On the rocky hillside of the Côte d'Azur in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, Anglo-Irish designer Eileen Gray (1878–1976) built a long, white vacation home she named E.1027 (1926–1929). At 52, this was her first foray into the world of architecture, realized with the support of her then-partner Jean Badovici, editor of the avant-garde magazine L’Architecture Vivante. For Gray, E.1027 was more than an opportunity to apply new spatial concepts; it served as a manifesto, revisited in her subsequent projects, for which she designed not only the architecture but also virtually every object and piece of furniture—creating a total work of art represented in this 1:1 scale exhibition.
FAUP is hosting the third iteration of an exhibition originally conceived for Mebane Hall in Austin, Texas (2017), which has since traveled to the Akademie der Künste (2019) in Berlin. It now serves as a moment of reflection following three years of work on this project. In Porto, the exhibition will present content that highlights the research process behind the project and underscores its significance.
