Elieen Gray

Eileen Gray (1879–1976) came to architecture via painting and the decorative arts. Her spatial sensibilities, developed on the basis of her experience with lacquer techniques and furniture design, gradually led her to engage in the design of interiors and buildings. While the number of her realized buildings is small (comprising only two fully extant examples), the number and variety of projects that she developed over a career that spanned almost seven decades is impressive. The inventive realism of these unbuilt projects, which inspired the admiration of her peers, attests to the agility and precision of her mind.

Gray's buildings and furniture engage both the user and her/his surrounding space. She designed her houses with the inhabitants' needs and the impact of the sun in mind: admitting natural ventilation and selective light while providing visual protection by means of mobile shutters, screens and windowpanes. In her interiors, architecture and furniture are interwoven and elaborated with specific textures and materials, such as lacquer, chrome-plated steel, leather, cork, wood, and plastic, as well as her deep pile carpets. The resultant spatial ambiance embraces the enduring presence of its users by appealing over time to their senses.

Gray's work thus stands apart from the purism of her era; she considered its technical intellectualism to be lacking in any respect for human sentiments. The totality of Gray's work comprises an architecture for all senses. Just as her outstanding contribution to the discipline quietly influenced many of her contemporaries, it has much to contribute today