Badovici himself wrote in 1924 in l’Architecture Vivante, that Gray’s designs revealed “an atmosphere of boundless plasticity, where different perspectives meld, where each object is subsumed into a mysterious, living unity. Space itself is for Eileen Gray just another material that can be transformed and molded depending on the needs of the décor; she allows herself an infinite number of possibilities.”
Human needs
Gray was clearly boundary-breaking and adventurous, and her life story certainly suggests a glamorous figure, at the centre of Parisian social life. Yet for all the stunning outfits and famous acquaintances, Gray was much more than a fashionable flapper or social butterfly. There was a bravery, resilience and complexity about her – and, interestingly, in her book Goff describes her as a “shy” person. Certainly her life was not always easy. During World War Two, Gray was interned as a foreign national, her houses were looted, and many of her drawings and models were destroyed by bombing. Nazi soldiers used the walls of the E-1027 villa for target practice.
So how did Gray’s life experiences and personality feed into her work? “She had a very independent, free, and elastic personality,” says Pitiot. “Gray faced many difficult periods throughout her life… She persisted, however, and each time went on to create with ever-greater freedom. Gray was open-minded and sincere. She was passionate about other cultures and other ways of life, and this conscientiousness, curiosity, and humanity is evident in all her projects, from the socially-driven designs like the Camping Tent, which was an economical and demountable home, to her proposals for workers’ housing.”