The Kitchen and Its Discontents

Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky (1897–2000) was an Austrian architect born in Vienna and one of the first women in Austria to study and practice architecture. She trained from 1915 to 1918 at the Kunstgewerbeschule (now the University of Applied Arts) under Oskar Strnad and worked with Adolf Loos on settlements for World War I veterans. In 1926 Ernst May brought her to Frankfurt's building department, where she designed the Frankfurt Kitchen, a compact, fully built-in kitchen planned with time studies to save labor; it was installed in about 10,000 municipal apartments and is a forerunner of the modern fitted kitchen. She later worked in the Soviet Union and Turkey, was imprisoned for four years for her role in the anti-Nazi resistance, and practiced as an independent architect in Vienna from 1947 until 1969. LACMA's "The Kitchen and Its Discontents" presents her Frankfurt Kitchen from its collection.

Charlotte Perriand (1903–1999) was a French designer and architect born in Paris to a family of clothesmakers. She studied at the École de l'Union Centrale des Arts Décoratifs from 1920 to 1925, and in 1927, after her "Bar sous le toit" (Bar under the roof) drew attention at the Salon d'Automne, she began working with Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret, leading interior equipment at their studio for ten years. Simplicity, functionality and modularity defined her work, which includes the B 301 sling-back armchair, the Grand Confort armchair and the B 306 chaise longue. In 1940–42 she served as an adviser in Japan, where traditional materials and an "art of living" shaped her later practice, and she went on to collaborate with Jean Prouvé. Her monumental project for the Les Arcs ski resort in Savoie was the high point of her research on collective living. LACMA's "The Kitchen and Its Discontents" presents her 1948–50 kitchen with Le Corbusier for L'Unité d'Habitation in Marseille.

Swiss-French architect Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (1887–1965); planned Unité d’Habitation, with kitchens by Perriand.