ART & ARCHITECTURE / CASE STUDY E-1027 / ROQUEBRUNE-CAP-MARTIN /
Efficiency was an ideal at the centre of modernity, which was a force interlaced with developments in such different areas as industrialization, individualization and acceleration of time. At the beginning of the 20th century, modern times appeared to many (not least in contrast to the recent World War I) as a liberation from past problems and traumas. In this new world, things would be simple and effective, yet graceful in its aesthetics. Form would follow function, and decorations that were mere ornamental but without use should not be allowed. It was believed that usefulness had a special beauty of its own.
When architect and art critic Jean Badovici asked Eileen Gray, artist, designer (and at the time aspiring architect) to design a house with him, she accepted. Badovici was the founder and editor of one of the most influential architectural magazines of the time, Architecture Vivante, in which he regularly proposed many of what came to be considered key tenets of modern architecture. The magazine covered works by the De Stilj and Bauhaus-movements, Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, Albert Loos and Walter Gropius, to name a few.
The villa, set to be built by sea in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, was a joint collaboration. Some scholars have suggested that Badovici and Gray contributed with different ideas and opinions to the project. Badovici, based firmly in the modernist movement, wanted the building to be a manifestation of current design principles. Gray, on the other hand, wanted to make it also a house to be lived in, comfortable and warm. The result was a house that was both a materialization of the modernist manifesto and a place to relax and be at ease in.
The intimacy of the project, as they two were not only professionally engaged but also romantically, is evidenced in the name: “E” stands for “Eileen”, “10” and “2” for his initials (JB) while “7” corelates with the alphabetical position of the letter “G” (as in Gray).
Work on designing the villa began in 1924, and construction commenced two years later. The intimacy of the project, as they two were not only professionally engaged but also romantically, is evidenced in the name: “E” stands for “Eileen”, “10” and “2” for his initials (JB) while “7” corelates with the alphabetical position of the letter “G” (as in Gray).
Many of Badovici’s ideas are present in the structure: all of Le Corbusier’s “Five points towards a new Architecture” – replacement of ground floor supporting walls by a grid of concrete columns; free design of the ground plan; free design of the façade; horizontal windows and a roof garden – are incorporated in the building design, while the spiral staircase (that runs all the way from the ground up to the roof( is clearly inspired by Vladimir Tatlin’s “Monument to the Third International”. In 1929, Architecture Vivante dedicated a special issue entirely to E–1027. Badovici and Gray lived together in the house for a few years until in 1932, Gray designed another villa for herself. Badovici kept the house as a vacation spot. Between 1937 and 1939, Le Corbusier, who was also a close friend of Badovici, added frescoes on the walls (much to the irritation of Gray).
Being married to a woman who was originally from Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, Le Corbusier had a particular close relationship with the town, which precedented the connection formed by the Villa E–1027. In 1949, above the villa, he would go on to decorate the wall of the terrace and the bedrooms of the bar Etoile de Mer, owned by his friend, plumber and fisherman turned bar-owner Thomas Egildo Rebutato (known as Robert). A few years later, in 1956, Le Corbusier built five holiday cabins for Rebutato next to the bar. In exchange, he was given a small adjacent plot of land, where he built his “cabanon”, inspired by his childhood in the Swiss Jura.
After Badovici’s death in 1956, the villa continued to be taken care of, but beginning in the early 1980s, the villa fell into a state of neglect, emptied of its furniture and regularly vandalized. In 1999, it was bought by the Conservatoire du littoral. Today, it is a museum, open to the public for guided visits.