8.21.2022

nuages ​​par perriand

Le Corbusier,  Pierre Jeanneret, and Charlotte Perriand (image)

Like many women during the golden age of Modern architecture, Charlotte Perriand was obscured by the shadow of a man. In her case, it was Le Corbusier. Fortunately, more careful examinations of history are allowing her light to shine more brightly from the shadows. For example, Perriand's name now appears as part of the design team (along with Corbu's and Pierre Jeanneret) on the classic Grand Confort which arrived in 1928 as well as on the Chaise Longue, also from 1928, among (many) others.


After a decade with Corbusier, Perriand left his studio to work under her name in 1937. Although never achieving the same recognition Corbusier did for his work, Perriand had an impressive career amply dolloped with stunning designs. One of my favorites are her bookshelves.

As the story goes, Perriand was inspired by seeing Japanese shelves in the 40s and 50s on trips to Japan that were "arranged on the walls, in the form of a cloud." By 1955, she had released her Modern modular interpretation of them, naming them Nuage, French for cloud.

 

If Perriand was woefully neglected during her career (compared to Corbu), she isn't today. A set of her shelves at the auctions require cash north of $100,000! My absolute favorite arrangement is this classic set from 1958:

 

 

This is the most cloudlike of her arrangements (by my eye) and can be yours for a mere $114,450.

Obviously, that ain't gonna happen with our budget (and it would be a crime to buy it and actually use it as shelving). But the concept is easy enough to recreate (although not as eloquently). And we are doing just that as an homage to Ms Perriand!

The original was all made of wood due to the war. After the war, Perriand spec'd aluminum for the black bits shown above. That would be difficult to reproduce as a hobbyist. Since we have befriended a Cloudcroft-El Paso furniture-maker who is good with wood and steel and loves matte black and minimalism, we are seeking to approximate the above shelf for the hallway to the primary bedroom, a wall of which is reserved for shelving (the wall on the right):


With steel and all that wood, I modified the design such that the black support units are centered on the studs so we can adequately affix the floating bookshelf to the wall. Also, we really want to leave space on the wall to hang art that can be seen when leaving the primary bathroom. 

Cassina still makes this shelving at a cost of about 10 grand if I recall correctly. They also helpfully provide dimensions for the unit which I then adjusted to fit our wall, line up with the studs, and leave a space outside the bathroom for art. I honored Perriand's version by leaving it as it was (outside of the above changes) and then winged a shelf for the rest of the wall that (hopefully) complements her design. I generated half a dozen versions of "my" shelf and saw how they looked next to hers before settling on the one we settled on. (I'm seeing now that maybe that 6-incher should be moved a stud to the left, so I may change that...).



To keep the gestalt, we're also going to have the furniture-maker make the shelving unit/entertainment center for the living room. Here, instead of following Perriand, we're following a Perriand-inspired design by Blu Dot. Blu Dot's version doesn't quite meet our needs (not wide enough for a turntable, not tall enough to store albums), and we want to use materials to match between the wall shelves and the entertainment center. What The Dot does differently than Perriand is that they vary the lengths of the black bits as well a material choices and dimensions. I like the wider black bits because I can then "hide" an amplifier in one of those cubbyholes (hence the hole in the back of one).



One might question the ethics of using these designs as inspiration. Perriand is long gone, and I have no idea where the licensing fees Cassina pays goes. Blu Dot clearly ripped off Perriand's design, so we're ripping off someone who ripped off someone else. This maintains the long tradition of design borrowing both in architecture and furniture.  Interestingly, West Elm took some heat for apparently "ripping off" several mid-century designs, including Perriand's cloud shelves (a piece [West Elm's] I would love to have). Blu Dot has avoided that public accusation so far despite a more direct borrowing from Perriand, perhaps because they are not as prominent on the national market.

8.20.2022

getting closer...

Slowly but surely the cabin approaches completion. The glass for the back porch (porch seems like a misnomer for the grandeur of that thing...) finally arrived and will be going in soon. The hardscaping at the entry is framed looks deliciously abstract. Hopefully we'll have the power flipped on soon. Still need a handrail for the stairs. Definitely getting closer! Been working with a local on Charlotte-Perriand-inspired shelves for the living room and hallway to the primary bedroom.







8.14.2022

the awesomeness of modernhousenumbers.com

Before I publicly shed tears of joy over modernhousenumbers.com, I need to note that I am not being paid nor receiving any kind of discount. Both of my orders with them have been delivered with no plans for any more (unless we build another house in the deep, dark future).

We used modernhousenumbers for our Austin home and, just recently, the cabin. They have a limited selection of cool fonts and colors, and their stuff is housemade and solid. For our Austin home, I hit them up with a custom request to "bounce" the circles in the address number up and down since there was a built-in rhythm. Not only did they do this, they didn't charge extra, even though I announced I was willing to pay for the work.

 


For the cabin, we are on Geronimo Street. We saw a restaurant in Santa Fe a few years ago (in the beforetimes) named Geronimo that dropped the o at the end in an homage to paratroopers in World War II (and kids at pools) yelling "GERONIMO!!!" before jumping. So I'm thinking "Let's drop the o!"

I was planning on doing it on the fly when a designer at modernhousenumbers reached out for me to approve the template. I asked if she could drop the o, and she did! And it will look awesome:


The build on these things is heavy duty, the design sweet, and the attention to detail and customer needs amazing.

 

 

 

8.07.2022

 

 

I hadn't been in Cloudcroft during monsoon season before, so it was a treat to spend the day on the back porch remote working and experiencing the monsoon in all its glory. If you are not familiar with the monsoon season of the American Southwest and Northwestern Mexico, it is the influx of (mostly) Pacific moisture between June and September resulting in afternoon thunderstorms nearly every dang day. This year, the monsoon season came early, and thankfully so given the dry conditions leading to forest fires all over the state. 

On that first day, the morning started off sunny and clear. As the morning progressed, clouds bloomed and, on queue, starting booming and raining at about 11:30 am continuing through the afternoon. Temperatures rose throughout the morning, approaching 70 degrees, before falling to a chilly 50 degrees once the rains started falling. I didn't bring a jacket so I had to cruise into town and buy one (ironic considering that it was above 100 degrees in Austin).

Oh, that back porch is delightful! I could hear birds tweeting and wild horses whinnying and see chipmunks climbing tall into the trees. I could see and feel the weather changing and, finally, see clouds wandering amongst the pines earning the village the name Cloudcroft: a farm of clouds. The bad thing about being as high as the clouds is that when there's lighting and thunder, it is happening literally next to you. One clap left my right ear ringing more than after that pan_sonic show at (the original) Emo's back in '99. Good napping weather.

 


While I harbored hopes of staying in the cabin this past weekend (at the end of July), we are still aways away from getting a certificate of occupancy. So we have reeled back any expectations and scheduling until we have that certificate. Ultimately, it was good I went (to be honest, it's always good to go to Cloudcroft!). I was able to enjoy the space (The Bride bought me the chair to sit in), take a hike on a trail one morning, spend some time visiting with the builder and architect (always a hoot), see the progress, and eat some good local food.

I had scheduled the cable installation, deciding to go with PVT, so I needed to be there for that. I'm really impressed with these guys since they took their time, were flexible, and worked with us on hiding the cables. First rate.

The builder had the cabinet guy shorten the shelves in the kitchen over the cooktop, and it made a WORLD of difference, both functionally and visually since (by my eye) it helped with the hood. 


The kitchen appliances are starting to go in, and they look sharp. Really happy with our choices here.



One bummer was that the countertop man hadn't ordered enough countertop to run the entire height of the back splash (sigh...) and waiting was going to take too long. So we're going to tile behind the cooktop with the same tile on the fireplace and leave the rest as is. 


The cabinet guy told me that he is getting out of the cabinet business, which is a shame because he does really good work. He carried the floating shelves concept from the kitchen into the bathrooms for these spectacular floating shelves:


Plumbing fixtures are still going in, but are still not all in (the plumber was there on Saturday working on the master sink).


I can't get over how perfect the lights in the stairwell look:

 
I'm not 100% on the indoor sconce I chose (and then used the same style for the bathrooms). Maybe a little too steam-punk? You are generally not supposed to mix and match fixture finishes, but I thought the brass would be warmer, evoking to wood (and I love the LED filament). We shall see...



The front hardscape was being formed when I got there, so hopefully that will be done soon. And I made a friend!



Finally, I took delivery of a fire pit and got to talk to a dude with really good design chops from El Paso about building shelves for the cabin. 


The next time I go up, it will be for the final walk through and I will be staying in the dang thing!