The opportunity to build the Maison Au Bord de l’Eau designed back in 1934 by the French modernist pioneer, Charlotte Perriand, arose unexpectedly in 2013, when a client proposed that we take over the original sketches to revive this historic project at Art Basel in Miami that year. Designed in response to a competition launched by the magazine L’architecture d’aujourd’hui, which asked to imagine a holiday home for French workers (who had recently earned the right to paid holidays), this small mobile home represented a concentration of innovations for the time, brought together to give substance to Perriand’s vision: a simple but comfortable dwelling – spacious, luminous and harmoniously connected with its surroundings, yet separated from them to define a space dedicated to human habitation. A home, in short, quintessentially modern.
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Making this historic project a reality, by reviving autograph drawings almost ninety years old, required immersion in the culture of the time and Perriand’s work, to define detailed construction solutions and various aspects of interior design, not completely defined in the sketches, in harmony with the principles of modernism. From this point of view, the Sice Previt designers followed a philological criterion, drawing inspiration from contemporary and actually realised projects by Perriand herself, such as Le Corbusier’s flat, and using the working techniques and materials available at the time. Crucial was the support of the curators of the designer’s archive, Pernette Perriand and Jacques Barsac.
With this method, it was possible to create a Maison au Bord de l’Eau as faithful as possible to Perriand’s original design, similar to how it might have been realised in the 1930s.
Novel elements for the time that contribute to the (relative) lightness and ease of assembly of the house in Perriand’s design, carefully reproduced by Sice Previt, are: the metal framework, the modular wooden walls, the internal sliding glass windows opening onto the uncovered central patio ensuring full luminosity, the sheet metal to waterproof the roof, the well in the patio to collect rainwater.
Sice Previt also produced a series of custom-made furnishings for the Maison (seats, shelves, cupboards, tables) which, together with some original pieces and iconic Perriand furniture still produced on an industrial scale, complete the definition of the spaces of this incredible mobile home.
Once completed, the Maison embarked on its first journey to Miami, where it was reassembled and opened to the public for the first time during Art Basel. Back in Italy, it was later exhibited in Milan for the Fuori Salone 2015, in the courtyard of honour of Palazzo Bocconi. In 2019, it reached Paris, where it was finally displayed flush with water, as in Perriand’s original design, for the exhibition Le Monde Nouveau de Charlotte Perriand. Finally, during the FuoriSalone 2024 the Maison was one of the stars of the Factory Reflections exhibition. In the meantime, Sice Previt has obtained ownership of this jewel of modernist design, pledging to ensure the continuity of initiatives dedicated to its conservation and enhancement.
