Charlotte Perriand and I. Converging designs by Frank Gehry and Charlotte Perriand

The Espace Louis Vuitton Venezia opens its new exhibition, bringing together the foundational works of architects Charlotte Perriand and Frank Gehry. In the framework of the Fondation Louis Vuitton “Hors-les-murs” programme, the Espace presents the work by the architects as both historical references and as viable solutions for the issues confronting us today. Two of the projects are exhibited for the first time – Perriand’s “Tritrianon project” (1937) and Gehry’s “Power Pack project” (1969).

In their respective times, Perriand and Gehry responded to the ideas of mobility, prefabrication, and efficiency and put forth ideas that redefined the home. At the onset of the last century, modernism took advantage of industrialization to reframe housing as an industrial process. Arguing for improved qualities of life and hygiene, modernist architects used industrial materials to form a new vision of the built environment. In the context of today’s ecological consciousness, “minimum dwellings” and power pack are precursors to current innovations in independent energy collection and consumption. Their ambition to connect improbable utopian futures with concrete solutions is especially relevant to the real and urgent problems confronting architecture today.