Furniture Makes the Room

One of the important aspects of E 1027 is its furniture and how it creates a space. In many cases Eileen Gray designed the furniture so that it can be moved around a room. Other times she integrates the furniture into walls or makes them walls. If, however, the furniture is removed, then there is not much left of the room. The rooms seem empty and have no special shape or form. Without the furniture there isn't anything special about the rooms. To demonstrate the difference between a room in E 1027 with and without furniture, I made a couple of sketches of rooms void of anything but walls. These sketches are then compared to the same room with furniture.

The guest room in the basement:

Dining area:

Living / flexible area:

Shower in living/flex area:

Master bedroom:
    

 

During the same period as E1027 there were many rooms designed in which furniture played a major roll in creating the space. One example would be Tamara de Lempicka designed by Robert Mallet-Stevens. The rooms seem shapeless and empty when the furniture is removed. The same can be said about Maison de Verre design by Pierre Chareau. The following sketches show some rooms from Tamara de Lempicka and Maison de Verre without furniture. All rooms, be it from Mallet-Stevens, Chareau, or Gray, look strikingly similar when void of furniture.


Tamara de Lempicka:

Maison de Verre: