“Cool and Calm; Smart and Cultured; Very French/A Citizen of the World”; The Architectural World Mourns Francois Perrin

The news that François Perrin was seriously ill and then had died spread across the architectural world in the last weeks, with friends, colleagues, and admirers in shock, deeply saddened, and wanting to, first, support his medical care, and then his partner Eviana Hartman and their beautiful 16-month-old daughter Clarisse. (You can do so by clicking here.)

As his name indicates, Perrin was born in France. He received the country’s “insignia of Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres,” a knighthood in 2004–but by that time he had long been adopted by Los Angeles, where he had moved to and launched an office.

“His design practice, Air Architecture, was well known for creating materially inventive spaces filled with ethereal physical qualities that transcended everyday experiences,” noted The Architect’s Newspaper in its remembrance. The newspaper’s editor-in-chief had personally reached out to us to let us know about the fund supporting Perrin only a few days before his passing and to ask that we help. Thus, was Perrin’s magnetism and respect for him.

Concerned with site specificity, Perrin’s work was always unique to the immediate environmental context and addressed issues of local and sustainable systems. His projects were featured in Artforum, Domus, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wallpaper, Sunset, Dwell, and The Architect’s Newspaper. In addition to his work as a designer, he was also an educator and curator. He organized several exhibitions including “Dialogues” and “Yves Klein-Air Architecture” at the MAK Center for Art and Architecture and “Architectones” in several locations, and taught at UCLA, Art Center College of Design, Cal Poly Pomona, Woodbury University, and Sci-Arc.

But Perrin was more than his work, or his work was more than his work. Rather there was deep integration with colleagues and friends in his adopted city.

Frank Escher put it this way:

I cannot remember when and how we met. We had dozens of friends in common – artists, writers, fellow architects – and it would have been shortly after he arrived from Paris. We were together in exhibitions, he included us in many of his projects, we included him in ours, there were projects we passed on to him because we couldn’t do them, we spoke about our work and we exchanged advise. I know that many, many of our friends have similar stories.

His was a singularly interesting and focused practice in LA. He combined a profound social and ecological awareness, a deep and intuitive understanding of history and the present, with an elegant, understated, precise aesthetic. His work as a curator enriched us all – who among us knew of Yves Klein’s ideas about air architecture?

He created in LA something of a Salon – connecting people with ideas, and always, always with good food and good conversation. His ‘Air Houses: Design for a New Climate’ was considered one of the highlights of the 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial. Last year the French Government made him a Chevalier de l’Art et des Lettres. When I visited him a week ago we spoke of many things – projects, music, friends, travels to Sri Lanka and Morocco and the French Atlantic.

He was cool and calm. He was smart and cultured. He was very French and he truly was a citizen of the world. And he was loved, truly loved, by many. To his mother, to his partner and to his daughter Ravi and I send much, much love. To a dear friend we send our wishes for a peaceful passage across the seas.

The AIA|LA’s wishes go with him on his passage too.

The page on which you may support his medical expenses, and Eviana, and the duo’s young daughter, is here.