Heroines of Design

only a handful of women have made it into the history books of design. what did a woman have to be like to attract attention and make a name for herself in the design and architecture scene? to stand alone in a male-dominated field?

then as now: a nonconformist. photography of eileen gray © george c. beresford / hulton archive, 1914 the irish noblewomen, eileen gray (1878 - 1976) cared little for society's ideas of what "women"

or "things" should be. after attending as one of the first women the london slade school of art, she continued her studies in paris in 1902.

she learned to weave carpets and was trained by a japanese lacquer artist. i n 1913, she exhibited a lacquer mural for the first time and caused a sensation. gray soaks up the spirit of optimism at the beginning of the 20th century.

she parades through bars with girlfriends dressed as men, got her driver's license and flew in a biplane. she also opened the interior design store 'jean désert', where she could sell her lacquerware, chairs and carpets. she was one of the representatives of a new design theory that stood for modernity - and she still is today.

eileen gray was around 43 when she met the 28-years-old architect jean badovici. as a self-taught architect, she designed a house for herself and her lover. it's name: E-1027- composed of the initials of the two.

the side table E-1027 is part of the concept . nowadays one of the most copied designs of classical modernism. completed in 1929, gray left her house 2 years later and never returned.

perhaps because of the separation from her lover badovici, who passed it off as his own design. he also owned the land at the time. or because of le corbusier.

first a guest in the house, then a neighbour, who - in the absence of gray - decorated the white walls with large murals. he was so famous that some even attributed the E-1027 to him. not that he minded - he considered it the most modern and elegant house on the côte d'azur.

today it's clear that eileen gray is the architect of this masterpieces of modern architecture. It has been reconstructed according to the original plans and is open to the public. photograpy of the house 'E-1027' © manuel bougot interior photograpy © lucy woods / wallpaper a shiny design object and centerpiece out of stainless steel.

v ery much in the spirit of eileen gray's designs. we made this warped grid, responding to a hidden force. the pieces are ingeniously locked into place providing some flexibility, so you can play with the exact angle of the grid.

made in italy, assembled in berlin.