Perriand at the Pompidou.

Fresh research prompted by recent discoveries in the late Charlotte Perriand's copious personal archives has produced an exceptionally well documented exhibition at Paris's Pompidou Centre covering most aspects of her long career. Arranged roughly chronologically in nine thematic sections, the show kicks off with selected examples of Perriand's student work and other early drawings, among them a lively watercolour on black paper depicting a near-naked Josephine Baker dancing on stage. Interiors Perriand created in 1927 for her own Paris flat, which she promptly exhibited at the 1927 Salon d'Automne (her Bar Sous le Toit) and at the 1928 Salon des artistes decoraleurs (her dining room furniture) are evoked life-size, in the latter case by surviving specimens of her furniture: an early version of her rubber-topped extendable table (1927, Pompidou Collection), a set of mirror-faced sliding doors designed to mask views through the serving hatch when the kitchen was in disarray (1928, private collection) and one of her tubular chrome swivel chairs with leather-covered padded seat and back (1927, Vitra Design Museum collection). Surprisingly, the leather here is red not black, as might be assumed from monochrome photographs of the period.

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The Equipement d'une Habitation exhibited jointly by Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand at the 1929 Salon d'Automne is admirably well presented here. Numerous archive photographs (some in colour) and other documents are on display, including the original full-size working drawings for Perriand's swivel chair and for the celebrated Chaise longue, Fauteuil a dossier basculant and Grand Confort co-designed by the trio. Specimens of each chair (all from the Pompidou Centre collection, including a 1928 Grand Confort prototype formerly owned by Charlotte Perrriand) and one glass-top table with aircraft tube legs (1929, Bischofsberger collection, Zurich) are set against a life-size photographic view of the 1929 exhibition, which is also explored in a compelling computer-generated virtual tour devised by a group of French design students.

The shift in Perriand's preoccupations towards the needs of the less privileged is illustrated by a series of little known drawings and projects, among them a recently discovered series of sketch designs she made circa 1930, seemingly in response to a notion of Le Corbusier's that 14sqm per person should be provided in dwellings for single people, couples, or families with children. The plans she devised are explored in a series of scale models (made by a group of French architectural history students) and are discussed in the catalogue-book by Marie-Jeanne Dumont who, on the strength of the evidence, concludes that Perriand was streets ahead of Corb at the time.

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Perriand's growing commitment to social causes in the 1930s is illustrated by a full-size reconstruction of La Grande Misere de Paris, the huge photomontage she made for the 1936 Salon des arts menagers. Those she did for the Ministry of Agriculture waiting room (1936) and for the Agriculture Pavilion at the 1937 Paris International Exhibition (with Fernand Leger) are represented by smaller archive photographs, while examples of the art brut she collected with Pierre Jeanneret on out-of-town expeditions testify to her love of natural materials. Harder to get to grips with here are numerous documents concerning Corb's thwarted ambitions for the 1937 exhibition. Sit down and read Danilo Udovicki-Selb's essay Le Corbusier, Les Jeunes 1937 et le Front Populaire in the catalogue and all becomes crystal clear: having aimed too high, Le Corbusier kept shooting himself in the foot.

The section dealing with Perriand's various encounters with Japan seems unduly cramped, perhaps because visitors are allowed scarcely any room to view a fascinating video interview she gave late in life. Conversely the section devoted to Brazil seems strangely sparse. Sandwiched between them is the main meat of the exhibition: Equipements collectifs, notably, illustrated by reconstructions of study-bedrooms Perriand had a hand in designing for the 1950s (for the Maisons de la Tunisie, du Mexique and du Bresil at the Cite Universitaire in Paris) and the L'Art d'Habiter, where evolutions to her approach to interior design are evident in furniture ranging from one-offs, such as her first 'free form' table (made in 1938 for her own flat, using timber recycled from the Pavillon des Temps Nouveaux), to the various chairs, tables and storage units marketed between 1954 and 1970 by the Galerie Steph Simon.

Much space is given over to the role Perriand played from 1967 to 1982 as a member of the design team responsible for the Arc 1600 and Arc 1800 ski resorts in the French Alps. Here, a documentary film explains (among other things) why high-rise buildings and restricted car access represented the only realistic means to prevent the mountain environment from being swamped by piecemeal development. Perhaps John Prescott should see it.

The show ends with a lyrical portrait (by Pernette Perriand-Barsac and Jacques Barsac) of the ephemeral structure Charlotte Perriand designed to house tea ceremonies during the 1993 festival of Japanese Culture at UNESCO. Barsac is also the author of a mighty tome entitled Charlotte Perriand, Un Art d'Habiter (Editions Norma, Paris, 2005). Glimpses suggest that it is well worth having, but I have yet to muster the funds or the strength to buy it and heave it home.

Charlotte Perriand at the Pompidou Centre, Paris, until 27 March www.cnac-gp.fr