two sections, as twin beds.
A small bath-
room is situated opposite the bed/ alcove
and is blocked from the rest of the room
by a low wall. The living room thus be-
comes a paradigm of the multifunctional
approach through its spatial articulation
and the furniture it contains. Multifunc-
tionality is evident in the other rooms as
well. Master bedroom and guest room are
both fitted with sinks and desks. Beds are
designed with upholstered backs and are
also thought of as divans.
Similar to her conceptual thinking
about rooms, diversity and option are
notions that inform Gray's design re-
sponses to the environmental conditions.
Her work shows a sensitivity to the cycli-
cal rhythms of the days and the seasons.
Her treatment of windows is a case in
point. At least three types of windows are
used: sliding and folding on two sizes,
pivoting, and double-hung. Some win-
dows are protected by wooded shutters
with movable louvers. The larger, floor-
to-ceiling sliding and folding windows
along the living room wall are shielded by
awnings over the terrace. Canvas also
surrounds the terrace. In the winter the
canvas can be taken down to allow the
sun to warm the legs of people sitting
there. With this combination of window
layerings and canvas to filter light and air,
a finely modulated and subtle range of
temperatures is possible.
The furniture designed for the house
elaborates Gray's view of an environment
as a finely calibrated response to human
needs. In her analysis of the function of an
object, she deals with a variety of ways it
can be used over time. Her furniture, like
her spaces, is conceived of not as isolated
elements but as participants in a web of
actions that make up the drama of life.
Gray understood, in a detailed way,
the use of an object over the span of a day
or throughout the year, integrating this
understanding into her work. In the
broadest sense, then, "time" becomes a
component of her analysis of functional-
ism. As a result, many of her objects have
a quality of physical transformability that
amplifies or extends the number of ways
the objects can be used within the primary
activity they serve. Note, for instance, her
small side table consisting of a metal arm-
ature and a circular piece of glass. Made
during the period Roquebrune was under
construction, this table is shown in photo-
graphs of the house. Cantilevered off a
metal column, the glass top is secured to
the column by a metal pin, which fits into
a series of holes along the length of the
column. This allows the table to serve as a
coffee table or side table. In addition,
because its top is supported only at the
edge, it can slide into position as an over-
the-bed table. Pulled close to a person
sitting in a chair (possible because of its
open-circle base), the table can be used to
serve informal meals.
70
mer, in order to eliminate food odors
from the house.
Although all chairs have a relationship
to the seated anatomy, several of Gray's
chairs make a more pronounced anthro-
pomorphic reference. The transat chair is
constructed of two upholstered pieces,
slung from a wooden armature, thus pro-
viding both soft seating and an image of a
supple person in a seated position-a met-
aphor of a seated human skeleton. The
bibendum chair is semicircular and uphol-
stered; it sits like a womb ready to contain
a person.
Gray described her work anthropo-
Living room bed/alcove, Roquebrune. morphically: "Windows without shutters
are like eyes without eyelids.''' She called
her house "a living organism." In a sense,
because of the great number of objects in
Other objects whose use is amplifieL the house that are physically flexible, it is.
by physical transformability include a set Filled with objects that move in response
of tables that can be connected to form a to the body, the house is like a kinetic
large dining table and a cocktail table with
a lip around the four sides to prevent
glasses from being knocked off. This
table's top can be reversed and the height
of the legs adjusted to convert it into a
dining table.
Gray's concern with how rooms and
objects are used over time led her to ac-
knowledge, in her design, aspects of
everyday life, such as the unmade bed or
reading and eating in bed, aspects that
had never been explored by other design-
ers. She was one of the first, if not the
first, to design colored sheets. She argued
that they would provide color and beauty
in a room when the bed was unmade, as it
so often is. In the guest bed/alcove, she
designed a small table that swings out
from the wall over the bed. The table's easel
can be adjusted so that when raised, the
table can be used for reading; when low-
ered, it can be used for eating or writing.
This pivoting bed table, implying the ro-
tation of an arm from the elbow, acknowl-
edges, as do so many of her designs, both
physical comfort and human gesture as a
profound inspiration. Gray noted that "it
is necessary to give to the work of art the Sliding and folding windows, Roquebrune.
form which best responds to the spon-
taneous gesture, or the instinctive reflex
which corresponds to its use."' sculpture whose design is keyed to the
In addition to her exceptionally so- human anatomy.
phisticated attitude toward the problem In her writing Gray called for spiritu-
of function, her designs are characterized ality, symbolism, and emotion in archi-
by a quality of "body-centeredness." The tecture. The planning of the Roquebrune
primary focus of each object's design is house responds to psychological needs.
the physical movement and comfort of And in much of her decoration as well as
the user. She also took into account the in certain architectural details, she added
four senses, in a somewhat more pro- a poetic and symbolic dimension. She
nounced and refined manner than other placed the fireplace next to the living
designers. Her use of cork for table tops room window so that "one should see the
eliminated the harsh, clanging sound of light of the fire and that of the day at
an object against glass; she used fur throws once."' The decoration of the house sug-
on beds and soft layerings of cushions to gests the maritime life of the Riviera. The
stimulate the sense of touch; she used fil- living room rug is executed in tones of
tered light to comfort the eye; she isolated blue and gray; a marine map on the wall
the kitchen to one side of the house and can be illuminated at night to "evoke
provided an outdoor kitchen for the sum- thoughts of long voyages and provoke
HERESIES

Bil:iendum chair and table by Eileen Gray.
dreams.''• Many details are suggestive of
boats: the striped material of pillows and
curtains, the small terraces around the
building suggesting the decks of a ship, a
spiral stair recalling the stairs in small
vessels. The compactness of the wall in
the guest alcove, which combines storage,
a clock, and a compartment for a pillow,
is suggestive of ship's cabinetry. Through-
out the house, the names of objects con-
tained within are stenciled on the doors of
closets and cupboards, recalling the use of
words throughout a ship to indicate the
placement of objects for the passengers
and crew.
Finally, the inevitable question: Is there
a specifically feminine dimension to Gray's
work? We can speculate that Gray's finely
tuned awareness of the way objects are
used-a level of sensitivity not seen in
other outstanding personalities in the
modern movement-derives from a per-
spective traditionally ingrained in the fe-
male personality, particularly in the up-
bringing of a Victorian girl. Women were
trained to care for the spiritual and physi-
cal well-being of others, above all else. As
a result, they often have a more conscious
understanding than most men of people's
bodily needs. and a deeper comprehension
of the functioning of a house through
time, simply as a result of being and work-
ing therein more than men. As has been
described, Gray's work reflects this con-
ditioning. As a woman and a nonprofes-
sional architect, Gray was on two counts
an outsider to the world of professional
architects and theorists. She also lived as
an expatriate. Perhaps for this reason, as
well as her own perceptiveness, she was
able as early as 1920 to criticize the mod-
ern movement in a way that has held
widespread acceptance only since the
1960s.
The dialogue between Badovici and
Gray in L'Architecture Vivante sets out
her theories and provides a commentary
on the modern movement. Its title, "From
Eclecticism to Doubt," synthesizes her
view of the state of architecture in 1929.
In brief, although architects have rejected
the eclectic aesthetics of the past, they
have not yet found a mode for the 20th
century that can incorporate both the
spiritual and utilitarian needs of the mod-
HERESIES
ern age. Gray criticized her contempo-
raries for their rigid theory, emphasis on
functionalism, and technological solutions
to the exclusion of the expression of sen-
suality and spirituality in architecture.
She did not reject the use of new techno-
logical advances nor the search for a hous-
ing prototype for the 20th century. She
did warn against an oversimplification of
architecture and the use of a housing pro-
totype as a stencil for building. For her,
the prototype was to be constructed in the
most economical and advanced way pos-
sible, to serve only as an inspiration for
housing. It should be modified by the
specificity of each individual building sit-
uation. Above all, the architectural ideal
had to respond to the "habits" of our time,
to an understanding of the needs and
emotions of the individual. This emphasis
on the understanding of society's needs,
the stress on spirituality, and the multi-
From Eclecticism
functionalism of many of her designs set
her apart from the mainstream of the to Doubt
modern movement.
Today architects are searching for an
Badouici: Do you not fear that this return
architecture more responsive to the needs
to primary forms, that this systematic
of individuals, for a more sensual archi-
simplification which seems to be a law of
tecture, and for an architecture imbued
modern art, will result in an art and es-
with greater symbolic content than has
pecially an architecture that will be fixed
been present in most 20th-century build-
in a purely theoretical and too intellectual
ings. Gray's work provides a model for a
research to satisfy both the needs of our
contemporary architecture. The symbol-
minds and those of our bodies? The hu-
ism of the house at Roquebrune derives
man personality is not only intellectual.
directly from the specificity of the pro-
And when one sees these large buildings
gram and of the site; the plan, too, results
of simple geometric shapes and even more
from the interface of her theory and the
these interiors where everything answers
particulars of the building program. The-
to a rigid and cold calculation, one asks if
ory never triumphs over human need.
man could be content to live there.
Moreover, Gray provides us with a model
for a personhood of strength and individ- Gray: You are right. This return to basic
ualism. And in the final account, we see geometric forms, this rejection of all else,
that Gray did, in fact, have the ability to responds to certain needs. It was neces-
design on an architectural scale. sary to free oneself of an oppressive sys-
tem to attain freedom. But this intellectual
coldness which we have arrived at and
1. The Schroeder house (Utrecht, Holland, which interprets only too well the hard
1924) is the otLer main example of this
laws of modern machinery can only be a
approach. The upper floor can be trans-
formed from a large open space into four temporary phenomenon. What is needed
partitioned spaces. Each space is fitted is the rediscovery of the human well be-
with a bed, cooking equipment, and sink. low the material surface and the pathos of
2. E-1027 is a code for the names of Gray this modern life which up to now has been
and Badovici: 10=J; 2=8; 7=G. L'Ar- interpreted only through a sort of alge-
chitecture Vivar1te published the house as braic language of forms.
the work of Eileen Gray and Jean Bado-
vici, in that order. Roquebrune's quality What pathos are you referring to?
reappears in the Badovici apartment reno-
The kind of pathos which is inseparable
vation and the home Gray built for her-
from all real life.
self. These later works are credited to
Gray alone, suggesting that she was the
You mean bring emotion back?
main designer of Roquebrune.
3. Eileen Gray and Jean Badovici, "De L'Ec- Yes, a purified emotion which can be ex-
lectisme au Doute," L'Architecture Vi- pressed in a thousand ways. There is no
vante (1929), p. 18. need to return to the old complicated style
4. Ibid., p. 28. of the previous time; sometimes a beauti-
5. Ibid., p. 30. ful material alone, designed with sincere
6. Ibid., p. 30.
simplicity, is itself enough. It is necessary
Deborah Nevins is an art historian who to create an ideal which can satisfy a uni-
writes and curates exl1ibitions in New York versal modern conscience while always
City. She is currently engaged in research on keeping in view the joys of the individual
popular attitudes toward gardening. and refraining from extremist attitudes.
71