Eileen Gray, Architect

“To create, one must first question everything” stated Modernist architect & furniture designer Eileen Gray born on August 9, 1878. A pioneer of the Modernist movement, her most famous house is E1027, which was designed with the belief that "the interior plan should not be the incidental result of the facade; it should led to a complete harmonious, and logical life." Indeed, she started as a furniture designer, designing many iconic pieces, including the Bibendum Chair & Pirogue daybed. Le Corbusier later vandalized her house by painting on its walls, against her express wishes. She was written out of the canon of Modern architecture, although she was at the forefront of the movement. Even E-1027 was once credited to Le Corbusier. She believed “One must build for the human being, that he might rediscover in the architectural construction the joys of self-fulfillment in a whole that extends and completes him,” which she wrote in the 1929 issue of L’Architecture Vivante. She also wrote: “I like doing things, I hate possessing them. Memories cling to things and objects, so it is best to start all over again.” For her “the future projects light, the past only clouds”