Información de la obra y contexto de creación
Les Arcs, in Savoie, was Charlotte Perriand's career-culminating project, where she collected all her research on mountain architecture, prefabricated units, standardization, minimum cells, industrialisation and materials.
Between 1967 and 1982, Perriand designed and built three ski resorts at Les Arcs, at 1600, 1800 and 2000 meters high, which could accommodate 18,000 people.
The main idea of Les Arcs was to work with minimum cells: since it is a leisure space, people spend most of their time outside the main buildings. In order to counteract this minimum living spaces, buildings have large spaces outside, in the sun, thus lowering circulation in enclosed spaces.
Inside the apartments, Perriand worked the wet areas (bathrooms and kitchens) with prefabricated units, which were standardised and pre-equipped (sink-shower, sink-bath-toilet, and kitchen).
Perriand worked in Les Arcs for 20 years, being the largest commitment of her career. Her role was the coordination of the project at both urban and architectural scales.
On the one hand, she designed some of the buildings and on the other, she was in charge of most of the apartments’ layouts, including their furniture.
The Arc 1600 was a lab for Alpine architecture. Many of the principles introduced on its design were also used in the Arc 1800 and Arc 2000: large flat roofs that blend with the landscape; large balconies which extend the full width of the apartments allowing for panoramic views; efficiency in construction; minimum size apartments accessible by collective corridors and the search for the sun and the views.
Due to financial reasons, Arc 1800 was thought to provide apart-hotel accommodation for an international clientele. Located about 100 meters above the first village, following the 1700-meter contour line. Its development was challenging because of the tight schedule and the number of accommodations to be achieved.
The last village, Arc 2000, is located a 20-minute drive from Arc 1600. The first building to be erected was the Residence du Varet in 1978, followed by the hotel Aiguille Rouge, which was finished in 1982. It was designed by Bernard Taillefer, being Perriand in charge of the apartments’ layouts once more. In this occasion, the architect presented the idea of the ‘double room’, offering the possibility of twining two rooms together by introducing a shared entrance hall, accessible off the corridor.
The Arc Mobilier company was created with the idea of providing a cost effective and standardized production of furniture for the buildings. In addition to the prefabricated kitchen and bathroom units, among Perriand's designs for Les Arcs are also stools, chairs, tables, screens, lights and cupboards. Furthermore, her desire was to open an Arc Mobilier shop to offer a more exclusive collection of objects to the public. The first shop was opened in Arc 1600 in 1971. As Charlotte Perriand said:
"Creativity is spontaneous, but in order to preserve its freshness while looking to execute it perfectly, it needs to be nourished, enriched by all members of the workshop. There is no rivalry, just synergy."
Alongside Charlotte Perriand in France, within the modern movement in architecture and design, we find parallel pioneering women architects and designers of the time: Ireland's Eileen Gray; Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky with her extensive work in social housing and her obsession with facilitating women's work at home so that they could have more free time; Finland's Aino Aalto; Denmark's Ragna Grubb, interested in social housing; the Chinese-American Anne Tyng, co-author of the most significant buildings of Louis Khan's office in the 1950s in the USA; and Lilly Reich, who promoted Bauhaus designs amidst so much productive activity. Designers from Bauhaus school, such as Marianne Brandt or Gunta Stölzl have to be highlighted too.
Some links with further information on the work are:
https://vimeo.com/315251967 (Retrieved on: 12/09/2021)
https://circarq.wordpress.com/2014/02/26/charlotte-perriand/ (Retrieved on: 12/09/2021)
https://www.dezeen.com/2019/07/12/les-arcs-architecture-charlotte-perriand-50-years/ (Retrieved on: 12/09/2021)
