Architects of
Eileen Gray was born on 9 August 1878, into an aristocratic family near Enniscorthy, a small market town in south-eastern Ireland. Gray was the youngest of five children. Her parents, Eveleen Pounden Gray and James Maclaren Gray were of Scottish/Irish descent. Gray’s father, James, was a painter who encouraged his daughter's artistic interests. He took his daughter on painting tours of Italy and Switzerland which and encouraged her independent spirit. Gray spent most of her childhood living in family homes, either in Ireland or South Kensington in London.
Tempe a Pailla
The house I was given to study and work on was Eileen Gray's famous house 'Tempe a Pailla'. I learned alot about Eileen, a self motivated, modernist, furniture designer as well as Architect in a time where mostly men followed this specific career, having designed E-1027, a house for her and her partner and Tempe a Pailla, a house for her self, a pure act of selfishness, a space designed for her to dwell and work, it was a living/working machine as she wanted it, a space which can be constantly changed such as furniture having multi-purpose and so on. Eileen loved a challenge, it is believed it was why she chose such a difficult site. She built on existing structures which anchored the house, she was into ship Architecture, this would explain why her house was long and narrow with many decks for views and levels for storage, and the flag on top. Eileen was very social, she took advantage of the entertaining space for her guests and incorporated views of the city and the sea with balconies and large windows. However, she was also in a way private and enjoyed her space, this can be viewed on the plans of Tempe a Pailla on her choice to where she positioned her rooms, as the bedrooms, service rooms and courtyard were been tucked away at the back, revelling a tranquil view of the distant mountains.It was almost like the house can be split in half one side been public and the other been public. She made sure of this through her intention in the circulation, it allows you to enter the house and directly and be astounded by the view of the north in the living room that led outside to the pathway to her garden and down the stairs.Eileen treated the outside space the same way as she treated the inside space, she did this by having the same tiles, the same material inside and out. Eileen liked to take advantage of the sunlight, in fact she designed each room regarding to were she would receive the most sunlight or the least, she even incorporated a way in which she could control the light in certain rooms, in the bedroom a medium sized circle could be moved according to the amount of light she wanted to enter the room, almost like an eclipse, like she had her own sun to play with, it was brilliant.
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