Designing France

Beginning in the 1950s through the early 1960s, a new generation of French designers and architects, sought to establish an international, modernist style accessible to everyone by fabricating modern furniture in series through the collaboration of the industrial sector. A new Modernism emerged as design of furniture and architecture changed to incorporate the new socio-economic conditions of a post war France. Designers like Joseph Andre Motte, Pierre Guariche and Rene- Jean Caillette, influenced by the Bauhaus school, and in response to a national consciousness to revitalize French modernity, created functional yet modern forms that explored the accord between new materials, new technologies and a better use of space.

As part of the French reconstruction, the demand for design of new public architecture and corporate spaces surpassed those from private clients and these designers also became heavily engaged in the first urban modernization projects, a defining moment for French design history. Motte worked on Roissy and Orly airports and the Maritime station in Le Havre; Pierre Paulin and P. Gautier Delahaye were commissioned to design grand railroad stations in Paris and the interior of the RER; Caillette designed the Maison de la Radio with Paulin and Motte; and Guariche, Monpoix and Motte all worked on many important municipal and national buildings. These designers were integral to the success of these projects which became emblematic of an expanding French society in full modernization. They essentially designed the living environment of the urban French citizen of the second half of the 20 century.