Les Arcs, a ski resort in the Savoie region of France, mostly disappears into its surroundings. Hotels and apartments lean into and cantilever out from the mountainside. Building levels are staggered and clusters of chalets follow the contours of the slopes. Le Versant Sud, the resort\u2019s largest building, is almost invisible from above thanks to its snow-dappled flat roofs even though, when approached from below, the curtains drawn across its full-height windows form a bright color-block grid.
\n
\nCharlotte Perriand, who designed the resort with the Atelier d\u2019Architecture en Montagne between the late 1960s and early 1980s, grew up visiting her grandparents in the region. She was a keen sportswoman and off-piste skier who sought to make the \u201cpossibility of self-transcendence\u201d she found on the slopes accessible to the masses. Paid leave in France had been legally extended by the postwar government, expanding leisure time to a broader section of the population. Les Arcs became the project where Perriand\u2019s knowledge, experience, and beliefs could coalesce as a fully realized vision.
\n
\nLes Arcs\u2019 apartments, whose flat roofs double as terraces, are of equal size and receive equal amounts of sun. Hotel rooms are as compact as possible to maximize the available affordable accommodation. Inspired by her time in Japan in the early 1940s, Perriand designed interiors that are either open plan or separated by screens, with a flexible relationship between indoors and out. She established transitions rather than boundaries, and both literally and symbolically brought the kitchen into the living space, in turn bringing the housewife into the social life of the home.
\n
\nPerriand celebrated new materials and technology, especially when it promised the potential for more equitable housing. Informed by shipbuilding techniques, she used mold-formed polyester to make easily reproducible kitchens and bathrooms for Les Arcs. A \u201cplug-and-play\u201d design meant they could be craned into place and quickly hooked up to water and electricity. Perriand designed high-quality, prefabricated housing and interior architecture, combining raw materials and advanced modular techniques, balancing pine with fiberglass. Holding these contrasts\u2014of design, of material, of experience\u2014was integral to her practice.
\n
\nWhile Perriand despised looking back, seeing nostalgia as \u201ca failure of nerve,\u201d she was able to reflect on the consequences of modernism and its overlap with the true impact of industrialization: the chemical pollution of rivers, soil, and air; the decline of skilled labor due to mass production; and the increase in income and housing inequality. \u201cWe were utopian in the sense that we didn’t see where our ideas would take us,\u201d said Perriand. \u201cWe thought that society would change, that mankind was going to improve. That\u2019s where we made our mistake.\u201d
\n
\nPerriand still saw hope in the potential for architecture to transform society, but on the condition that practitioners team up with other experts\u2014sociologists, scientists, economists\u2014to exchange ideas, embrace the challenges and opportunities of the day, and look to the future. In embracing new typologies, Perriand became a force of innovation who made her century sing. And in being open to critique, she was able to recognize the naivete that so often hinders visions of the future. Perhaps her legacy is in her ability to embrace her surroundings\u2014the diverse landscapes, people, materials, and potential of the present moment. Perriand remained committed to moving forward. \u201cIn every important decision, there is one option that represents life, and that is what you must choose. Life is something in motion.\u201d<\/div><\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":75,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billiemuraben.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billiemuraben.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billiemuraben.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billiemuraben.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billiemuraben.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=586"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.billiemuraben.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":607,"href":"http:\/\/www.billiemuraben.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586\/revisions\/607"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billiemuraben.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/75"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billiemuraben.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billiemuraben.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billiemuraben.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}