Eileen Gray is an under recognize leader of the modernist movement. Her first design, E. 1027, was on the cutting edge of modern domestic architecture: fulfilling many of the conceptual ideals of the modernist movement, without forsaking the primal and emotional needs of its inhabitance. E.1027 is a major cultural site for modern domestic architecture which possesses a turbulent past and a bright future.
Kathleen Eileen Moray Smith was born in Ireland on August 9, 1878. She was the youngest of five children in a well established Scott-Irish family. Her name changed to Eileen Gray after her mother, Lady Eveleen Pounden, inherited an uncle’s title and became Baroness Gray . Eileen’s father was a painter, which likely helped Eileen develop a keen eye for good design aesthetics at an early age. She studied fine arts at the Slade school of fine arts in London, and the École Colarossi and the Académie Julian in Paris. Initially Eileen specialized in furniture design and opened a small shop, Jean Desert, to exhibit her work. Eileen kept tabs on current architectural pools of thought, taking great interest in the De Stijl movement, the Bauhaus school, and the works la Corbusier. Gray befriended Jean Badovici, the editor of a renowned avant-garde publication l'Architecture Vivante. Gray attributed Jean as her inspiration to delve in to architecture. Later in life, Eileen recalled "Badovici said to me: why don't you build? I laughed in his face. I had always loved architecture - more than anything - but I didn't think myself capable of it."
E-1027 was the first house designed by Eileen Gray. The name E.1027 was Eileen’s way of thanking and accrediting Jean Badovici for his suggestions and support, which helped her design reach fruition. E. 1027 is an acronym of sorts representing Eileen and Badovici’s names; the E stands for E, which is the first letter of Eileen’s name, the 10 stands for J, as in Jean, because J is the 10th letter of the alphabet, the 2 is for the 2nd letter of the alphabet B, for Badovici, and the 7 is G for Gray . The site was designed as a summer home for Badovici how ever Eileen and Badovici shared the home for several years, until Jeans drinking and womanizing strained their relationship. It is unclear whether Jean and Eileen where romantically involved or just close friends.
The site, an oceanfront cliff side near the town of Roquebrune, was chosen for its isolation, it is inaccessible by car, however it is within walking distance of a train station. The site was so difficult to get to that all of the building materials had to be carted in by wheelbarrows. Eileen spent months analyzing the rocky hostile terrain; she observed the rock face, the wind patterns, and the behavior of light so that she could take advantage of every facet of the site. She decided not to alter the landscape but instead allow the house to cling to the cliffs inherent form, giving the house the appearances of a vessel stranded on the cliff face.
E-1027 is the quintessential modern house, and it reflected many of the ideas of the modern movement. Her design considered thoughts on hygiene, purity, and the home as a machine for living. Her home followed Le Corbusier’s “5 points of the New Architecture.” Much like Le Corbusier’s Citroehan house, E.1027 stands on pilotis, possesses horizontal windows, and a rooftop which could be reached by stairs. Another design convention E.1027 shares with Citroehan house are ground level servant’s quarters. E. 1027 is also comparable to De Stijle architect Gerrit Rietveld’s Schroder house for its use of movable screens, and its uses changing floor colors to divide space and imply functional changes. Another way E.1027 is similar to the Schroder is in its lack of visual hierarchy.
E.1027 is a small house , sixteen hundred square feet on the ground level and twelve hundred square feet on the first. It was designed in the spirit of “mason minimums”, small easily replicable houses that where popularized during the housing shortage which followed world war one. She wished to create a"house envisaged from a social point of view: minimum of space, maximum of comfort." E.1027 is a concrete pier and beam construction. In the spirit of industrialization Eileen used prefabricated elements in the wall panels, windows, and doors. The flooring is composed of glass tile. She modified vernacular shutters to create an intricate system of membrane windows. Gray also experimented with original pairings of natural and synthetic materials. Gray used chrome, tubular steel, or Bakelite, together with cork, slate, and exotic woods
Eileen gray once wrote “The poverty of modern architecture stems from the atrophy of sensuality” , and sensuality is the factor that sets the Gray’s architecture apart from other modernist structures. Eileen believed that the overly intellectualized. Gray set her designs apart by allowing them to yield to the emotional and primal wants of an individual, refusing to let them simply fulfill the conceptual ideals of modern architecture. Rex Martoensien, a South African architect and contributor to the SA Architectural Record, praised the design of E.1027 for its ability to “go beyond the apparent frigidity of a purely intellectual solution” and respond to “the passions and desires of the individual and the romantically evocative site” Eileen believed “une oevre ne vaut que par l’amour don’t elle temoigne” (a work acquires its value only though the love it manifest). Much of her furnature was plush and comfortable, such as her playful Bibendum She employed lush furs to accent added comfort in bedrooms and sofas. Eileen’s attention to creature comforts went beyond the necessities, to include a divan for sunbathing with a built in cocktail table surrounded by an innovative “sand trough”, where one could cool off the feet in moist sand without attracting mosquitoes.
The machine like functionality of E.1027 was greatly enhanced by Gray’s innovative built-ins and furniture designs. Eileen designed numerous pieces of built in furniture for E.1027 to enhance the functionality of certain spaces. For example the very modestly sized guest room features a wardrobe with a skylight illuminated interior, corner shelves, that don’t slide open, but swing open on pivoting hinges, and a shoe cabinet with a downward singing door which opens horizontal to the ground. The very same guest room also features an illuminated writing desk which can be stowed, like a tray table, within a long horizontal cabinet. Grays free standing furniture is equally impressive in its functionality.
Gray’s earlier furniture designs where mainly labor intensive and incredibly lavish lacquer pieces. Eileen wished for her furniture to keep its plush appeal while becoming easier for her to replicate and sell. Eileen began designing chrome tubing furniture in 1926, two years before La Corbusier even showed his first piece metal tube furniture. Her quick adaptation of new materials easily places her among the avant-garde of the design realm. Her use of chrome metal tubing was fully realized in the free standing furniture of E.1027. One such design is a bedside table with a tray that can raised to sit higher or lower as need dictates. Another of grays notable chrome pieces includes the gate leg table with suspended rotating trays for fruits and cakes and an extendable dining surface.
Perhaps due impart to the isolated location of E.1027, or even the fact that it was Eileen Gray’s first design realized architectural design E.1027 received limited critical acclaim when it was first built. Some notable acclaim includes, aforementioned praise in the SA Architectural Record, and an October 1930 issue of German magazine Der Baumiester, which featured E.1027 alongside Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye. Of the limited acclaim Eileen received there were two instances which Eileen truly relished, one was a special issue of l'Architecture Vivante Written by her friend and partner Jean Badovici entitled E. 1027: Maison en bord de mer, and the other was a personal letter from Le Corbusier. Eileen savored her issue of l'Architecture Vivante because it displayed and talked about her work in a way typically reserved for much more established architects. Le Corbusier’s letter, dated April 28 1938, absolutely enthralled her. Le Corbusier wrote Eileen complementing her design after spending a week with Badovici at E.1027. Even though the letter was unpublished for decades Eileen initially held Le Corbusier letter in the most esteem. Le Corbusier warmly praised her design “I am so happy to tell you how much those few days spent in your house have made me appreciate the rare spirit which dictates all the organisation, inside and outside, and given to the modern furniture - the equipment - such dignified form, so charming, so full of spirit.” however his praise was didn’t remain sacred for long.
Le Corbusier coveted E.1027, and he was determined to make his mark on the design. Later that very same year, Le Corbusier convinced Badovici let him paint several frescos in E.1027 as a ‘gift.’ Neither Le Corbusier nor Badovici thought to ask Eileen for her permission to proceed. The murals were big, bold, and very sexual. Eileen was outraged and viewed the paintings as intellectual rape, not only did she think they were graphically garish, but she also felt that they obliterated the spatial ambiguity her walls had possessed. Le Corbusier inadvertent disregard of Gray did not end there. In 1960 in his book My Work, Le Corbusier first depicts one of the frescos from E.1027 without crediting Eileen, and further along in the publication he talks about the E.1027 frescos a second time, this time stating that they are in the “Badovici and Helen Gray house in Cap Martin.” After world war two ended Le Corbusier visits to E.1027 grew in frequency. In 1949 Le Corbusier wrote letters to Badovici proposing a variety of changes he felt needed to be made to E.1027’s design, such as removing the screen that separates main entrance from the living room, fortunately Badovici didn’t yield to many of Le Corbusier suggestions. During the 1950’s Le Corbusier obsession with E.1027 was palpable, frustrated by his inability to control E.1027, he purchased the lot next door and built a small shack over looking E.1027. In doing so he illuminated the visual isolation Eileen had chosen the site for.
In 1956 Jean Badovici died and Le Corbusier wrote his eulogy, in which he mentioned that Badovici and “Ellen Grey built a charming house in Cap Martin” . Badovici promised Eileen that he would leave her E.1027, however Badovici failed to make a will before he died, so house went up for auction. Le Corbusier knew this was his chance to finally obtain the object of his covetousness, so he swayed Madame Schelbert, a close friend and a collector of his designs to purchase E.1027. Schelbert was not thrilled with she saw the house, but under the wrongful impression that Le Corbusier had designed it, she went through with the auction. When she failed to place the winning bid Le Corbusier used his clout to cut a deal with the auctioneer. Eileen was extremely upset by the entire situation. By providence Le Corbusier drowned in front of E.1027 ten years later, to the month.
Eileen Gray’s inadequate recognition for her contributions to modern architecture can be attributed to multiple factors. In life Badovici had always been willing to accept more than his share of credit for the design of E.1027, and Eileen never protested it. Even in a posthumous show, organized by Union des Artistes Modernes (UAM) in 1956, Badovici was awarded credit for Eileen’s designs via photographs of E.1027 tagged: “Jean Badovici with collaboration of Eileen Gray for the furniture” This coupled with the Le Corbusier’s failure to properly credit (and spell) Eileen Gray. There was a period of confusion over how involved, if at all, Eileen Gray was in the design of E.1027. There is also the fact that Eileen was a female in a very male dominate profession. She was one of the founding members of the Union des Artistes Modernes, but she often felt that she didn’t receive the same level of respect as her male counterparts. During a 1931 exhibition with UAM at the Pavilion Mason she complained that she was given a terrible spot only to be moved to a worse location . Numerous times Eileen would find her work on display unlabeled. One of the most noteworthy bad experiences with UAM involved Badovici’s posthumous show. Her offers to help with the show were denied, and even after talking to the UAM president, Rene Herbst, about fixing the erroneous labels she was ignored.
After the passing of Madame Schelbert, all of Eileen’s original furniture pieces were removed from E.1027. Since then E-1027 has fallen in to a state of total disrepair. Years of vacancy, and weathering, coupled with damage incurred by squatters, and from vandalism took their toll on this historic structure. E-1027 has survived. Public outcry over the dilapidated state of E.1027 yielded plans to restore the site and establish it as a museum of of modernism. The bill for this project, which is projected to cost €800,000, will be paid by the French government, the town of Roquebrune , and the department "Alpes Maritimes".
When the structural restoration is complete, replicas, and originals if possible, of Eileen Grays furniture will be installed.
The establishment of E. 1027 as a museum reaffirms the cultural significance of E.1027 and reinforces its position as a significant site in architecture history. This also reaffirms the importance of Eileen Gray an architect. Grey’s innovative designs and early adaptation of cutting edge materials like with metal tube place her among the design worlds avant-garde. The turbulence between La Corbusier and Eileen surrounding E.1027
