The LC2 Grand Confort Armchair by Le Corbusier
The Inside Out Chair That Wears Its Style On Its Sleeve
Jan 27, 2009
Though the leitmotif of the tubular chrome framework runs through the design triptych Le Corbusier revealed to the world in 1929, the LC2 makes such unusual use of the material that the chair remains even today a revelation. The Le Corbusier design team radically reinterpreted the commonplace armchair design to give to the world something distinctly familiar and yet distinctly distinctive. The LC2 is proof – if any were needed – that the simplest designs with just a soupçon of individuality live longest in the memory – and indeed, the living room.
Attractive Opposites: LC2 and LC4
In many ways the design antithesis of the sleek LC4 Chaise Longue, the LC2 is a well-stuffed armchair of generous proportions which just about manages to avoid imputations of obesity by cleverly playing with the viewer's sense of proportion and perspective. Le Corbusier did this by offsetting the chair’s full body with a sleek chrome arrangement that hugs the chair’s frame and acts to delineate and contain its bulge. Indeed, what the seat might lose in the design stakes it certainly makes-up for in unabashed comfort.
LC2 Grand Confort
Working with a design rubric of Grand Confort (Grand/Big Comfort), Le Corbusier and design partners Charlotte Perriand and Pierre Jeanneret came up with a chair that couldn’t counterpoint better the pared-down design of their LC4. Whereas the latter seems to self-consciously pride itself on its sleekness, the more dégagé LC2 is happily contrarian, containing its frame not on the inside – as designers at the time were fain to ensure – but wearing it proudly on the outside. This audacious move wrong footed some at the 1929 introduction but has since proved a stroke of genius that has kept the chair in the public consciousness.
The LC2 Today
The LC2 that is available today remains largely faithful to Le Corbusier's 1929 original. More often than not upholstered in its original black leather, the chair has undergone few changes. However, the original chrome plated steel frame - though still available - competes with a number of other finishes today. These include glossy basalt, grey, light blue, green, bordeaux and ochre, and matte black enamel.
Prices and Sizes
As is the case with the LC4 Chaise Lounge, the LC2 Grand Confort armchair is sold under license from the Le Corbusier Foundation by the Italian-based company Cassina. It retails at $3,500.00.
Le Corbusier LC2 two-seated Love Seats and three-seated LC2 Sofas are also available.
A Cassina LC4 Grand Confort armchair measures 26.4" h | 30" w | 27.6" d | seat; 17" h.
