Wise designs from uncertain handwriting and new communications

Abstract

This brief study investigates some undated drawings by Eileen Gray, which are kept at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Uncertain graphic clues, verbal notes and similarities of sign, may lead us to assume that some of the representations were produced close to the end of the Second World War while others, and this is confirmed, just after 1950. However, the extraordinary compositional strength, the indecision of the sign but not of the idea, the unfinishedness that suggests an aftermath, make these drawings timeless and, likewise, waiting for a future. For these reasons, going beyond the fences of a defined and circumscribed temporality, Eileen Gray’s representations refer to a digital reading that can highlight the contemporary characteristics of her architectures; on the other hand, the idea of living inherent in the Irish artist’s most famous house, the E1027 of 1926, in which container and content make up the uniqueness of the image, is still a reference for many designers today. Through the graphical investigation of some of Eileen Gray’s drawings, the outcome of a hermeneutic process, this contribution attempts to link apparently uncertain patterns to new images that may make it possible to overcome both an enigmatic reading of these projects and the temporal limits within which they are contained. The digital models produced will help to bring these projects back to life and make them real.