The present lot was designed by Charlotte Perriand as part of a coveted contract to furnish one hundred and fifty single rooms at the student housing complex at the Cité Universitaire of Antony, then the largest student accommodation in Europe. As part of the reconstruction in France following the war, the national education authority launched a large-scale construction programme for new schools creating a large market for school furnishings. Concerned with matters of education and its social dimension, Perriand embraced the opportunity to design spaces for modern living for the upcoming generations. Whereas the furniture available to the French public in the early 1950s largely comprised designs reflecting pre-war style, Perriand’s furniture provided students with modern design solutions that responded to their daily lives.

Demonstrating a considered analysis of both the subject and object, Perriand designed the ‘Antony’ bookcase in response to a student’s day-to-day gestures and needs within their living space. She based the dimensions of the bookcase on precise measurements of the objects she anticipated students would store in the units and the overall proportions of the room. The resulting design created a series of voids within the small inhabited volume. Enhancing the visual composition of the bookcase’s punctuated shelving, Perriand used red perforated hardboard for the back panels. The structural system Perriand designed using two lateral panels and a separate back allowed for potential variation in the width of the shelves, in addition to the benefit of flat transport for assembly onsite. Softening the precise lines of the black-painted steel, the bookcase’s horizontal ash veneer shelving lent an element of warmth, creating a balance between natural and machine-made materials within students’ living space. The compositional structure of the ‘Antony’ bookcase illustrates Perriand’s approach to bring together standardised elements, enhancing the adaptability of her designs which she could re-imagine in response to the requirements of a specific project and its inhabitants.