Designer: Eileen Gray
Location: Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France
1926 - 1929
Villa E. 1027
Villa E. 1027 is the first house Eileen Gray designed in her architecture career. The name Villa E. 1027 is a romantic abstract gesture. It was constructed as a summer home for her and her husband. The E stands for Eileen, 10 stands for J as it is the tenth letter in the alphabet, 2 stands for B, and 7 stands for G. Her work reflects qualities of material interaction and correlates with the human body. It was the juxtaposition of overlaying hard and soft, light and dark, chrome and shiny materials that inspired her to push the boundaries of intertwining surface and form. Eileen Gray designed the house from the inside out. She was more concerned with the interior experience than the overall exterior complexion of the building. Gray uses her furniture designs and layouts to disrupt gender norms within the plan of her house by including a bed in the living room and a desk in the bedroom.
The Murals
Villa E.1027 upholds all of Le Corbusier’s five points of modernism as it contains pilotis, a roof garden, a free plan, large horizontal windows, and a free façade. Critically, Le Corbusier was not able to break away from the façade and create something functional and interactive between the occupant and the space as Gray was able to achieve. These murals painted all over the house are forever seen as violating Gray’s design. Le Corbusier did these murals possibly as an act of jealousy. The placement of the murals purposefully disrupts the sequence of the Villa.
Notions of a Sundial
The Villa exhibits a pattern of rotation and scale. There is a golden ratio-like quality to the plan as the rooms toward the north façade start out small and box-like and then, in a clockwise direction, become longer and more rectangular by the west façade. The house is like a sundial. There is an unspoken movement through the building as the sun's path revolves around the Villa. Starting where the sun rises are the bedrooms and the bathrooms; through the day, the sun moves towards the main living space and then sets at the end of the Villa, where a small outdoor seating is placed.
