Marcel Gascoin

French designer Marcel Gascoin (1907-1986) was one of the leading furniture designers of the post-war era. He played a vital role in the reconstruction of France after World War II, where his streamlined wooden furniture, focused on clean aesthetics and functionality, became the staple for 1950s French households.

Gascoin worked as an interior architect and designer with the French Ministry of Reconstruction and Urbanism to design and build homes and the furniture to fill them during the post-war housing crisis in France. Forward-thinking for his time and with a strong social conscience, Gascoin’s democratic design drew lines between art and industry, converging clean aesthetics with rational manufacturing processes.