STUDY NO. 02—
MODERN ORIGINALS: AT HOME WITH MIDCENTURY EUROPEAN DESIGNERS

In our latest Study series, we’ve shifted focus to interior design and the concepts surrounding working environments, daily routines, and personal getaways. In Modern Originals: At Home With MidCentury European Designers, photographer Leslie Williamson visits various homes and retreats of iconic designers; documenting the intimate spaces just as they were when occupied by their previous owners. Leslie’s photographs offer a unique glimpse into the soul of each designer— helping to understand how they breathed life into their passions, surrounding themselves in both their own work and others’.

Le Corbousier was perhaps most known for his famous saying “a house is a machine for living”, but his small Cabanon in the South of France is anything but a machine. It’s a very modest one room log structure— the interior completely clad in wood and walls decorated with colorful paintings. It seems to contain only the essentials for providing a summer away from his primary studio in Paris.

At the lake cabin of Bruno Mathsson, you’ll find a wide spanning collection of records and books throughout the open plan house. All of the furniture is oriented toward the view of the lake, and with the green ceramic floor it’s as though you’re sitting out on the lawn. From his book collection, it appears as though Mathsson was inspired by many other designers' works. In one book— you can even find Mathsson’s collected news clippings of Alvar Aalto, to follow along with his career perhaps. Interesting.

Alvar Aalto’s home in Helsinki is a uniquely eclectic space, containing many pieces of art and furniture collected from his travels, or gifted from friends —like a one-off sculpture of him made with cooking utensils by friend Alexander Calder. The home contains a large double height studio where Aalto did most of his work, although it does also contain a small escape ladder to a connected balcony where he is said to have hidden away from unwanted visitors or difficult clients.

In Copenhagen at the home of Finn Juhl, you can feel the happiness of a Danish home as it’s decorated with a wide collection of colorful artwork, furniture, and sculptures. Though the finishes of the home are all simple, minimal, and white; it seems as though Juhl was focused on balancing each room with special moments of art and furnishings, like a highly curated museum.