The kitchen
With its built-in furniture and advanced equipment, the kitchen is an emblematic room of the Villa Cavrois. Its image was one of the most disseminated after the inauguration of the mansion. In this functional area with impeccable hygiene, the architecture gives way to the domestic arts.
THE CURVED CUPBOARDS
The space is streamlined to optimise every move. The furniture designed by Mallet-Stevens meets this requirement. In the pantry, the curved cupboards follow the shape of the wall. These original items were donated to the Centre des Monuments nationaux for their reintegration into the architecture.
MODERN EQUIPMENT
The disproportionate extractor hood illustrates the importance of household equipment in the design of a modern mansion by Mallet-Stevens. While all the rooms of the villa benefit from advanced technologies (wireless, telephone, lift, central heating), this modernity culminates in the kitchen, which has a cooler, a gas cooker, an electric dumbwaiter and three water inlets: one for cold water and one for hot water and a third for softened water.
THE CHEQUERBOARD FLOOR
Hygiene was the main concern of Mallet Stevens in designing the kitchen. The architect opted for stark white easily washable surfaces. The black and white chequerboard floor is his discreet signature.
THE TUBOR CHAIR AND KITCHEN TABLES
Mallet-Stevens equipped the kitchen with chairs he designed in 1930 in collaboration with Tubor company that owns the patent. Composed of metallic tubes, Tubor chairs are simple and practical: they stack easily. Reproducible in series and accessible to the greatest number of people, they perfectly illustrate the objectives of the UAM for the union of art and industry. Mallet-Stevens uses them repeatedly in his designs, with several variants. The chrome metal legs of the kitchen tables were produced by the workshops of Jean Prouvé.
The kitchen in 1954
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> Discover the history of the monument
> More about the park, the dining room of the parents and the façade
> How did we restored the Villa Cavrois ?