The formation of “form” and the “decoration” of space in Charlotte Perriand, Part 2: Creation of “forme utile (useful form)” as a space

Abstract

This paper aims to clarify the process of the formation of Perriand's concept of “form” toward the “forme utile (useful form),” by tracing her production of furniture chronologically. In other words, by analyzing the intersection of the “Mingei (folk-craft)” tradition experienced in Japan and the Western modernism of “forme utile,” this paper examines how the “new decoration” of steel pipe furniture as “form” led to her particular “decoration” of interior spaces. In Perriand's concept of “form,” touching the material itself was the primary issue. However, it was also synonymous with the main intent of the leader of Mingei movement Muneyoshi Yanagi, criticized her “forme libre (free form).” Furthermore, Perriand, who referred the aesthetician Kakuzo Okakura's “vacuum,” came to understand “form” as the correlation between human beings and the space that surrounds them.