The design of Gray’s Bibendum chair (pictured) was inspired by the inflated tire shape of the Michelin Man. A house, the Irish architect Eileen Gray once said, should be a kind of living creature. Above “formulas,” above “beautiful ensembles of lines,” above anything else, a house should be centered on “life,” she said. “The poverty of modern architecture stems from the atrophy of sensuality.” Perhaps no house has ever lived up to these dictates quite like Gray’s own E-1027, a relatively modest 1, 400-square-foot villa near Roquebrune-Cap-Martin in the South of France. Gray began working on E-1027 in 1926, completing its designs three years later, in 1929, when she was 51. Although its genius perhaps should have seemed readily apparent, it took decades until she received the critical acclaim for it that her male peers—Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius among them—received in spades This story is from Kinfolk Issue Thirty-One Buy Now Related Stories Interiors Issue 51 Casa Kohn The house that brought modernism to Ecuador. Interiors Issue 50 Atelier Vime Inside the Provençal home that inspired a craft revival. Interiors Issue 47 Home Tour: Vill’Alcina For nearly 50 years, architect Sergio Fernandez has found political purpose and refuge at his vacation home. Interiors Issue 45 Home Tour: Ollivier & Gladys Chenel A pas de deux inside an antiques-filled Paris apartment. Interiors Issue 44 Home Tour: Gergei Erdei Inside the London apartment uniting Greek mythology, medieval iconography and 1970s glamour. Interiors Issue 43 Home Tour: Rose Uniacke An elegant palazzo—in Pimlico.
Interiors Issue 47 Home Tour: Vill’Alcina For nearly 50 years, architect Sergio Fernandez has found political purpose and refuge at his vacation home.
Interiors Issue 45 Home Tour: Ollivier & Gladys Chenel A pas de deux inside an antiques-filled Paris apartment.
Interiors Issue 44 Home Tour: Gergei Erdei Inside the London apartment uniting Greek mythology, medieval iconography and 1970s glamour.
