The French designer and architect  Charlotte Perriand (1903 – 1999) produced some very beautiful furniture and buildings, but she is probably not as well known as she should be, even despite the comprehensive retrospective show of her work at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in 2005. Above is a selection of pieces included in that show. Below is her most well-known piece, a bookcase co-designed with Jean Prouve, as well as many other designs. Perriand worked with Corbusier for 10 years, starting at age 24, on both furniture and architecture. How she came to work with him is a fascinating story:

A friend of hers introduced Perriand to the works of the famous French architect Le Corbusier, including L’art Decoratif d’Aujourd’hui (Today’s Decorative Arts). Inspired by his work, Perriand immediately applied for a design position at Le Corbusier’s atelier. She was dismissed with a condescending comment, “we don’t embroider cushions here.”

Undaunted, Perriand tore apart her garret-style apartment and converted one of the largest rooms into a metal and glass bar. Using her home as a canvas, she applied her ideas and continued to create metal tubular furniture out of chrome and aluminum for her “machine age interior.” By 1927, she designed enough work to be exhibited at the Salon D’Automne. Upon seeing her rooftop bar design and its furnishings, architect Le Corbusier changed his mind and decided to hire Perriand as furniture designer.

Perriand’s earlier pieces were often modular and efficient, almost futurist. Her early influences generally seem modernist while her later experiences in Japan introduced a different aesthetic, and you can see that in the red and black interior below, as well as in her use of paper and bamboo for lighting. She deserves to be better known for her buildings, which include the UN’s League of Nations in Geneva and the Les Arcs building in Switzerland, at bottom. The same goes for her furniture, though this may change now that Cassina is reissuing many of her pieces (she originally designed for Thonet).  Philippe Delahautemaison has created a really good Flickr set of photos of her furniture and decor. More on Charlotte Perriand here and you can also read about her life and design at designboom. The Centre Pompidou’s link in French is here.

Above, cabinet by Perriand in 1939

“Bambou” lounge chair, above, 1940

Above, a chalet by Perriand in Savoie, France.

Above, Japanese inspired interior

Above, ‘refuge tonneau’, futuristic chalet

Building in Les Arcs, Switzerland. This is part of a larger project Perriand worked on collaboratively with Corbusier and others.

And see this amazing swing arm lamp at referencelibrary.

On occasion, the women of 20th C design do get a certain amount of recognition. This rare aluminum pendant lamp by Eileen Gray, previously owned by Yves St Laurent, is up for auction at Christie’s and is estimated at US$1 million. Via dailyicon. We’ve written about Gray before, here and here.

Left to Right: George Nelson, Edward Wormley, Eero Saarinen, Harry Bertoia, Charles Eames and Jens Risom

Photo from a 1961 Playboy article on 20th C “masters of design,” who are here dressed either as accountants or architects, it’s hard to tell which, but it’s a lot of zippers. Where were Ray Eames, Charlotte Perriand, Eileen Gray, Nanna Ditzel or any number of others? Was there even a moment of guilt or shame when this group was assembled? Via lushpad. Or click below for the whole article.

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These staggered, airy midcentury modern arrangements are so much less chichi than the many fancified contemporary bookshelves we see around. For some reason we love this simple, balanced living room belonging to Italian architect Egle Amaldi in the 1960s. The bookshelf – its shape and the way it spans the whole width – is probably the key to the room. It is somewhat reminiscent of Cado shelving, named after Danish designer Poul Cadovius, even though its shelves are longer and it’s missing the characteristic cabinets and other boxy components. (See an excellent example at kitkadesign and below.) Its verticals are visually interesting and objects look particularly good on the syncopated horizontal levels. How hard would this be to DIY? Probably not that hard. More photos of this type of bookcase in the book “The Modern Room” which also features work by Amaldi. People say that the contemporary versions of these are RAKKS and ISS, but we like the simplicity of the one above. Some DIY ideas for Cado shelving and “pole” shelving (where the supports are poles fixed to ceiling and floor, rather than wall-mounted) can be found on the Pole Shelving blog. If you’re in Vancouver, there are a couple of Cado-style units at the moment at Fabulous Finds.

Below, more classic Cado shelving from Flickr.