Incollect Magazine - Issue 8

102 www.incollect.com culture. French mid-century designers also paid attention to technology and the possibilities of machines and mass production to reproduce designs for a broader market. Prouvé in particular researched and later harnessed the power of factory assembly lines to create mass-produced furniture for public spaces including colleges, public housing, and administrative and government institutions. While several mid-century French designers aspired to see their designs go into mass production (including Jeanneret and Perriand) there also remained paradoxically a commitment to craftsmanship, frequently in the form of a close collaboration between artists, designers, and skilled craftsmen — a quality that today is widely appreciated in French design from the period. French mid-century design is also characterized by inventive material combinations, such as steel plates cased in stitched leather or light fixtures made of metal mixed with raw stone. There is, overall, in French design from this era a beguiling tension between formal elegance and raw materiality. One of the great figures of the modern movement in French design was Swiss-born architect and designer Le Corbusier, who, beginning in the 1920s, created a line of modern furniture designs that he described as ‘equipment for living’ and that he believed would replace all existing home Pierre Jeanneret “Easy” pair of armchairs, model PJ-S1-32-A. Teak, leather upholstery. Chandigarh, India, circa 1958–1959. From JF Chen on Incollect.com Pierre Jeanneret “Office” armchair, model PJ-SI-28-B. Teak frame, restored cane seat and back, new cushion. Chandigarh, India, circa 1956. From Pavilion Antiques and 20thc on Incollect.com