She was an architect who began constructing modernity in the 1920s when, at the age of twenty-four, she entered the studio at 35 rue de Sèvres in Paris to begin what was to be a ten-year-long collaboration with Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret. An experience that represented, along with her trips to the far east, a key stage in her creative career. It was then during a long period spent in Japan (1940-46) that she refined her interpretation of the experience of living with a fusion of eastern and western elements in which tradition and modernity resound along with a perceptible connection with nature.
The designs reissued by Cassini offer just such an example: the Petalo tables, conceived as functional elements for communal use in universities that can be grouped and arranged in constantly-changing shapes; the Ombra Tokyo chair in wood with its clean and minimal form; the Plurima bookcase with its low horizon typical of Japanese furniture and sliding panels for creating sections of solid and void as desired; the Accordo table whose design is inspired by a stone smoothed by water.
The meticulous job of reworking, supervised by Filippo Alison, curator of the collection, has brought the products up to date, incorporating more advanced technological solutions. It has been carried out through the analysis of the original drawings, prototypes and existing examples, making the most of the direct relationship with the daughter of Charlotte Perriand, Pernette Perriand-Barsac, her universal heir and assistant for twenty years.
