Charlotte Perriand was a French architect and designer born in 1903 – 1999. In 1934 Charlotte designed an easily constructable holiday house, which she named. “La Maison au bord de l’eau”. (the house on water ). Perriand’s design won second prize and was later reworked for wealthy vacationers, but the original scheme was never built.
This eco-friendly beach house was never created in real life, but Louis Vuitton changed that. The project follows Louis Vuitton’s Icônes Spring Summer 2014 fashion collection that took its influences from Perriand. The ‘La Maison au bord de l’eau’, is proof that great design lasts a lifetime.
Now constructed in the beach-side garden at The Raleigh Hotel on Miami’s South Beach, the small house is raised on wooden cuboids above the sand and accessed by a ramp at the back. Two wings fronted by sliding glass doors are connected by a semi-enclosed corridor at the rear, creating a U-shaped plan. Bedrooms containing beds designed by Perriand are located on one side, along with the bathroom. The kitchen, dining and living areas are housed in the opposite wing. A central deck is covered with a fabric canopy, which drains via a hole in the center positioned above a plant pot.
