PIÈCE À VIVRE
The new concept of a “living-room” (pièce à vivre) was launched at the “Logis 49” fair in Paris, combining two traditionally separate spaces for dining and resting or “living” and placing the kitchen nearby. Forward-thinking for its time, and driven by a strong social conscience, Gascoin’s democratic design connected art and industry, bringing together clean aesthetics and rational manufacturing processes to create some of the first modular and multifunctional furniture sets.
MODERNIST MENTOR
Gascoin was a member of the UAM (L’Union des Artistes Moderne or the French Union of Modern Artists) alongside important modernist designers such as Robert Mallet Stevens, Charlotte Perriand, Rene Herbst and Le Corbusier. This was an intellectual movement bound by a philosophy of design that united function with fabrication. In his own workshop, Gascoin passed his knowledge on to the next generation of interior decorators and furniture designers, and several of Gascoin’s apprentices, such as Michel Mortier, Pierre Paulin and Joseph- André Motte, went on to have distinguished careers as designers in their own right.
