One of the most important names of the 20th century with her identity as an architect and designer: Who is Eileen Gray?

In 1922, she opened a design gallery called Jean Desert in Paris. In 1924, although she had no experience in building design, with the encouragement of architectural critic Jean Badovici, she started working on the ultra-cubic house, which she named E1027, located on the cliffs of the Cote d'Azur.

In her interior design, she used multi-functional furniture, mostly steel and glass materials, and decorated it by creating a simple atmosphere.

In the 70s, the London company Aram continued her line by purchasing the license of some of Gray's designs.

Eileen Gray (born Kathleen Eileen Moray Smith; 9 August 1878 – 31 October 1976) was an Irish architect with no formal training and furniture designer who became a pioneer of the Modern Movement in architecture. Over her career, she was associated with many notable European artists of her era, including Kathleen Scott, Adrienne Gorska, Le Corbusier, and Jean Badovici, with whom she was romantically involved. Her most famous work is the house known as E-1027 in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France.

Her likes

- space-saving, comfortable designs.

Her dislikes

- being the center of attention.

Eileen Gray died in Paris in 1976.

Poetic Modernism

Eileen Gray, who influenced Modernism and the Art Deco movement, is today considered one of the most important names of the 20th century as an architect and designer. The versatile designer, who is mentioned along with the pioneering names of the age such as Le Corbusier and Mies Van Der Rohe, continues to inspire artists and designers from every generation, from photography to textiles, from design to architecture, with her works.

Eileen Gray is a name that brings a new kind of femininity to the male-dominated art world. Explaining that she feels completely belonging to the modern world with the saying "The future reflects the light, the past only reflects the clouds", Gray developed an understanding outside the traditional patterns with a free attitude, both in the field of painting in which she received her education and in other fields of art in which she was "sarcastic". After a career spanning over 70 years, each of them left unique and rare works - as none of them were mass-produced.

Gray, who made a splash with her lacquered furniture, discovered this material while she was still a drawing and painting student at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. Impressed by the pieces in the Victoria & Albert Museum collections, the designer decides to learn the technique of this material from D Charles, an artisan restorer in Soho. A short time later, when she moved to Paris in 1906, she met Seizo Sugawara, a lacquer craftsman, and reinforced her education. Combined with Gray's sensitivity, meticulousness, and talent, the most important masterpieces of lacquer art produced in the Western world during the 20th century are born.

Galerie Jean Désert, which Gray opened on a street in the heart of Paris on May 17, 1922, served the concept of art and luxury. Among her clients are aristocrats, fashion designers, investors, literary women, and artists such as Charles and Marie-Laure de Noailles, Philippe de Rothschild, Elsa Schiaparelli, Boris Lacroix, Henri Pacon, Damia, Romaine Brooks, Loïe Fuller. The Jean Désert years are the designer's most productive period. In these years, examples of lacquer art evolved into furniture made of chrome-plated steel pipes, glass, and cork. There are many talented names around Gray, such as carpenter and sculpture base master Kichizo Inagaki, Rodin, Abel Motté, editor of Francis Jourdain furniture, and textile designer Hélène Henry. During this period, in 1923, Gray designed the Boudoir de Monte Carlo. She closed her gallery in 1930.

Gray and the Inexhaustible Imagination

Gray's most important work is the house E1027, which she built with Romanian architect Jean Badovici in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin in 1929, which is considered a manifesto of modernity. The design of the villa, built in 1926, was based on a minimalist need representing Jean Bodovici, who was fond of sports, entertainment, and business. A combination of vertical axes (a spiral staircase leading to the terrace above) and horizontal planes (two floors crowned with a roof terrace), the villa is structured around a central room. Positioned according to the direction of the sun, the interior spaces communicate with the outdoors through numerous sliding windows. With its organic integrity, E1027 is one of the exemplary buildings representing sensitive modernity. Here, Gray and Badovici described their starting point as "creating a space within the architectural structure that gives a feeling of happiness and where one can feel as a part of the whole."

In 1931, Eileen Gray designed the Tempe a Palia house; It is the only project that she designed entirely by himself, from top to bottom. The building, 1934, seemed lost in the land where old cisterns were located on the Menton hills, among the vineyards and lemon trees. Tempe a Pailla also borrow some concepts from the E1027 house. In this project, Gray constructs the house according to her own wishes and needs, acting in accordance with her independent spirit, rather than following the rules of Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret's definition of "new architecture"; It produces prototype furniture series by maximizing the relationship between architecture and furniture. Such as a movable chest of drawers, a seating element-ladder towel holder, a pull-out bench, and an extendable wardrobe...

Bibendum Chair Design

The innovative Bibendum chair is among the most famous furniture designs of the 20th century. Designed mostly for resting and socializing, the backrest and armrest of the chair consist of two leather-covered upholstered semicircular pipes. Gray was inspired by the character of Michelin Tires when choosing the name Bibendum for this chair she designed for hat designer Madame Mathieu Lévy.

The visible part of the Bibendum chair consists of shiny chrome-plated stainless steel pipes; The seat is made of beech wood, and the backrest and arm part are covered with colored leather. She also designed the red Serpent chair with its simple form and the Pirogue Bota Bed. Today, the Bibenduim chair is completely different from her earlier, more traditional works as part of a modernist movement and is surprisingly modern for its time.

At the age of 76, with the help of a local architect, Eileen Gray completed the annex and restoration of the country house she owned until 1939. Located in the south of Saint Tropez, in the heart of the vineyards, close to the Saint Anne church, the house is a typical example that reflects the basic principles of architecture such as simple volumes, rustic materials, and closeness to nature. In the architecture of the house, the relationship between the interior and exterior was intertwined, displaying a unique simplicity and elegance.

Eileen Gray has a deep intuition for analyzing objects, adding soul to them, and bringing them to perfection. The fact that she produces works that are far from the fashion or trends of the day allows her to have a free spirit without compromising her principles. She finds her endless energy in her own loneliness until the last day of her life.