Chapter 8
In: Sport and the European Avant-Garde (1900-1945)
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Abstract
In 1935, some of the most prominent avant-garde designers in France, including Le Corbusier and Charlotte Perriand, came together to collaborate on The Young Man’s Home, a self-contained apartment that was exhibited as part of the French entry to the Brussels Exhibition. Over a third of the total space was given over to a well-appointed gym, designed by René Herbst, complete with a large-scale painting, Exercise Room, by Fernand Léger on its rear wall. Le Corbusier, Perriand and Léger all wrote about the role of leisure, sport and physical exercise in modern life, with Le Corbusier terming sport ‘A food as indispensable as bread itself’. But Herbst’s gym is not simply a spartan, utilitarian space. With its chaise longue and portable table, on which had been placed a couple of well-known sporting periodicals, its bright colours and shining steel furniture, it was also a room to be enjoyed, rather than simply endured.