the residents' privacy. Given the project's multi-generational aspect, Charged Voids crafted a plan that ticks all boxes. ‘The layout of the house is centred on the idea of connected living. A strong connection with the outdoors is established through internal courtyards, with the interior spaces framing sunny views of the landscape,' the designers explain.

The Chandigarh house's distinctive, and unmistakably contemporary facade is made of monolithic volumes in natural stone and white plaster. Behind these, the home is cleverly divided into distinct public and private zones, while a central open air courtyard unites everything. An open-plan, double-height living-and-dining hall is central to the former, wrapped around the central courtyard. A staircase leads to bedrooms and a kitchen on the first floor, and further accomodation as well as a roof terrace and bar for al fresco entertaining at the top level. 

The interiors are kept clean and minimalist, drawing on the region's light and the quality of the natural materials used. ‘The material palette is reserved to the bare minimum, with the same stone that is used for exterior finishes extending to the interior walls and flooring. The beige and white tones are accompanied by the warm colours of the millwork and furniture,' the team says.

INFORMATION

Charged Voids

Fawkner House is a new-build Melbourne apartment complex in the city’s Domain Precinct, close to the Royal Botanic Gardens in South Yarra. Built by local property developer Beulah International, which has worked with UNStudio, Fender Katsalidis, and Woods Bagot, amongst others, the new apartments are the work of Melbourne studio Rob Mills Architecture & Interiors (RMA). From the street, Fawkner House is an eclectic collage of horizontal lines and soaring curves. One key source of inspiration is unusual for downtown Melbourne. Creative director Rob Mills says that the building makes explicit reference to Le Corbusier’s famous chapel in Ronchamp, Notre Dame du Haut, completed in 1954.

Melbourne apartments channel curves of Notre Dame du Haut

One of the significant buildings of the 20th century, the Ronchamp chapel marked the point at which modernism divested itself of strict geometric rigour, introducing more expressive and organic elements.

The front façade of Fawkner House certainly has Le Corbusian leanings, with elements that evoke the Swiss architect’s work in Chandigarh, as well as the curves of Notre Dame du Haut.

‘There are many reasons we are fond of curves in our work, but the most prevalent is the way energy and light naturally flow when intersections are rounded and softened,’ says Mills. ‘It leads to fewer shadows, and light is obviously something else we’re known for in our designs.’

The result is a building that sets out to be deliberately different, emphasising different aspects of light, space, and materiality from the moment one sets eyes on it. 

As well as the intersecting planes that make up the front elevation, the design allows for extensive space for planting, creating a tiered garden effect that includes the installation of semi-mature trees. Landscape architect Paul Bangay’s plan transforms the new building into an extension of the nearby Fawkner Park, while the coherent architectural composition gives the impression of a single, four-storey dwelling, instead of a group of individual apartments.

The entrance hall is inlaid with a semi-circle of Calacatta Viola marble, with its characteristic light stone and dark veins. A triple-height space rises up above the visitor, culminating in a curved rooflight and polished, reflective walls. Apartments feature 3m ceilings, curved walls, and rich materials. Marble and dark, hand-stained timber are used to convey solidity, with expansive windows juxtaposed with circular rooflights. 

Each apartment is reached through a door custom-made by the Australian supplier Pittella, a firm set up in the 1950s to bring contemporary Italian craftsmanship to the burgeoning Australian domestic scene.

Kitchen fixtures and appliances are from Gaggenau, and particular attention has been paid to the acoustics and air quality within each apartment, helped in part by the planting and the curved walls. 

Beulah and RMA have made the most of a rare opportunity. Although there was permission for many more homes on the site, the developer decided to build just nine spacious units instead, with each apartment benefitting from the topography.

‘It’s the height of the land, and with that comes light, space, better quality of air, opportunity for phenomenal views,’ says Mills. ‘It’s all those wonderful ingredients that make something special.’ 

INFORMATION

BeulahInternational.com

RobMillsArchitects.com

Representative of Greek modernism, architect and urban planner Aristomenis Provelengios (1914 – 1999) is a renowned figure in the Greek architecture scene. Having worked in the office of Le Corbusier in Paris, he is one of the architects that helped bring modernist architecture to Greece, and several of his buildings are celebrated, still standing in Athens to this day. One of them, a relatively compact house in the downtown neighbourhood of Kypseli, is now the home of contemporary architect Dionisis Sotovikis – and one of the key sites to visit during the inaugural Athens Design Forum this autumn. 

A piece of Greek modernist history

Sotovikis acquired the building (originally created as an artist's atelier in 1956) in 2007, saving it from demolition. He operated a gallery in the space until 2013, when he converted it into his own home and workspace – still occasionally using it for exhibitions. ‘The house is one of the finest examples of modernism and an important piece of modern Greek architectural heritage, unique and different from other similar samples, due to its proximity to human scale,’ he explains. The studio building is relatively small, built in the courtyard of the artist’s adjacent residence, which dates back to 1928. 

Sotovikis’ transformation of the building into domestic space was guided by a very light touch. ‘Nothing was altered, apart from renovating all mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineering installations and revealing the original colours applied by the architect to the window frames and old doors, in an attempt to “peel off time”,’ says Sotovikis. ‘The house is an important piece in the story I wish to tell regarding “building time” and the connection between past and future.'

While the project has been occasionally open to the public during Athens Open House events, its participation in the first ever Athens Design Forum is a critical move in making Athens’ modernist heritage more visible and accessible to all. And Sotovikis has more in store for the future. ‘[It's still] too early to reveal [my plans], but suffice to say that it will be turned into a type of museum in the future,’ he says. 

The architect, principal of his eponymous practice, Workshop Dionisis Sotovikis, regularly takes his cues from modernist teachings, having designed a slew of residences featuring naked concrete, clean, minimalist lines and an emphasis on functionality. More are underway, from a private three-storey residence in Koukaki, to a five-star hotel in Milos (Milos Cove), and a new hotel in Naxos. 

Athens Design Forum

Being part of the inaugural Athens Design Forum is a chance to meet and collaborate ‘with new people, through events that bring us closer to the public, showcasing all that we love to do’, Sotovikis says. The non-profit event, the first of its kind, aims to celebrate Greek design and architecture through a series of exhibitions, seminars, workshops, and archival studies that highlight the country’s creativity in Athens and beyond. Running from 30 September – 7 October 2021, the festival is supported by The City of Athens, The Behrakis Foundation, and design guide The Design Release. 

‘The first edition of Athens Design Forum brings together visionaries whose mission is to amplify the region's diverse history – bridging larger institutions such as the Benaki Museum in dialogue with designer-led initiatives by KN Group X Stamos Michael. We are a platform that aims to unify and mark Athens as both an emerging and historically established centre of creative production,’ says the Forum's founder Katerina Papanikolopoulos.

More highlights during the Athens Design Forum include a visit to Papagos House – the private residence and studio of iconic Greek painter Alekos Fassianos, which will be open to the public for the very first time – and a studio visit with emerging local designer Kostas Lambridis.

INFORMATION
athensdesignforum.com
workshop-s.com

A historic midcentury Beverly Hills home by Alfred Wilkes has been restored by interior designer Sophie Goineau. Cove Way, a California residence set among leafy grounds, was originally built in 1957 to the era’s modernist architecture traditions. Now, after two years of meticulous research and building works, the home has been brought back to its former glory – with a 21st century twist, while drawing on themes by the great modernists, such as Richard Neutra, Harold Levitt and Mies van der Rohe and a ‘less is more', minimalist approach. 

Goineau worked on refreshing existing features and opening up the space while maintaining the important overall aesthetic and philosophy of the structure. The house, which spans some 5,000 sq ft and four bedrooms, is composed of an arrangement of straight and curved lines, and glass expanses that open up towards the verdant gardens and swimming pool outside. Pronounced overhangs of a flat roof enhance a vertical feel and elegantly, visually extend the low volumes.

French philosopher Gaston Bachelard and his 1958 book, The Poetics of Space, were strong influences on Goineau as she developed her design. ‘These walls are objects, not just walls,’ she explains. ‘Screen walls filter light, and every day the light changes, creating living experiences. They don’t block anything. They will always be entrouvert, or partially open. Like humans.’

Craft was another key influence in Goineau's work. The designer employed a variety of rich materials, including warm, brown timbers, coloured terrazzo floor, brass details, bespoke joinery and handmade clay Kolumba bricks designed by Peter Zumthor and Petersen Tegl (originally for the Kolumba art museum in Cologne). Inspirations for specially designed furniture and fittings range from Alexander Girard and the Miller House (in Columbus, Indiana) to Charlotte Perriand and Le Corbusier. Examples include the library’s built-in shelving system. ‘I love designing within a large box,' says Goineau, ‘and here the concept is throughout the whole house, like sets of Russian dolls.’

Goineau worked with Scott Strumwasser and Tash Rahbar of Enclosure Architects on the architectural preservation of the building. Los Angeles modernism meets Beverly Hills living, high craft and fine furniture design traditions, in this private home – a refreshed family space where 20th and 21st architecture and design meet. 

INFORMATION

sophiegoineau.com

Those, like us, who have a soft spot for crude concrete architecture, will love the work of Juliaan Lampens (1926-2019). The powerful concrete roughness of the Belgian architect's volumes is inescapable when you walk past two of his best known buildings, both near Ghent: the Chapel of Our Blessed Lady of Kerselare, in the village of Edelare, and the Van Wassenhove house in Sint-Martens-Latem.

However, digging a little deeper into Lampens' life and work, it quickly becomes apparent that there is more to his architecture than brutalism by numbers. Belgian curator Angelique Campens has been studying Lampens' work since her university years and knew him well. The architect had a reputation for being reserved, keeping his business to himself to the point of avoiding contact with colleagues. He didn’t even travel much, reveals Campens. ‘But he had a lot of books. He admired Oscar Niemeyer and was influenced by Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe.' He may seem to have lacked the desire for architectural pilgrimage, but Lampens practised non-stop from his base in Eke, East Flanders, from 1950 until his last work was built in 2002 – creating a legacy of about 50, mostly residential, projects, including the chapel and Eke library.

Lampens was born in 1926 in De Pinte and grew up in nearby Eke, the son of a cabinetmaker. After working as a technical draughtsman, he studied architecture in Ghent and set up his own firm straight after graduation, kick-starting it with commissions from his father's middle-class clientele. While following a more conventional design style at first, he nurtured an interest in modernism. 'His visit to the 1958 World's Fair in Brussels was a turning point for him,' Campens explains. 'Shortly after that, his designs changed drastically. He thought that Le Corbusier was too sculptural, and Mies too structured, but he wanted to combine the two.'

Lampens' first modern design was his own house and office in Eke, built in 1960. The house, a simple low box with a strong horizontal concrete slab roof and wooden details, was a taste of things to come. Testing the idea of lightness, the architect created the structure with almost no load-bearing walls, based on a steel-column grid. Glass-enclosed apart from a brick wall concealing it from the street, the house connects visually with the outdoors at the back and is largely open-plan inside, with bare brick and concrete on show. For the region at the time, Lampens' approach was radical. Privacy from the street, a connection with the natural environment, the use of exposed raw materials and an open-plan interior all became recurring themes in his work. Lampens also paid special attention to smaller concete architecture details, such as the roof's drains, which he described as 'functional ornaments'.

The commission for the Chapel of Our Blessed Lady of Kerselare followed soon after the completion of Lampens' house. However, the design with which he won the 1961 competition – with Professor Rutger Langaskens, one of his former teachers – was very different from what you see today. Upon winning, Lampens reworked the building, making it so altered from the original and so alien to the neighbourhood that during the concrete casting, passers-by thought it would be a silo. Despite this, and with the incumbent pastor's support, the high-ceilinged chapel – resembling a giant concrete skip – opened in 1966. It featured bespoke concrete benches (currently removed), a large glass wall and a central concrete skylight, while the protruding mono-pitched roof provided outdoor shelter for the congregation.

It was the chapel's large untreated surfaces that led many to label Lampens a follower of brutalist architecture, a tag he has never accepted. 'He never felt part of a group,' Campens stresses. The chapel and his Eke house were landmarks in Lampens' career. Part of his aloof, albeit good-natured, character is reflected in the esoteric, yet sturdy and unexpectedly open designs; street-shy, they are welcoming once you're inside. Certainly, they gained him many new commissions.

Among these was the Van Wassenhove residence, completed in 1974. School teacher Albert Van Wassenhove, admiring the Kerselare chapel, asked Lampens for a similar house. In response, and taking into account the plot's limited views, the architect created an irregular rough-cast concrete volume, blind from two sides and semi-sunken into a hill. For the flowing interior, as with other projects, Lampens designed furniture – chairs, tables and chaises longues – all simple and mainly wooden.

Lampens' most daring work is the Vandenhaure-Kiebooms house in Huise, completed in 1967. The client, Gerard Vandenhaute, hoped for a house that pushed the envelope. His wish was granted. Designed along Lampens' usual lines – a minimal, one-level glass box topped off with a thick concrete flat roof – the house is pillar- and wall-less inside; even the bathroom is open to the rest of the interior, with privacy afforded only by a shoulder-height cylindrical concrete partition. In a play of transparency and openness, the only other fixed component is the kitchen. The roof stands on a solid, street-facing concrete wall and two steel pillars on the opposite side.

Sketching everything from tiny details to larger concepts, Lampens produced hundreds of drawings throughout his career, signing every one. Still, he never cherished paper architecture. 'He called it “embryonic” architecture. For him, drawings were secondary. Built work remained the important thing,' Campens says. Today, these drawings are held at Eke library, where the Juliaan Lampens Foundation takes care of his archive, run by, among others, his son Dieter Lampens and Campens.

Lampens' experimental, concrete architecture work remains largely unexplored. A group exhibition in Brazil he participated in years ago is probably its only appearance outside Belgium. But there remains a devoted local following for his idiosyncratic designs. Tellingly, owners of Lampens’ houses are known to have lived in them for a long time. Campens’ monograph about the architect was published in 2010, and in 2012, the Van Wassenhove house was bequeathed to the University of Ghent. Now on long-term loan to the museum Dhondt-Dhaenens in Deurle, it gained monument status in Belgium in 2017. 

A version of this article was first published in the April 2010 Issue of Wallpaper* (W* 133)

The Design Museum's ‘Charlotte Perriand: The Modern Life’ showcased the work and ideas of the French architect and designer through a series of thematic displays, presenting her creative process with an impressive series of sketches, photographs, notebooks, as well as furniture design prototypes, final pieces and faithful reconstructions of some of her most famous interiors.

‘Charlotte Perriand: The Modern Life’ at the Design Museum

This new exhibition marked 25 years since Charlotte Perriand’s last exhibition at London’s Design Museum, held in 1996, and was put together in collaboration with the Perriand family and the Fondation Louis Vuitton, with the support of Cassina (whose catalogue includes numerous Perriand furniture reissues), and exhibition design contributions by Assemble and A Practice for Everyday Life. 

‘Charlotte Perriand was a hugely influential figure in design,’ said Design Museum chief curator Justin McGuirk. ‘Her life spanned the 20th century and her career reflects the twists and turns of the modernist movement.’ 

The Design Museum exhibition explored her work through three thematic sections, which will help outline Perriand’s design approach: ‘The Machine Age’; ‘Nature and the Synthesis of the Arts’; and ‘Modular Design for Modern Living’. Perriand’s creative transition from a modern machine aesthetic to her preference for natural forms sculpted from wood is chronicled through the show, and this process comes together in her all-encompassing vision of a ‘synthesis of the arts’, where design, art and architecture combine. 

Described as ‘a free spirit who championed design for all’, Perriand subscribed to modernist aesthetics that were reflected in her furniture and architecture designs. She famously said ‘dwellings should be designed not only to satisfy material specifications; they should also create conditions that foster harmonious balance and spiritual freedom in people’s lives’, and the Design Museum exhibition helps bring her ideas back to life. 

Exhibition design and graphics

The Museum collaborated with Assemble for the exhibition design, and A Practice for Everyday life supplied the graphics for the space (and designed the accompanying monograph), including a threedimensional typeface made of bent steel tubes that referenced Perriand's furniture. The exhibition’s bold colour palette reflected Perriand’s own use of colour, and partitions throughout the space frame compositions of her works and interiors spaces. Bespoke folded metal captions were integrated into display surfaces and structures, made of modular concrete blocks.

Charlotte Perriand: her life in art, design and architecture

Perriand was born in Paris in 1903, and studied furniture design at the École de l'Union Centrale des Arts Décoratifs. She came to prominence soon after graduating in 1925, with projects such as the 1927 ‘Bar sous le toit’ (Bar under the roof) created for her own apartment-studio in Paris’ Saint-Sulpice. This minimalist and functional apartment space that she designed for her life and work was faithfully reproduced at the exhibition’s entrance.

Early examples of modular metal furniture, as well as the sketches, models and plans behind the designs formed the core of ‘The Machine Age’. Several vignettes recreated Perriand’s interiors, demonstrating the modernity of her aesthetic and approach to space and living. It was during this time that she started working with Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret, a decade-long collaboration that resulted in furniture pieces such as the 1928 ‘Chaise longue basculante’ or the ‘Fauteil grand confort’ from the same year, as well as several interiors, including an installation proposing single-room living at the Salon d’Automne in 1929. 

In the 1930s, Perriand’s interest shifted from metal furniture and industrialised production towards nature, and her artistic work took a turn in this direction. Brilliantly exemplified through ‘Nature and the Synthesis of the Arts’, this shift included organic furniture forms in wood and leather, inspired by personal collections of found natural objects such as rocks, sticks and fossils. The exhibition included black and white photography and experimental sketches; mixed with furniture from the time, these give a sense of how these inspirations were translated through Perriand’s sensibility.

‘Modular Designs for Modern Living’ forms a synthesis of Perriand’s trajectory through modernity, and shows her work in modular furnishings, interior design and architecture. She strived to create affordable and adaptable interiors, and some of her best known furniture works include bookcase designs originally conceived for student dormitories – a fitting example of democratic design, featuring a simple, modular construction in wood and plastic. The exhibition culminates with the legendary work for the French ski resort Les Arcs in 1968, with a life-sized model and a film that helps visitors immerse themselves in her pragmatic design thinking. 

Perhaps most poetically, the show’s last item on display demonstrates Perriand’s curiosity and humour. It’s a vase she had bought in Brazil in the 1960s, made from an everyday plastic bottle that, she had said, captured the essence of good design to be resourceful, intelligent and infused with humanity. 

‘The last time Perriand had an exhibition at the Design Museum, in 1996, she was concerned at first that she was being presented as a furniture designer,’ says McGuirk. ‘Twenty-five years later, there is no risk of any misunderstanding. Here, she is presented as a synthesiser, a collaborator, an integrator. A Perriand interior remains kind of ideal, a harmony of contrasts and disciplines that is difficult to replicate. And it is this ideal that she offered as a framework to those who wished to live a modern life, like her own.’

INFORMATION

‘Charlotte Perriand: The Modern Life' is at the Design Museum, London, 19 June-5 September 2021

designmuseum.org

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We celebrate the best designs of the past, reissued for the future with modern technologies and sustainable updates. From Flos' rediscovery of a classic in a new chromatic composition, to UniFor’s tribute to Aldo Rossi's perfect office, and Charlotte Perriand’s own desk design, these are the best reissues from leading brands and design masters. 

‘Parigi’ armchair by Aldo Rossi, for UniFor

At the end of the 1980s, Italian architect Aldo Rossi drafted his perfect office. The furniture collection of this ideal space included the ‘Consiglio’ table, ‘Cartesio’ bookcase and ‘Museo’ office chair, as well as the ‘Parigi’ armchair. The last featured a curiously slanted black aluminium frame supporting an apparently rigid bright red seat and backrest: made of polyurethane foam with a red finish, the seat is surprisingly soft. This design – now reissued by UniFor and winning a Wallpaper* Design Award 2022 – perfectly exemplifies Rossi’s desire to think about the office as a domestic space, and to combine a furniture functionality with his architectural background. ‘This is more or less my idea of design: to be able to translate fantastic, personal elements into rational, repeatable pieces, rather than one-of-a-kind creations,’ wrote Rossi. 

unifor.it

‘Petit Bureau en Forme Libre’ by Charlotte Perriand, reissued by Cassina

Part of Charlotte Perriand’s freeform design experiments, Cassina’s ’Petit Bureau en Forme Libre’ was originally designed for her own Montparnasse studio. Perriand’s pioneering design approach is evident in the curved forms of the home office desk, allowing users to approach the piece according to their needs and allowing flexibility of use. An innovative design when it was first conceived in 1952, the desk remains a marvel of furniture design to this day. Made of solid Canaletto Walnut and also available in black, Perriand’s design was discreetly updated with an optional compartment for sockets and cables, combining its modern form with an added functionality, and winning a Wallpaper* Design Award 2022 in the process.

cassina.com

‘265 Chromatica’ by Paolo Rizzatto, for Flos

Designed by Paolo Rizzatto for Flos in 1973, the ‘265’ was the Italian architect’s first foray into lighting design. Though produced in black and white, the lamp was based on colour-coded original drawings – blue for the moving arm, yellow for the counterweight and red for the half-spherical lampshade. ‘Light is what allows our eyes to distinguish colour, so using colour to define the design of a light seemed like a natural progression of the concept,’ says Rizzatto. When presenting ‘265’, Rizzatto used colour to easily explain the lamp’s mechanics: ‘I am an architect, my first approach to light was based on its function within architecture,’ he explains. Set in Rizzatto’s primary colours, the new ‘265 Chromatica’ celebrates the architect’s thinking, and wins a Wallpaper* Design Award 2022. 

flos.com

More reissues from our archives‘

‘Butaque’ chair by Clara Porset

Celebrating the Mexican vernacular, Luteca has reissued the work of Cuban-born designer Clara Porset. Living and working in Mexico since the 1930s, Porset worked closely with Luis Barragán and created some of the most iconic Mexican furniture of the 20th century. ‘Clara Porset persists in the search for her own design, a design that reflects the cultural and social conditions of Mexico with the intention of turning it into a national design,’ said Mexican curator Ana Elena Mallet. Her best known piece was her reinterpretation of the classic Latin American ‘Butaque’ (which she designed in the 1940s), a traditional chair merging Spanish colonial forms and pre-Colombian ritualistic seats. Luteca collaborated with the National Autonomous University of Mexico to recreate Porset’s original design.

luteca.com

‘Pavilion’ and ‘Exposior’ collections by Paul McCobb

CB2 has acquired some pieces by American designer Paul McCobb, with collections of indoor and outdoor furniture as well as lighting now available through the American furniture company. McCobb’s 1952 ‘Pavilion’ collection of outdoor chairs and tables features delicate iron frames, class elements and upholstered seats (in Sunbrella fabrics), while the ‘Exposior’ lighting range, designed in 1951, is defined by timeless compositions and details in brass, wood and travertine. FORM Portfolios, the company preserving Paul McCobb’s legacy, worked closely on the collection. Managing director Mark Masiello described the partnership as ‘an authentic extension of Paul McCobb's vision, also honouring his legacy by creating a collection that is attainable for those who appreciate and seek good design’.

cb2.com

‘Camaleonda’ sofa by Mario Bellini

It may be 50 years since Mario Bellini designed the ‘Camaleonda’, yet this modular sofa looks utterly contemporary, and now B&B Italia is reissuing it with a sustainable spin. Keeping the aesthetic of the 1970 original, the company redeveloped the sofa from the inside. Made of FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified beech wood and recyclable materials, the inner structure is easy to take apart at the end of the sofa’s life, while the feet are made of recycled wood. Ever reconfigurable, the sofa is, of all Bellini’s pieces, ‘perhaps the one that better represents a sense of freedom’, he says.

bebitalia.com

Tables by Marcel Breuer

Very Good & Proper and Isokon Plus have reissued two tables by Bauhaus designer Marcel Breuer. The paths of the two companies merged last year when VG&P founder Ed Carpenter acquired the iconic brand whose archive includes designs by Marcel Breuer, Ernest Race and Barber Osgerby. ‘We shared the same ethos,’ observes Carpenter, who has since been working closely with Isokon Plus director Mark Smith and his team. The two companies’ values align neatly: both believe in creating sustainable furniture, create high-quality, long-lasting products and support an ethical use of materials. ‘One of the great things about joining forces with Mark and Isokon were the archives,’ says Carpenter. Earlier this year, Carpenter and Smith came across some blueprints for a pair of pedestal tables, originally designed by Marcel Breuer in 1937. One was made at the Bauhaus, the other was never produced. The duo devised a way to bring the designs back to life using a more energy efficient and environmentally conscious process but still keeping the original features intact. The tables’ designs were largely experimental, but their new editions leverage the same technologies as nine decades ago, when they were initially conceived. ‘There is an intrinsic value to the modernist community,’ says Smith. ‘An honesty to the materials that we both love.’

isokonplus.com

‘Duc-Duc’ sofa by Mario Bellini

Mario Bellini first designed the ‘Duc’ sofa in 1976, a piece that reflected the free design spirit that was emerging at the time. That same year, Bellini drafted a modular furniture range called ‘The Book of Furniture’ for Cassina, an investigation into the language of living and its archetypes. Bellini had worked closely with the Italian design brand’s R&D department on experiments that resulted in the sofa’s first iteration, leveraging sophisticated technologies and materials to achieve its simple form. The new ‘Duc-Duc’ remains faithful to Bellini’s original design, with updated measurements and details redeveloped for added comfort. The project was led by Cassina LAB, a new research arm of the company, in collaboration with Poli.Design at Milan’s Politecnico. The result features a rigid panelled frame encased in polyurethane foam and wrapped in a 100 per cent recycled fibre made of PET recovered from the sea.

cassina.com

‘Menhir’ tables by Giotto Stoppino

Since 1870, Italian furniture company Acerbis has played a pioneering role in the development of the Italian furniture industry. has played a quietly pivotal role in Italian design, collaborating with a number of high-profile artists and designers. It was one of the first Italian companies to work with Japanese designers, adding metallic inserts and new materials to the wood of northern Italy’s Val Seriana. Acerbis was recently relaunched following acquisition by the MDF Italia group, and with a new creative direction by industrial designer Francesco Meda and Milan-based Spanish architect David Lopez Quincoces. The pair have been operating a quiet revolution of the company, bringing back to life iconic midcentury designs by the likes of Nanda Vigo, Gianfranco Frattini and Giotto Stoppino whose ‘Menhir’ tables (pictured above) were created together with company founder Lodovico Acerbis and feature a totemic composition of colourful marble modules. 

acerbisdesign.com

‘Arkade’ chair by Nanna Ditzel

Danish furniture brand Brdr Krüger revisited a previously chair design by Nanna Ditzel. The ‘Arkade’ chair was originally designed in 1983 during a decade-long collaboration between the company and the late Danish designer. Ditzel's commitment to traditional craftsmanship, new materials and novel techniques made her a perfect match with the furniture brand, originally founded as a woodturning workshop in 1886 and devoted to reinterpreting midcentury Danish design for a contemporary audience. Ditzel’s fondness for soft shapes and circular forms are expressed through her signature postmodern, elegant geometries in works like her ‘Hanging Egg’ chair design, and the combination of materials and techniques in the ‘Arkade’ chair (woodturning, steam-bent wood, metal and upholstery) articulate the designer’s love for decoration and colour. The chair is available in Kvadrat’s ‘Hallingdal’ fabric, originally designed by Ditzel in 1965, but the material can be modified with different finishes to allow for customisation.

brdr-kruger.com

‘Kyoto’ table by Gianfranco Frattini

Gianfranco Frattini was a key figure in the development of modern Italian design who believed in the postwar reconstruction of the country, moving seamlessly between scales, from jewellery to buildings. Active during a pivotal shift in Italian furniture manufacturing, from the painstakingly handmade to the factory-made, he collaborated with the industrial entrepreneurs of the time. But it is his relationship with craftsman Pierluigi Ghianda that resulted in some of the most memorable designs of his career, such as the ‘Kyoto’ table, which has now been given a new lease of life by Poltrona Frau. The table was first produced in 1974, following a trip to Japan and the discovery of century-old techniques that, Frattini and Ghianda observed, were very similar to the ones used in Northern Italy. ‘It was made of structural joints that adapt to the material: a pure expression of rationalism at the highest level’, says Frattini’s daughter, architect Emanuela Frattini Magnusson. The table has an interlocking structure with a grid surface composed of 1,681 squares. Wooden elements dovetail into each other to create a self-supporting composition, while the legs slot into the table top, and are moveable to change the table’s configuration. Along the edge of the table, smaller, darker-wooden inserts create what could look like a decorative motif, but, Frattini Magnusson says, they are a functional trick, placed to strengthen the sides. ‘There is no decoration; the structure becomes the object’.

poltronafrau.com

‘Prunier’ tableware by Le Corbusier

Cassina and Ginori 1735 have joined forces to present the ‘Prunier’, a dinner service by Le Corbusier. The ultimate modernist table setting, it was originally created for London's Prunier restaurant in 1961, and inspired by a tapestry created by the architect ten years prior. As the legend goes, Le Corbusier himself used these plates, which in his view successfully merged quality and taste – ‘the taste of shape’. The stylised motifs have been hand-applied on shiny enamelled white porcelain, faithfully recreating the architect’s original pieces. 

cassina.com; ginori1735.com

‘Diabolo’ by Achille Castiglioni

Achille Castiglioni’s last lighting design for Flos is back. Working closely with the Fondazione Achille Castiglioni, the Italian lighting brand has been recreating some of the Italian designer's most iconic lights and now the ‘Diabolo’ lamp makes a comeback for the first time after a decade. Originally designed by Castiglioni for Flos in 1998, the totemic double cone design will now be reissued in three sophisticated new shades; white, beaver brown and cherry red. The height-adjustable pendant lamp takes its name from a traditional Chinese toy, whose shapes it discreetly references through Castiglioni's minimal design touch.

flos.com

Last year, Italian brand Cassina broadened its horizons. With Patricia Urquiola spearheading as art director, it launched The Cassina Perspective – a visual path of its creativity that celebrates reborn classics and contemporary design. For 2020, Cassina are shifting this lens outdoor with a collection of pieces designed by Rodolfo Dordoni, Philippe Starck and Urquiola, plus of course, some refreshed midcentury icons.

‘Today the outdoors is considered an important part of our lives,’ says Luca Fuso, CEO of Cassina. The Cassina Perspective Goes Outdoor range takes inspiration from plenty of al fresco joy – for Starck, it was nature. For the French designer’s seating and coffee table, he employed hand craft to create a tactile and warm aura. Meanwhile, the charm of 1950s holiday resorts are the source of inspiration for Dordoni, who creates an urban range titled Sail Out, which includes modular seating and dining arrangements, that could easily style a city outdoor environment.

Urquiola’s design travels further north – ‘During a trip to Greenland I noted these little trampolines outside the locals’ houses. This playful object inspired me to design Trampoline.’ Described as a love bed, the curvaceous structure invites guests with soft upholstery and rope detailing.

Combining these new products with midcentury marvels was a natural decision for the Cassina team, ‘our values are based on avant-gardism, authenticity, excellence and the combination of technological capacity with skilled hand craftsmanship... whether a new product or classic reedition,’ Fuso says. Charlotte Perriand’s 1947 The Doron Hotel armchair, a design in teak that echoes her adoration for the mountains and winter voyages, has been given an outdoor hydro oil finish. Meanwhile, the versatile LC Collection, realised by Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret and Perriand as simple and functional forms, has been relaunched in outdoor-friendly iterations too.

Cassina works with Le Corbusier Foundation to reconstruct natural details for these designs, while engaging with the three pioneers’ passion for the outdoors – Le Corbusier cities in The Decorative Art of Today, 1st ed. Paris, G. Crès, coll. ‘The New Spirit,’ 1925, Paris, Flammarion, 1996, p.198 – ‘My childhood years were spent with my classmates amongst nature […] I knew flowers inside out, the shapes and colours of birds, how a tree grows, and it balances even in the eye of a storm. The tree, a man’s friend, a symbol of all organic creation; the tree, the image of a complete construction.’

INFORMATION

cassina.com

For this year’s Design Miami fair, Kris Van Assche, creative director of the luxury leather brand Berluti, and François Laffanour, founder of Paris’ Laffanour Galerie Downtown, have joined forces to present a collection of original Pierre Jeanneret furniture pieces, restored by Laffanour and upholstered with Berluti’s emblematic Venezia leather.

The series consists of 17 pieces, all created by the Swiss architect in the 1950s to furnish the administrative buildings of Chandigarh’s Capitol Complex, the vast compound masterplanned by his cousin and long-term collaborator Le Corbusier.

Included are a ‘Base Building’ desk, an ‘Easy’ armchair, a pair of ‘Cinéma’ armchairs, a ‘Judge’ armchair, a folding screen and a writing chair. The furniture is a reflection of Jeanneret’s ethos: solidly constructed, designed along rudimentary principles, and capitalising on the skills of local craftsmen and regional materials. Made in solid teak, the chairs are recognisable by their V-, U- and X-shaped legs, and originally featured seats in finishes including rattan, leather and vinyl.

As is typical with pieces of this pedigree, the hardwood has outlived the 1950s upholstery. The furniture has been restored by Laffanour to conservation standards, but with the patina of its framework intact; 
holes and marks are left unfilled to celebrate its origins, use and age. Meanwhile, elements such as panels and cushions have been given a new lease of life with leather in various hues.

Le Corbusier was commissioned by India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, to head up the Chandigarh project in 1951. The planned city was one of the newly independent country’s flagship projects, and Le Corbusier’s largest, most ambitious creation: the very model of modernism.

Jeanneret, who had already built a solid career as a furniture designer thanks to the tubular chrome pieces he created with Le Corbusier and Charlotte Perriand in the late 1920s, was tasked with designing all the furniture for Chandigarh’s government buildings, as well as supervising their construction. When Le Corbusier left the project midway, Jeanneret became chief architect, living in Chandigarh for 15 years.

The Capitol Complex was selected by Van Assche as a location for Berluti’s A/W19 digital campaign, photographed by Ronan Gallagher this spring. The colours Van Assche came across there, alongside the two colour systems Le Corbusier created in 1931 and 1959, became a starting point for the palate of the restored Jeanneret furniture collection.

Pairs of seats, such as the ‘Cinéma’ armchairs, have been mismatched, one in Sukhna Sunset purple and the other in Simal red, while the folding screen features two shades of blue,
in a chequerboard pattern. The only piece upholstered in Berluti’s classic, brown-hued Tobacco leather is the writing chair – where there was already bold colour in the frame. Although constructed in teak, the chair was later painted blue, to identify its use for the university in Chandigarh. For Laffanour, this was an important historical intervention that should be left visible.

The task of upholstering the chairs was entrusted to Domeau & Pérès, the Paris-based upholstery and leather workshop founded 25 years ago by Bruno Domeau and Philippe Pérès, both ‘crazy about Jeanneret’, notes Van Assche. They came up with the idea of using magnetic fixings so as not to compromise the integrity of some of the originals. As per Berluti tradition, they used specially tanned leather from calves raised in northern France.

A patina was hand-applied in their workshop, enhancing the look of the pieces and emphasising the curves of their padding. Van Assche and Laffanour’s friendship is built on a shared passion for 20th-century design; Van Assche is a keen collector of Jeanneret and a fan of Jean Prouvé, so much so that his 2018 debut collection as creative director of Berluti was shown at Paris’ Place de la Concorde, inside Prouvé’s 1958 prefab classroom for the Institut Fénélon high school in Clermont-Ferrand, which had been restored by Laffanour Galerie Downtown.

Wallpaper* photographed Van Assche with some of his favourite pieces from the restored furniture collection. He already owns a pair of Jeanneret’s ‘Cinéma’ armchairs, one in black, one in red (bought previously from Laffanour Galerie Downtown), and has a soft spot for the daybed – ‘an ideal think bed’ – and the ‘Judge’ armchair, both of which would fit seamlessly into the new office he is furnishing at Berluti’s Paris HQ. 

As originally featured in the December 2019 issue of Wallpaper* (W*249)

INFORMATION

See the collection from 2-8 December at Berluti during Design Miami

berluti.com galeriedowntown.com

ADDRESS

152 NE 41st Street
Unit PP123
Miami

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A reconstruction of the living room of the model home presented by Charlotte Perriand, Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret at the 1929 Salon d’Automne in Paris, when the trio’s now iconic tubular chrome furniture was first shown to the public. The pieces, which visitors are welcome to try, were recreated by Cassina in the finishes and colours used at the time. The designs were later named, from left to right, ‘LC6’ dining table, ‘LC7’ chair, ‘LC3’ and ‘LC2’ armchairs, ‘LC1 Villa Church’ chair, and ‘LC4’ chaise longue.

This October, the Fondation Louis Vuitton is dedicating all of its 11 galleries, covering the four floors of the Frank Gehry-designed building in Paris’ Bois de Boulogne, to the pioneering French architect and designer Charlotte Perriand (1903-1999). Including 180 pieces of design and 180 artworks by 17 different artists, drawn from the Archives Charlotte Perriand, but also from private collectors, international museums and the Italian furniture brand Cassina, the show shines the spotlight on an exceptional woman who defined an entirely new way of living, and narrates the evolution from modern to contemporary society.

Reconstruction is the show’s modus operandi. Exhibitions and interiors devised by Perriand have been reassembled to her exact specifications. Her groundbreaking tubular chrome furniture, created alongside Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret, and later, independently designed pieces in wood and bamboo come to life in their original context. Perriand liked to juxtapose her pieces with artwork from the likes of Fernand Léger, Pablo Picasso, Hans Hartung and Alexander Calder, and these too have been painstakingly sourced to recreate her intended displays.

The reconstructions start with Perriand’s Saint-Sulpice apartment from 1927, followed by the 1929 Salon d’Automne, and La Maison du Jeune Homme, shown at the Universal Exposition in Brussels in 1935. A painting by Léger, commissioned by Perriand for that project, was presumed lost, but curators tracked it down in a private collection and have secured it for the show. Further reproductions include the Refuge Tonneau, a mountain shelter designed in 1938 with Jeanneret and since created by Cassina; rooms for the Maison du Mexique and student housing units for the Maison de la Tunisie in 1952; and the Maison de Thé, made in 1993 for Unesco. Also present will be her 1934 Maison au Bord de L’eau, reproduced in 2013 by Louis Vuitton for Design Miami, and now fittingly displayed next to the Fondation Louis Vuitton’s outdoor water features.

To illustrate the years Perriand spent living in Japan, where she worked as the official advisor on industrial design to the Japanese government, and her dialogue with its culture, the show also includes reproductions of her exhibitions in Tokyo: ‘Sélection, Tradition, Création’ from 1941, and ‘Proposition d’une Synthèse des Arts’, from 1955.

Perriand collaborated with Le Corbusier and Jeanneret on the now-iconic chaise longue and the ‘Grand Confort’ armchair. These were presented to the public at the 1929 Salon d’Automne, within a 90 sq m model home that served as a manifesto for modern living. According to Jean-Paul Claverie, art advisor to the president at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, the best way to present these pieces was to remake the original display entirely, including drawing room, bedroom, bathroom and kitchen. To oversee this resuscitation, the foundation called upon Arthur Rüegg, the architect and historian responsible for the recent restoration of the Pavilion Le Corbusier in Zurich. Cassina, with whom Perriand started a working relationship in 1964, not only provided pieces from its Perriand collection, made expressly in the finishes and colours used at the time, but replicated the metal cabinets that doubled as partitions between the drawing room and the rest of the space, and produced new replicas of several pieces, including a double bed and a daybed. In a departure from standard museum practice, visitors are encouraged to use the furniture in the recreated living space.

The show took four years to plan and execute. Aside from the usual research and careful negotiation with private collectors, galleries, estates and over 40 different international museums to coax essential works, it also involved complex restoration work and the recreation of total environments. In this the foundation collaborated closely with Pernette Perriand, who had worked alongside her mother and now manages her estate, and Pernette’s husband Jacques Barsac, Perriand’s biographer.

Within a partial reconstruction of the 1955 Synthèse des Arts exhibition in Japan, ‘you will really see how Perriand straddles disciplines’, says chief curator Olivier Michelon. ‘You will see a table, but also tapestries by Le Corbusier and Léger, a drawing by Hartung, and so on. She had a specific vision of art and space. The art alone could have warranted its own show, but here you get to see it in a real context.’

Claverie hopes visitors to the show will come to recognise Perriand as a pioneer of modernity, who touched on every aspect of our lives. ‘She elevated the place of the woman in society, highlighted our relationship with the environment and nature, and championed the integration of the artist and art.’

In a life that bookended the 20th century, Perriand never stopped creating. More than a designer, she was a visionary who was committed to changing the world softly. And our way of living today would not be the same without her.

As originally featured in the October 2019 issue of Wallpaper* (W*247)

INFORMATION

‘Charlotte Perriand’ is on view from 2 October – 4 February. fondationlouisvuitton.com

ADDRESS

Fondation Louis Vuitton
8 Avenue du Mahatma Gandhi
75116 Paris

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Le Corbusier’s very last realised project, originally inaugurated in 1967, the Pavilion Le Corbusier in Zurich, is experiencing a popular summer after its reopening in May. Between October 2017 and February 2019 architects Silvio Schmed and Arthur Rüegg worked on a meticulous renovation of the iconic landmark status structure to return it to its former colourful, art-filled glory.

The 600 sq m steel and glass structure, which unfolds across four storeys, was designed by the great master at the request of interior designer, gallery owner, and patron Heidi Weber, who visualisedit as the ideal exhibition venue and destination for art. Le Corbusier duly obliged, creating a building that was ‘a synthesis of the arts’ – bringing together art, architecture and life. For architecture and design lovers, the pavilion also reflects the well known modernist's wider principles on prefabrication, circulation, his fondness of roof gardens, and presents an opportunity to see some of his furniture design.

When the lease for the land the pavilion was built on ran out in 2014, the structure was passed to the local authorities to be operated by the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich. The team has since made it their goal to return the pavilion to its original purpose – displaying art – and going forwards will be presenting a series of exhibitions that explore Le Corbusier from different angles. To meet increased public interest, opening hours extend to seven months a year (May to November) and six days a week.

The current exhibition, running until November, titled ‘Mon Univers’, explores Le Corbusier’s passion for collecting. As well as an architect, architectural theorist and urban planner, Le Corbusier was also an active painter, craftsman, sculptor, and furniture designer, who amassed many objects such as conch shells, ceramics from the Balkans, flotsam, and industrial glass that he would arrange in assemblages for inspiration.

Original pieces from the architect's private collection, spanning historical photographs, casts, paintings, ceramics, bronzes and furniture, are displayed alongside loans from the Fondation Le Corbusier in Paris and the Antikenmuseum Basel, and 16mm film clips of Le Corbusier, building a visual and thematic journey through the pavilion; while his legendary 1931 installation ‘Les arts dits primitifs dans la maison d’aujourd’hui’ has been recreated in the two-story atrium on the ground floor.

INFORMATION
museum-gestaltung.ch

pavillon-le-corbusier.ch

‘Mon univers’, Pavilion Le Corbusier, 11 May – 17 November 2019

ADDRESS

Pavillon Le Corbusier
Höschgasse 8
8008 Zurich
Switzerland

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If you find yourself in Marseille on a cloudy summer night, gaze up to the sky and you just might see the Bat Signal. Projected from the rooftop of Le Corbusier’s Cité Radieuse, it pierces through the dark night and casts a familiar emblem in white light, as though the city were summoning Gotham’s favourite superhero. This is the audacious headliner for Californian artist Alex Israel’s Batman-themed exhibition at Marseille Modulor (MAMO), the contemporary art centre founded in 2013 by designer Ora ïto.

Israel is the seventh artist to take over MAMO for the summer, following on an older, and largely Francophone roster that has included Xavier Veilhan, Daniel Buren, Dan Graham and Felice Varini. He often engages with the seductive power of Hollywood, reframing movie props as readymade sculptures that capture a cultural moment, and at MAMO, Israel’s choice of subject responds in part to the architecture.

Occupying the top levels of the Cité Radieuse, the art centre comprises a double-height gymnasium with a striking curved ceiling, and a roof terrace anchored by an undulating chimney. The elegant bulk of the concrete building, combined with sweeping views of the city’s terracotta rooftops and the azure Mediterranean, make it the perfect superhero’s lair. But the artist was also inspired by Marseille’s historic reputation for violence and crime, explaining, ‘It’s the idea of this really tough and gritty city which made me think of Gotham.’

Israel fixated on the 1989 Batman film (directed by Tim Burton, and with production design by Anton Furst), which he’d first seen as a six-year-old. ‘It deeply and profoundly impacted me like those kinds of experiences do when you’re young,’ he recalls. The artist particularly liked that Batman doesn’t have any superpowers. ‘He just has to do the best he can as a human.’

As far as solo exhibitions go, this one is succinct. A Batmobile has materialised in the centre of the gymnasium, which has been darkened to emulate the iconic Batcave. Grumbling engines, billowing smoke heighten the sense of drama, and give the impression that the car is about to speed off. Within the dim space, the aquiline form and scalloped tailfins of the Batmobile seem to take on a new aura. ‘In the dark, it loses its objectness and becomes this reflective surface for light, and kind of a breathing thing,’ he muses. ‘It’s almost like a memory or a fantasy.’ Israel is interested in how the installation will inform the viewer’s perception of a car that he calls ‘the ultimate fetish’.

Meanwhile, on one corner of the roof terrace sits the Bat Signal, housed in a modified Second World War era searchlight – the same make as the one that appears towards the end of the movie. By day, its white exterior contrasts with a mirrored reflector punctuated, of course, by the Batman logo. After sundown it lights up, its conical beam in delightful dialogue with the form of Le Corbusier’s chimney. Weather permitting, Batman’s emblem will glow amongst the clouds – a world first, considering that the movies had relied on special effects. ‘It seemed perfect in this specific place above a city with a history that aligns with the meaning of Batman,’ explains Israel. ‘This is a symbol of hope, heroism and courage, of Hollywood and America.’

Ora ïto had planted the idea of this piece two months ago when, in a last-ditch effort to convince Israel to take on the show, he’d told the artist, ‘You can do whatever you want. You can even put the Bat Signal all over Marseille.’ At the opening last week, the French designer seemed delighted, and perhaps still in disbelief that his casual remark has now become reality. ‘What’s genius about the show, I think, is that the old building becomes the art piece. For me, Alex is the new Andy Warhol.’

INFORMATION

‘Alex Israel’, 8 June – 31 August, MAMO. mamo.fr

ADDRESS

Centre d’art de la Cité Radieuse
280 Boulevard Michelet
13008 Marseille

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Left, True Thinline Les Couleurs Le Corbusier Slightly Greyed English Green – 32041, from the 1931 edition of Le Corbusier’s Architectural Polychromy palette, is infused with a hint of blue. Right, True Thinline Les Couleurs Le Corbusier Iron Grey – 32010 is the darkest shade of Le Corbusier’s first Architectural Polychromy palette, published in 1931. 

Rado’s collaborations with Jasper Morrison and Konstantin Grcic resulted in two of the Swiss watch brand’s most notable contemporary watch designs. Now, it is taking its design-partnership credentials one step further – albeit with a backwards glance.

Rado’s just-announced association with Les Couleurs Suisse, protecting body of Le Corbusier’s Architectural Polychromy, promises to be a harmonious one. That the architect-designer hails from the world’s horological heartland is a tidy link. That Rado has immersed itself in the exploration of colour theory since it started experimenting with high-tech ceramic in the 1990s adds up to a genuinely creative one.

Back then, the process of creating wearable products in a material commonly used by the aerospace industry for its toughness and heat resistance was a high-risk business requiring huge investment in special machinery. Attempts at introducing colour beyond achieved black and white tones proved almost impossible, due to the inconsistency of pigment in the extremely high-temperature ceramic production process.

Over the past 30 years, Rado has become a master alchemist, relentlessly experimenting until tonal ceramic shades, such as grey and brown, became possible.

The launch of the True Thinline Les Couleurs Le Corbusier – a monochromatic ceramic watch collection created in nine of the Architectural Polychromy shades – marks a milestone in horological achievement. The results, though hard to convey in an image – particularly the subtlety of the achieved tones – are seriously impressive.

As with the ceramic technology, working with Les Couleurs Suisse added a further layer of process. ‘We had been experimenting with prototype colours for 10 years before going to see them,’ says Matthias Breschan, Rado CEO. ‘They took one look and said, “No”.’

At that point the prototypes were shiny – ‘the light was all over the place,’ recalls Breschan. ‘So we tried it on matt ceramic, which absorbed the light, and went back to see them. That was the starting point.’ The next two years involved much back and forth and trial-and-error. But, as Breschan points out. ‘It was Les Couleurs Suisse who were always in charge of the colours.'

Left, True Thinline Les Couleurs Le Corbusier Luminous Pink ­ 4320C, from the 1959 series is the ultimate pop colour. Right, True Thinline Les Couleurs Le Corbusier Spectacular Ultramarine – 4320K is one of the dynamic shades of the 1959 series of Le Corbusier’s Architectural Polychromy palette.

Left, True Thinline Les Couleurs Le Corbusier Sunshine Yellow – 4320W, from the 1959 dynamic colour series, is the only yellow shade in the Polychromy. Right, True Thinline Les Couleurs Le Corbusier Powerful Orange ­ 4320S, from the 1959 series, is a basic, optimistic shade suited to larger surfaces.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Rado website and the Les Couleurs Le Corbusier website

Modern post-war churches arose out of a mixture of necessity – war-ravaged Europe had lost countless places of worship – and ecumenical reform. The Vatican II council of the early 1960s resulted in a wholesale revision of the ecclesiastical designer’s approach to the physical form and layout of churches, with the traditional cruciform layout abandoned in favour of placing the altar at the heart of the structure. Switzerland might not have suffered any major war damage, but the country’s Church was at the forefront of this modernising movement. From the late 1950s to the 1970s, the country built some of the most avant-garde churches in Europe.

Concrete was the material of choice. In fact, the ongoing Swiss penchant for béton brut has turned this most controversial of materials into something of a national device, continuously developed into the modern era by each new generation of architects. It helps, of course, that one of the most iconoclastic architects of the 20th century was Swiss, a man who dedicated his career to re-shaping the global perception of architectural form.

Then, as now, Le Corbusier was hugely influential. Aside from his buildings, his legacy to his mother country was a fiercely ambitious coterie of intellectual architects who saw the development of his aesthetic and architectural theories as an essential part of their practice. Corb might have been the generator, but his admirers were keen to push the boundaries even further.

Walter Maria Förderer, born in 1928, was at the forefront of the generation of Swiss architects to practise in the late 1940s and 1950s. He began his career as a sculptor, and his use of concrete evolved from his preference for the hands-on contact with a material. By the time he was in his forties, Förderer had become an inspiration to Swiss architects, spawning a fashion for expressive concrete schemes which threatened to usurp even Le Corbusier’s achievements in the field.

Förderer was a concrete man through and through

While works by architects such as Otto Glaus and Ernst Gisel retained a kernel of functionalism – still very much evident in contemporary Swiss architecture – Förderer’s work was superficially hard-edged, but self-consciously formalist, even decorative and playful, in its manipulation of space. Staircases ‘hung’ in voids, boxed forms featured deep-set windows and quirky extrusions, while strange totemic objects rose up in defiance of modernism’s rejection of the eccentric.

In the early 1960s, along with Rolf G Otto and Hans Zwimpfer, Förderer designed the Brunnmatt-Schulhaus in Basel, an academic campus of angular concrete towers – a perverse re-imagining of the Gothic style. While Le Corbusier’s later works emphasised the combination of organic forms with rigid concrete abstraction, Förderer and his partners eschewed flowing space for a three-dimensional grid, layering functions on top of one another and reflecting the jumble with stacked concrete cubes.

Förderer was also a published theorist, who used his treatises to expound upon the theory that a strictly functionalist approach resulted in inflexible and static architecture. Yet while his contemporaries seized upon the potential of ephemeral buildings constructed from industrial materials, scaffolding and other new technologies, Förderer was a concrete man through and through. His flexibility was to be achieved through scale, creating almost mega-structural complexes that could accommodate a variety of users.

Nowhere is this more evident than in his eight churches completed during the 1960s in Switzerland and Germany. The church centre at Hérémence, a small Swiss town nestled on a steeply sloping site, includes the church of St Nicholas, plus meeting rooms and accommodation. The complex resembles the hyper-dense three-dimensional assemblages created by Kurt Schwitters, rather than the flat, mannered abstraction of Le Corbusier’s purist paintings.

At Hérémence, the pulpit, cross and altar sprout from the floors and walls, with the jagged forms of the nave apparently defined by absence, as if carved from a vast block of poured concrete. Förderer worked with Otto and Zwimpfer on this darkly expressionistic project, but other works were done alone, including the churches at Bettlach and Lichtenstein.

As the design for St Nicholas was being finalised, Förderer was completing the Church of the Holy Cross in Chur. While St Nicholas is an outcrop of concrete strata, the Chur building is smaller, and squat and brooding, but no less imposing.

Spiritual architecture often shapes the aesthetic cutting edge. These churches demonstrate one man’s quest to translate the mysteries of faith into physical form. Beautifully made and well maintained, his churches are still at the heart of their communities, not brutal but beloved. 

A version of this article originally appeared in the April 2009 issue of Wallpaper* (W*121)